Local foods

Auroville farmers reported that despite the recent setbacks, they sent 3,128 kilos of 46 different vegetables, 3,301 kilos of 24 sorts of fruit, 19,764 eggs, 6,327 litres of milk, 846 kilos of various sorts of rice and 327 kg of polished and unpolished varagu (the latter procured from the bioregion and processed in Auroville) to FoodLink in March to be distributed to the Auroville community.

The aroma of freshly baked cakes and the joyous chatter of women learning new skills recently filled the air at AVAG. Over three days, 70 local women from nearby villages participated in an intensive training programme in making millet-based cakes and cookies, organized by Gelato Factory in collaboration with AVAG, the Auroville unit Gastronomica, and COWE (Centre of Women Entrepreneurship).

Bindu, who is working on a movie on the topic, shares her understanding of the importance of millets, internationally, nationally and locally.

I’ve been in Auroville since my marriage 26 years ago. I grew up in Chinnakottakuppam village on the backside of Forecomers, towards Pondicherry.

Sustainable Palate is an unusual cooking book, a collection of recipes for preparing traditional vegetables, grains and millets grown in and around Auroville.

Barely twenty years ago, around Puducherry, the staple food was fermented ragi and a particular variety of kambu (Bajra). That variety of kambu is now virtually extinct and today’s staple food is polished white rice.

Many famous civilisations were born around water sources, such as the Indus Valley or the Nile, and Kuilapalayam village is no different, according to local school principal and history enthusiast, Shankar.

“All of the issues are interconnected,” says Krishna on a sultry summer afternoon, when asked about Solitude Farm’s Circle Garden Project. “The issue of water, the issue of land use, the question of why there is a stockpile of Auroville-grown rice sitting at Annapurna Farm, the question of our relationship to food and where it comes from.

Recently, a survey was made of the various home garden projects in Auroville. The authors were Katt Grant, Segar Duraikannu, Vimal Bhojraj and Martin Scherfler.