Wild Vegetables Festival at Bhomale

The wild vegetables dishes beautifully arranged with flowers at Bhomale

I read about the Wild Vegetables Festival in the newspaper. It was organised by an NGO called Kalpvriksh, which I had heard about so I knew it would be worthwhile. The festival was organised over three Sundays, one of which I had already missed, the second was at Kharpud, where an estimated 500 people were to arrive. I decided to skip that. The third and the last was to be at Bhomale, 93 kms away from Pune, the farthest of the three, so I knew there wouldn’t be much of a crowd.

Swayamvar Pure Veg. at Khed.

Since hiring a cab would have been too expensive for me alone, I spread word about it asking if there are people who want to join me. I promptly received confirmations and on 24^th September at 7 a.m a group of us 6 girls set out for Bhomale.

Lovely scenery on the drive.

You may like my blog post on Cuisine of the Lepchas in Dzongu.

 A lake that we passed.

We stopped for breakfast at Swayamvar Pure Veg. Here's the location on Google maps. It’s useful mentioning these things in case there are others who want to stop. The toilets were clean and the vada-pav was delicious J

The gathering under the canopy of trees. 

At around 11.30 we reached Bhomale and were met with a sight of all villagers assembled under a canopy of trees with their dishes arranged beautifully with flowers. I met the coordinator from Kalpvriksh, Pradeep Chavan, whom I had been in touch with and sat down for the event to begin.

Bhomale, is a village with a population of around 150 in 35 houses. Many generations ago the tribal people of this place called Mahadev Koli, were hunters and gatherers and practiced no agriculture. Now-a-days, people have their kitchen garden where they grow vegetables like pumpkin and ridge gourd. Outside of the forest limits, people have plots of lands where they grow finger millet, rice and barnyard millet. But I was told this is a more recent trend. People still gather from the forest surrounding their village. 

I asked this beautiful lady with the 'nath' (nose-ring) if I could take her picture. She promptly took the pallu over her head and posed :-)

From the months from June to September, during the Monsoon, is the peak time when the forest is bountiful with wild vegetables, berries, nuts and roots. Bhomale sees heavy rainfall every year (around 1000 mm), but that notwithstanding people venture into the forests to gather food. Any excess produce is dried or cured and preserved for the other months when forest supplies are scarce. Because of the climate, the wild vegetation is also unique to the place. Of late, people have also started buying cultivated vegetables and grains from the nearest shop which is a 30 kms walk!

As is the custom traditionally In India, men and women were seated separately for the event. I turned to observe the women seated beside me. It was a special occasion for the village, since it was a Wild Vegetables Festival and people like me from the cities were visiting. So they had worn their best sarees, most draped in ‘navvari’ style (‘nav’ means nine), where the nine-yard saree is draped like a dhoti on the lower part of the body. They had also worn a nose ring very typically Maharashtrian, called the ‘nath’. They all looked beautiful J

Women performing 'Aarti' to the food keeping with the Indian tradition of worshipping food as God. 'Annam Brahma'.

A welcome song by the children. 

Another song by a lady. 

The Forest official V.P. Kadam giving an inspirational speech. 

It’s needless to say that I had been eyeing the plates laden with food since the time I arrived. So I took a few close up pictures and enquired with the women as to what the vegetable were.

After some time, the main event started, with Chief guests, speakers, welcome songs so on and so forth.

A dish prepared from the tender stem of sweet potato leaves. 

A seed called 'Chahechabar'- aids in digestion. The spelling is phonetic. You can also the the fruit of the 'Chahechabar'.

You may like my blog post on Himachali/Pahari cuisine.

A variety of wild eggplants called 'Chichurde'. 

The leafy vegetable is a dish made of drumstick leaves and to the left is a dish made of wild gooseberries. This was served with bhakris (flatbread) made of rice flour.

One of the forest officials, V.P. Kadam, gave a very impressive talk on the bio-diversity of the place and the importance to preserve the culinary heritage. Falling for false aspirations’, the village people have stopped valuing the food which their communities have been eating for ages and have started to increasingly buy common vegetables from the market 30 kms away. He said if the people don’t uphold their culinary and food heritage, it will be lost to the generations to come. He reinforced the importance of being proud of what they have- something the city people envy- clean air, proximity to the forests and food provided by the forests which is completely devoid of chemicals or adulteration.

