Author: Sagar
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Drumstick Leaf Stir Fry
Murungai Keerai Poriyal In the form of a Poriyal, or stir fry, this is perhaps one of the best ways to consume the superfood that is Moringa leaves. This is a very easy recipe to reproduce – the most effort needed is perhaps in just separating the leaflets from the stalks. It is culturally considered…
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Making organic Ganesh
Making organic Ganesh This fun Tamil video has Krishna and Chakor, demonstrating how easy it is to make your own Ganesh out of clay. In India, after Ganesh puja, everyone submerges their Ganesh statues, often made out of plastics and toxic paints, into the sea. This video offers us an alternative to the industrialization of…
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Indian Almond
Terminalia catappa ‘Nattuvadumai’ The Badam or the Indian Almond, is a fast growing tree with huge leaves that turn red in the summer and fall to the ground. It is grown extensively in the tropics as an ornamental tree, particularly because of the vibrant, striking shades of its leaves, and the aesthetically pleasing, symmetric form…
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Black Velvet Bean
Mucuna pruriens The Sanskrit name for this plant is “Kapikacchu”, because contact with the fine hairs on young foliage and on the shells of the seed pods can make one itch like a monkey! It is also known as “Secret Self” due to its high levels of Dopamine – it contains 4-7% by weight of…
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Vegan Mango Ice-Cream
Sometimes, it is the unattractive idea that luxury needs to be shunned in order to live more sustainably. This is not true!!!! One of Her most luxurious gifts is the mango with which we have been making our own home-made vegan Mango Ice Cream. A true luxury! Keeping in mind that cow’s milk can have…
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Air Potato
Vethala Valli Kizhangu The Air Potato is a traditional yam of the genus Dioscorea. It grows on an herbaceous twining vine, meaning it uses other vegetation to cling to and support its weight. It is worth noting that it actually grows in a semi-wild state without any effort required for its cultivation. The plant takes…
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Green Mango Curry
Pacha Manga Kuzhambu As the precursor to the arrival of ripe Mangoes in their season, is the ubiquitous sight of Green Mangoes dangling from their stems on the many Mango trees growing around our Bioregion. They sometimes even fall down and begin rotting away. To make use of these green Mangoes, especially those varieties which…
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Who is the fool?
The Japanese word for fool is ‘baka’ when I met Masanobu Fukuoka, at Vandana Shiva’s Farm in Dehradun in 2002, he told us only a ‘Baka’ could understand his relationship with mother nature. This dramatized reading of the chapter ‘who is a fool’ from Fukuoka’s book ‘One Straw Revolution deals with the core philosophy of…
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Sweet Potato
Sarkarai Valli Kizhangu The Sweet Potato is one of those vegetables that is really easy to grow. Simply plug a 20-centimeter-long piece of the vine into damp soil, leaving about one eighth of it exposed for leaves to shoot out. After 5 months the tubers are ready to harvest. In our region, Sweet Potato vines…
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Rosella Seeds
Hibiscus sabdariffa, or Rosella, is a bushy plant said to have originated in Africa. It is now widely naturalized in tropical India and Southeast Asia. The seeds are a great source of protein, fat as well as natural total sugars. Here at Solitude we have a fair amount of Rosella growing, and it seems to…