<i>Naatu</i> so good

With all vegetables and fruits available through the year, there is none of the excited anticipation of waiting for the mango or mochai season to come around. Advocates of locally grown, seasonal produce swear that nothing can match the sharp bite of naatu thakkali kozhambu or the sweetness of parangikai in their kootu

September 15, 2014 06:48 pm | Updated September 25, 2014 03:22 pm IST - COIMBATORE

HOME GROWN AND HEALTHY Local produce can bring a lot of excitement to our tables. Photo: M. Srinath

HOME GROWN AND HEALTHY Local produce can bring a lot of excitement to our tables. Photo: M. Srinath

My mother’s favourite memories are attached to big baskets of avarekaalu (mochai kottai). She and her brothers and sisters would shuck mounds of it every other day and for the entire season it would be eaten at every meal. So there was avarekaalu dosai, upma, sambar, akkirotti…They couldn’t get enough of it.

Similarly, peas were associated with winters, watermelon and mangoes with summers, and so on. But not anymore. I can make a peas soup in the middle of summer or serve up a mango soufflé in the dead of winter.

Earlier, each new season was welcomed with great expectations of a particular dish or a vegetable or a fruit and they were enjoyed to their fullest. And just when one started tiring of it, the season would change and a new lot of produce would find their way to our kitchens. How wonderful.

Now there is no excitement, no sense of anticipation or wonder. Go to a supermarket, and 365 days of the year, it is the same old, same old. The carrots huddle in the same corner and the tomatoes look bored on the same shelf.

Says R. Rajamurugan, a millet evangelist, and author of Nalla Soru , “What our bodies need is what the land grows. That’s why native vegetables or naatu kaaigarigal are great for our health. We must consume fruits and vegetables grown within a five-km radius of where we live. That food will be ideally suited for the weather conditions there. It does not make sense to buy exotic fruits and vegetables that were grown thousands of kilometres away, for a totally different climate. When you consume them, you are merely eating them, not reaping their benefits. Of course, farmers have replicated conditions to raise cauliflower and cabbage here, but at what cost? They come doused in pesticides.”

Rajamurugan fondly recollects the midhi paagal, baby-sized bitter gourd, slender paambu pudalangai, peerkangai and nurai peerkangai that came without ridges, and varieties of sorakkai. He says we must get back to this kind of produce as it is good for health and adopt the motto, ‘Unave Marundhu’ (food is the medicine).

K. Rukmini says something similar. “Vegetables that grow easily in our climate, resistant to our pests, can be grown with fewer pesticides. Also, one could grow them at home. We were used to the idea of eating things in season and not getting things that were out of season.” Vimala Devi prefers to cook with locally-grown vegetables as she firmly believes everything tastes much nicer. She enjoys the tartness that only a naatu thakkali can bring to a kozhambu or chutney. The Bangalore thakkali may look prettier, but is a pale second when it comes to taste, she says.

Unmatched taste

Saravanan Varatharajan of Iyal organic store agrees with Vimala’s point of view: “Naatu kaais have a taste that hybrid varieties can never hope to achieve. Take, for instance, locally-raised avarai, kothavarangai, kathirikkai and vendaikkai. They score in every department. We source most of our vegetables locally. That way, they don’t log too many food miles. Most of the ‘pandhal kaais’ (creeper vegetables) are from my farm.”

With cookery shows on televisions and celebrity chefs endorsing locally-grown vegetables and those that are seasonal, awareness is growing about their health benefits, says Saravanan. An increasing number of his customers ask specifically for them.

Many practitioners of naturopathy and Ayurveda recommend native vegetables, but sometimes it is difficult to find them, says natural farmer N.G. Prabhuram.

“Last week, a friend was asking for midhi paagal. He had heard of its health benefits. So many people have not even heard of these vegetables. Many bittergourds are so huge they resemble pudalangais! Many farmers have moved away from native species but want to make a comeback. But sadly, the seeds are not so easily available. The advantage of native vegetables is that they can handle pests well and also give a good yield. And, most importantly, they taste perfect, with just the right hint of sweetness, tartness and some saltiness…,” he says.

Advocates of naatu vegetables strongly feel that if we encouraged the use of locally grown, seasonal produce, more farmers would cultivate them.

This will mean healthier produce, less carbon footprint and more exciting food on our tables.

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