Since these are uncultivated foods, he also stressed that people who want to sell the forest produce must be mindful of the way they harvest, so as to leave the seeds and stalks for the produce the following year.

Clockwise from Left: 'Kusraachi Bhaji', root vegetable called 'Tambooli' which stays good for 3 months and a dish made with wild gooseberries. 

Dishes in the forefront: To the left is flatbread made of finger millet (ragi, nachni) with Garlic chutney and to the right is a dish called 'aloowadi' made with colocasia leaves. It's also called 'patra' in Gujarati and 'pathrode' in Himachal Pradesh.

You may like my blog post on Kumaoni cuisine.

Top: Finger millet flatbread and a dish made with drumstick leaves. Bottom is 'varai laddoo' a sweet prepared with barnyard millet.

A seed called 'Kombaale'. It had a bitter aftertaste and is believed to be good for diabetics. 

A spoonful of everything on my plate :-) 

After his talk as well as by some other people including village people, we formed a queue to sample the food which was now moved to the table. There were around 15 different kinds of dishes prepared by the women and we were given samples of it on plates. The dishes tasted very unique and some were hot on account of the chilli powder used liberally!

The 'Devraai' beyond the temple.

After the sampling, we were invited for a proper lunch of rice, daal and curry to another place. After the crowd left, I spent some time sketching the dense green forest beyond the temple. The temple is of Lord Bhairav, a form of Lord Shiva and women are not allowed to enter inside. Beyond the forest is what is called ‘Devraai’ in Marathi, meaning ‘garden/orchard of the Gods’- ‘Dev’ meaning God. Devrais are believed to be presided over by forest deities and nymphs and no one can take away even a twig or a leaf from the Devrai, leave alone cutting trees. Doing so would be a gross violation to the forest deity and would invoke their wrath which is not a good idea since these people subsist on the forest surrounding it. This belief has ensured the survival of these forest pockets which have been around for thousands of years and has survived the greed of land sharks. As outsiders, we were instructed to not even go near it. I wanted to do some sketching of the Devrai so I chose a spot near the temple for a better view and I was asked to move farther away.

I was inspired to draw the Forest Nymph after visiting Bhomale, so here's my illustration posted on my Art page, Purple Soul. 

A glimpse of the village.

People gathered for lunch in the village school. 

The 'normal' lunch!

I did a quick sketch and soaked up the green view as much as the time constraint would permit and joined the rest of the group for a meal of rice, daal and dried peas curry. Most of the people were almost finishing so I joined the forest officials. The women had reserved some extra portions of the wild vegetables for the forest officials and since I was seated with them I got a second generous helping of those.

A group picture with the women of Bhomale. 

After lunch, we visited the home of one of the women where I asked to see the uncooked wild vegetables. They said that all that they gather is eaten the same day, excepting the ones that are dried and cured. They showed me a few of those. I hope to go some day with them to gather food and document that too.

Barnyard Millet also called 'varai' in Marathi.

Finger millet. 

I bought some finger millet and barnyard millet from them which are completely organic in the truest sense. And came back home with a refreshed mind and heart and belly :-) 

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A Re-cap of Travel in 2016.

It was a high-spirited 2016!

Sometime around this time last year, as curtains slowly drew on 2015, I made a resolution for 2016, and it was that I would make 12 trips and explore 12 new places in 2016, each dedicated to a month of the year. And someone benign on the ‘other side’ granted my wish and gave me one extra trip. Yes, I made 13 trips this year.   

As this year draws to a close, I am filled with gratitude for the year that has been, and more importantly for the travelling I have been able to do. My travel this year was a mix of heritage, culture, cuisines, trekking, nature trips, textile trails, so on and so forth. I realise I am left with a huge back log of posts, as I’ve been either travelling, or planning my next trip or tending to my Art.

Let me walk you through my delightful experiences this year :-) There were 13 major trips and also a few discoveries within Pune that I have also blogged about.

The cave monasteries in Junnar.

The first trip in January was a good dose of history and Archaeology. I travelled with Heritage Insights, a group started by a team of Archaeologists and Indologists who are doing an excellent job taking the rich history and culture of India that is lesser known to a wider audience. That trip was like an official introduction to Indian history and archaeology for me. The trip was to the 2000 years old Buddhist cave monasteries in Junnar. The trip enlightened us about the ancient Indo-Roman trade and its symbiotic relationship with the mushrooming of monasteries along the trade routes. Luckily, I’ve written about this and you may read it here:-)     

A Striped Tiger butterfly.

