It is almost the end the month of Shravan, but most Hindus in Goa continue on a vegetarian diet through the first week of Bhadrapada because of Ganesh Chaturthi.
Kuddukichi or piddukichi bhaji from Celosia argeratum, talkuleachi bhaji from Cassia tora, the alloo bhaji of Colocasia esculenta, and the vowchi bhaji of Basela alba are eaten at least once in this month.
Five different vegetables are needed during Gauri puja. The experience of the festival is different wherein traditional vegetables are used, instead of buying from the market.
The ubiquitous drumsticks of Moringa oleifera, its leaves and flowers are, however, avoided. Exactly why this is so, I am yet to find out.
In her book, Food & Identity, Dr Biula Cruz e Pereira has documented how the food we eat has been a part of our identity.
SEASONAL DELIGHTS
Traditional farmers have long grown cucumbers, muskmelon, pumpkins, gourds, ladyfinger and dioscorea air-potatoes organically on the hillsides during monsoons, and these are already in the market.
The people in the remote Verlem ward, of Netravali, grow Mexican cilantro, Eryngium foetidum, instead of coriander and harvest potato-like edible tubers from Coleus parviflorus that is related to the Hortelao (Coleus aromaticum) that we are more familiar with.
Few of us have eaten the fagllam or spiny gourds of Momordica dioica or the young leaves of bharangi, the wild Clerodendron serratum.
The Bonderam festival in Divar during August is associated with the bamboo pipe-gun known as the fottas. It is, in turn, associated with the ansalle, Grewia microcos, and the tirphal, Zanthoxylum rhetsa.
The Bonderam festival in Divar during August is associated with the bamboo pipe-gun known as the fottas. It is, in turn, associated with the ansalle, Grewia microcos, and the tirphal, Zanthoxylum rhetsa.
Thus, one knows for sure that these berries are green in August. They mature in October.
Children today are familiar with kantam (Carissa carandas), churna (Zizyphus rugosa), and jamun (Syzygium cumini), love apple (Syzygium aquem) and its variants like the Malay Apple, all of which ripen in summer from March to May. They may not be as familiar with berries that mature in October-November.
The jagoma (Flacourtia indica), and Adam’s fruit (Mimusops kauki (syn.Manilkara kauki)), are known to a few people, but are relished by the silent civet cats and noisy Malabar Hornbills, alike.
Once one knows the common or botanical name, additional information is now just a click away.
GOING POTTY ABOUT POTS
Home-grown fruits and vegetables mean pot-grown fruit and vegetable plants in the current era of apartment blocks and gated communities.
One can no longer walk into one’s porsum and pick green chilies, lemons and sprigs of karipatta from the tree in the backyard: there is no backyard in an apartment!
Guavas, custard apples, chickoos, starfruit, rose apples, love apples and other fruit plants can be grown, and bear fruits even when grown in pots, and retained small by pruning or by replacement with new plants.
The Botanical Society of Goa added potted fruit plants to its annual Home Garden Competition from January, 2022.
Garden enthusiasts across Goa have caught the bug for potted fruit plants with Jai Naik and Oscar Silveira from Borda in Margao, and Rahul Samant of Curchorem having now created a veritable food forest in their homes with potted plants. Come, join the gang!
(The author is the former Chairman of the GCCI Agriculture Committee, CEO of Planter's Choice Pvt Ltd, Additional Director of OFAI and Garden)