Adivasi Women Train Youth on Forest Foods in India

 A simple and healthy yam-green leaf recipe  

During workshops and meetings in the community, recipes for wild foods are often exchanged. This contributes to the passing on of knowledge on indigenous food ways and culture.

We are happy to share with you a simple and healthy yam-green leaf recipe to showcase how local adivasi communities from the southern and central parts of India are able to use easily available wild and semi-wild food stuffs for their meals.

This recipe makes use of the local yam (Dioscorea alata), the green leaves of Celastrus paniculatus and wild cherry tomatoes and chillies. The meal is guaranteed to be absolutely yam-my and delightful!  

Ingredients:

a) Yam (Dioscorea alata), also known as valli-kizhangu (tamil)/nangil kurda (Durwa)/Elephant foot yam,

b) Celastrus paniculatus, verugul in Durwa, peng in Halbi, malkanj in Hindi; this is a woody climber with new green shoots sprouting in the summer months, occasionally through the year.

c) Onions, wild bird chillies, wild cherry tomatos for garnish, along with any suitable edible oil

Method:

a. Cut the yam into small bits and boil; the pieces should be 10-15 cm long which can be skinned after cooking; can add salt to taste when cooked

b. Clean and chop the green leaves/young tender stems of the gathered verugul

c. Pour oil in a pan and fry the chopped onions, adding the chillies once the onion is brown

d. Add the verungul to the onions in the pan, then also the tomatoes

e. Finally, add the cooked and skinned yam to the mix and stir the mix to allow the yam to soak in the juices.

f. Serve, adding black pepper and salt according to taste.

Enjoy!

In future workshops, we plan to further document and enjoy forest food recipes using locally known ingredients and recipes. We hope you can continue to support indigenous food and health initiatives of adivasi women and youth in India.

Documentation of wild forest foods with Adivasi women

We have started the exciting work on documenting wild forest foods with Adivasi women and youth at the Adukkam Centre. Over the past few months, we have been able to produce informative posters that show various wild foods that can be used for subsistence and to supplement diets.

Adivasi women are leading the way in training the next generation to identify and forage food from the forest. Such interactions enable the youth to learn from their elders about the uses of various plants and plant parts.

By doing conservation work focused on food, we are able to aid inter-generational interactions that facilitate the transfer of traditional ecological knowledge between Adivasi women and the youth. This is very important in terms of nurturing interest in culture and tradition, and as well as for food food security and health. We share and attach to this report the output of our field documentation on forest foods.

In the coming months, we hope to facilitate more workshops to document wild foods in the area. We look forward to your support and invite you to be part of our efforts to rejuvenate and sustain wild foods in India. 

• Update on the latest work on wild foods in Adukkam (PDF)