Category: 365 Days
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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…
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Red rice
Polished white rice is so widely consumed these days. White rice is a major contributing factor to diabetes and the depletion of our water table. By eating traditional grains, that do not require excessive irrigation and have high medicinal and nutritional values, is a simple first step on your Road Back to Nature. There are…
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Usage of Coconut fibre
Look at how much coconut we use! In this bioregion of Tamil Nadu, coconut is a staple. From tender coconut water to grated coconut, we use it all. But what about the coconut fibre, that goes to ‘waste’? A Road Back to Nature is all about finding simple solutions. For millennia, the dried coconut fibre…
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Bio-Enzyme
An alternative cleaning agent. Our lives today are marked by industrialization on almost every level – from the clothes we wear, to the food we eat, to the cosmetics and cleaning agents we use. If we look at the timeline of human beings’ presence on the planet, it is a miniscule segment of time since…
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Manathakkali / Blackberry Nightshade
Solanum nigrum Manathakkali is a spinach belonging to the Solanaceae (Nightshade) family. Predominantly a simple and humble plant but potent in its medicinal and culinary use. Manathakkali is a vibrant nutritional color of local Tamil culture and a crucial element to pay attention to on your Road back to Nature. Manathakkali is a small plant…
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Green papaya and its benefits
Green papaya grows without any effort, it grows in abundance, has high nutritional and medicinal values, and can be found all around us. People have forgotten how to use green papaya. This video shares how green papaya is very similar to carrot, in texture and taste but unlike carrot, which does not grow locally and…
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Henna – the colour of tradition
It has become increasingly difficult to find pure henna now as the markets are flooded with coloured dye concoctions that are a far cry from the pure product. Traditionally henna was grown in backyards and used for hair colouring and conditioning regularly by women at home. We met up with local women in Auroville who…