One Sunday we also went for a butterfly trail with The WesternRoutes and learnt to identify different species of butterflies in the garden. The small park is situated right in the middle of a residential area and the gardener, having taken a keen interest in butterflies, planted flowering shrubs and plants that attract butterflies and thanks to his efforts, the small garden now has around 50 species of butterflies. We spotted the Common Mormon, Striped Tiger, Blue Tiger, Crimson Rose, Common Crow, etc. At one point after the sun rays lit up the garden, there were so many butterflies flitting around, it felt like a fairy land!

Strawberry picking in Panchgani.

Next, also in January, I lived my childhood fantasy to some extent of picking strawberries from a farm. I ate a lot of freshly plucked strawberries and also got back some with me and made jams and parfaits J I surely have a thing for fruit picking! Read about my apple picking adventure here.

Chapati impressions in Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum (instruments for making impressions on flatbread).

Come February, we visited the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum in Pune which houses interesting and ancient artifacts belonging to different eras. We also chanced upon a jaggery making set up on the outskirts of Pune. I, for one, substitute sugar with jaggery wherever possible, because refined sugar accelerates aging apart from the other harmful effects it has on the body from high consumption. So I was delighted to see how jaggery, an oft used ingredient in my kitchen, is made. You can read about it here.

Fresh jaggery !

Heritage Insights had announced its second trip for the year to the lesser known princely states of Phaltan and Aundh. How often do you get to meet people of royal lineage and interact with them? The current Prince, Shri Raghunath Raje Naik Nimbalkar took out time to interact with our group and narrate stories about his dynasty. He even offered us tea and snacks. Yes, we snacked in the palace of the King J While I’m yet to blog about this, it was an enriching experience to go around the Rajwada (palace) and learn history from Royalty himself. The Rajwada has been maintained in excellent condition and it was like stepping back in time to see the artifacts, furniture and objects dating back hundreds of years.

Posing with Prince Raghunath Raje Naik Nimbalkar. 

The Rajwada made entirely of wood and in prime condition. 

I had been wanting to visit Velas for quite some time and that desire materialised in February this year. Velas is a sleepy non-descript village on the Konkan coast which is now on the global map thanks to the conservation of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles by the village people. It was a dream come true to welcome button-like baby hatch-lings into the world and watch them crawl their way to the mighty ocean and be swallowed by waves. You can read about that experience here.

Baby Turtles in Velas. 

March saw us attend a wedding in Delhi. I did make use of that trip to explore the city’s gastronomical delights, including a visit to a 115 year old kulfi shop. Other interesting activities included a visit to the National Rail Museum where I kept wondering where aesthetics has disappeared in trains today and a heritage walk with INTACH Delhi to the Lodhi garden tombs. Take a look at the pictures of the trains from yore and read about the Heritage walk with INTACH here. 

Bada Gumbad in Lodhi gardens. 

Paan flavoured kulfi at Kuremal Kulfi shop (betel leaf flavoured kulfi)

This is an old train carriage from the 19th century. So artistic! 

In April I ticked another desire off my wish list. I had first heard about the rhododendron flower in Lobsang Rampa’s book. Later I heard that rhododendrons grow in the higher reaches of the Himalayas in India too. I wanted to visit Sikkim where there are dedicated rhododendron sanctuaries, but that was not to be, so I went on a rhododendron trail to Uttarakhand on the Deoriataal-Chopta-Chandrashila peak trail. The most memorable was the 16 km trek through virgin forests between Deoriataal and Chopta where the whole forest blushing with pink rhododendrons greeted us. It was like being in fairy land. I was drunk high on the beauty of the forest as well as on rhododendron juice ;-)

I am guessing Heaven would be like this?? 

Matching in pink! 

While Mumbai is next door and may not qualify as a trip, I would still include it in that category because I had signed up with Khaki Tours to explore the lesser known aspects of an area in Mumbai. Having grown up in Mumbai, I feel there’s a lot to the city that I still don’t know. The Lalbaug Stroll, a walk designed by Bharat Gothoskar of Khaki Tours led us through narrow gullies, crumbling buildings, secret farms, erstwhile sacred groves and had us delighted at discoveries in the city notorious for its super-fast pace of life.

This used to be a sacred grove/ forest many years ago before it became a concrete jungle!

The idols of the deities who were forest protectors remains though. 

