A farm-to-table meal of buttery jackfruit stir fry, a mixed bean sambar with foraged greens and tubers, and a helping of heirloom foxtail millet await the participants on day one of the four-day Nilgiris Wild Food Festival that begins from December 19. The traditional meal is cooked on firewood and prepared by Irulas, an indigenous farming and beekeeping community of the Nilgiris. The food is served on teak leaves, after a guided forest walk on their ancestral lands in the southern Nilgiris. Attendees also get to learn about heirloom produce and traditional farming practises.

 

'It’s time we looked at foraging and produce that is available abundantly around us, instead of buying industrialised foods,' says Ramya Reddy, director of The Nilgiris Foundation (TNF) adding that the festival turns the spotlight on mindful ways of gathering food, and consuming it. 'The indigenous communities have a natural instinct towards foraging for food attuned to seasons. We hope the festival brings attention to foraging, wild foods, the place of wild foods in a climate changed world, sustainable farming, and sustainable eating. We have to start looking at smaller farms and small holdings to get our food.'

 

The festival, organised by The Nilgiris Foundation, that opens to the public for the first time turns the spotlight on indigenous, wild, and sustainably grown produce of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve. The event held at multiple venues around the Nilgiris brings together growers, renowned chefs, writers and artists who care about eating mindfully. The line up has names like chef Thomas Zackaria who runs Locavore in Mumbai, Chef Abhijit Saha from Bengaluru who has over three decades of national and international experience in the food service and hospitality industry, environmentalist Lathika George from Kodaikanal, who has also authored books like Mother Earth and The Suriani Kitchen, and food raconteur Rakesh Raghunathan. The speakers will talk about their journeys and sustainability on day two, which is habba or celebration day at the The Keystone Foundation campus in Kotagiri. The habba also brings communities from across the Nilgiris showcasing indigenous food exhibits like tubers and all kinds of edibles and wild food that visitors can buy. 'We have been working with the communities for three decades,' says Pratim Roy, founder of The Keystone Foundation and one of the founders of TNF. 'Because of economic conditions, they left their land fallow and went to work as daily labourers. We helped them revive traditional agriculture, mainly cultivation of millets like ragi, thinai, saamai, and multi-cropping, and nurture seed banks of native produce.'

 

On day two, Suresh Belliraj — from the Badaga Community — who offers curated Badaga meals at his restaurant Odae, hosts a multi-course sit down meal at Riverside Dreamscapes in Aravenu. 'Millets like ragi and saamai used to be a staple at Badaga homes before rice and breads took over,' says Suresh adding that the menu, based on stories that his mom told him, gives an idea of what the local communities used to eat, starting from the 1940s to now.

 

'It’s more like progression of wild foods. For example, there used to be hunting going on, so dried meat, deer and rabbit meat, were consumed. These are now replaced with chicken and mutton. But our cooking is distinct, we use different types of spice mix for vegetable and meat-based curries. The chicken curry, heavy on coriander and chillies comes with a warm flavour. The menu tells stories about food I grew up eating: like the comforting fluffy old style bread, with a crisp black crust on top, and chicken curry.'

 

The menu has dishes made using raagi and saamai along with butter, curd, and ghee made from buffalo milk as buffaloes are reared by the communities here. Foraged wild mushrooms, bamboo shoots called ootakudi and bithukudi, spinach, varieties of beans, wild berries, and barley and wheat items introduced by the British also feature on the menu.

 

At sundown, there will be Badaga music by playback singer Belli Raj (who sang the popular Tamil song Kangal Irandaal) and his family, a lecture and discussion on food culture, followed by one-pot dinner with chicken curry, beans curry and rice. Participants will get to sample ragi balls in garlic, and tree tomato chutneys, uppu korai (roasted and slated beans), benni koo ( millets with butter), keerai hittu ( a snack made using amranthus leaves), and potthihittu( wheat pancakes), and sutta badu ( smoked meats).

 

On day three chefs Abhijit and Arup Kakati will collaborate and offer an innovative menu featuring seasonal produce for sit down multi-course meals. This includes lunch and dinner at Le Cafe, Little Earth in Udhagamandalam. From lemongrass infused tartlets and bamboo shoot pickle on tapioca crisps to wild mushroom ravioli and passion fruit granita, the menu packs in a lot. 'It’s a fusion of local ingredients, prepared in an European style. We have used artichokes and beans in a contemporary Italian twist. We have used locally grown lavender too,' says Arup. The festival ends with a Chef’s Table sit down dinner hosted by Periodic Table Restaurant in Udhagamandalam.

 

Pratim says the festival opens a window to anyone who cares about mindful living and builds the momentum for sustainability movement. 'After seeing the havoc caused by climate change and the pandemic, people are looking for answers. Food connects everybody and kick-starts conversation on not just wild, indigenous and organic food, but also ecology, health, nutrition and sustainable living.'