Fiery chillies in the Lalbaug market. 

In June came another surprise. I had been wanting to visit the remote village, Kalap, since three years and suddenly in mid-June I found myself in the  un-touched, pristine, beautiful village of Kalap. The high point of my trip was camping for 2 nights and a day at the highest point in that village, called Beejay Top, at 12,500 feet above sea level. I lazed around the whole day on a carpet of flowers, watching sheep and buffaloes pass by, sipping tea, chatting with nomadic shepherds, reading a book and dozing off and on. Of course, I got severely sun-burnt and it took two months for my skin to go back to normal. But that’s not what will stay with me forever. The memory of trekking through virgin forests, gurgling mountain streams, alpine meadows and surreal landscapes surely will.I wrote a piece for the Better India, which you can read here. 

Lazying in Beejay Top. 

Gorgeous sunsets! 

The beauty of the forest was overwhelming. 

Houses in Kalap. 

July was another month for some serious and enjoyable history and Archaeology. We again travelled with Heritage Insights to the 1500 year old cave structures of Ajanta and Ellora. Words fail to describe the stupendous beauty of Kailasa, the largest monolith temple in the world. Every inch of the temple is sheer poetry in stone. We also took the same route that a British Cavalry soldier named John Smith took in 1819 when he discovered the Ajanta caves where 2000 year old paintings on stone still continue to dazzle people.

An entrance to a cave temple in Ajanta. 

The magnificent Kailasa cave temple- the biggest monolith in the world. 

The inscription of John Smith who discovered Ajanta caves in 1819.

Soon after this trip, I attended a 3 day seminar on ancient Temple Architecture conducted by Heritage Insights. The erudite Dr. Shrinivas Padigar enlightened us in a lucid manner about the development of temple architecture since the last 2000 years and the different aspects of its style.

Dr Shrinivas Padigar enlightening us on ancient temple architecture. 

August saw us visit Puttaparthi and then we spent 3 days in Bangalore, exploring old, traditional eateries in the city. Went around the old markets in Basavanagudi to take in the vibrant colors, smells and sounds. The change of weather in Bangalore left me with a bad sore throat which again took a month to recover.

The melt in the mouth dosa in CTR, Bangalore. 

Take your pick from the 100 varieties of snacks. 

Right in the beginning of the year, I had kept October as a free month with no travel, because there was Durga Puja in the first week of the month and Diwali at the end, so I wanted to be home and celebrate with my husband.

Bright flowers in the market. 

I had plans for September of volunteering in a farm in a place from my childhood dreams, but again that was not to be. But turns out everything that happens is for one’s best. I had not recovered from my throat infection and my husband too was down with flu. Had the trip happened I would have been away for almost 20 days. So, I am happy in hindsight, that I was resting at home and also present for my husband.

We found a Veena making workshop. 

We went to Goa in November for a friend’s wedding. Some people would be annoyed if I say that Goa is over hyped. It’s too touristy for my taste, or maybe I haven’t discovered the less touristy places there. While we didn’t go around much, the high point of the trip was the wedding itself. My dear friend had chosen a perfect venue for his wedding, by the sea. With the music of the waves crashing on the rocks, the soulful rendition of the Shehnai by a very talented musician, the moon above accompanied by the Vedic chants as the couple took their vows made for a surreal experience.

The venue of the wedding. 

Another sudden trip in November was to Guledgudda to meet the weavers of Khun and Ilkal and then a heritage trail to Badami, Pattadakkal ( a 1500 years old UNESCO World Heritage Site), Aihole, Gadag and Lakkundi to marvel at ancient temples and their architecture. While I am yet write about this power packed trip, I did manage to write a post on Khun.

A weaver weaving Khun. 

Ilkal saree. 

 This month, we attended a wedding in Rishikesh, on the banks of the river Ganga and then headed to Shimla and then spent a day in Chandigarh. This was again a gastronomical delight to sample various winter delicacies up north.

The famous and delectable gulab jamun at Baljee's in Shimla. 

One can't go to Chandigarh and not have rajma chawal ( rice and kidney beans).

The scrumptious winter speciality- makai ki roti and sarson ka saag (corn flour flat bread and mustard leaves curry). 

The year is coming to an end and I have given myself a good score for travel although not for blogging regularly. As the sun sets on this year, I await the sunrise on the new year and look forward to the amazing places where the winds will take me. 

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