A food festival organized by women from tribal communities at Vazhachal Falls View Point, Thrissur in Thrissur, from December 24 to 26, will celebrate native tubers such as radish, diascoria and colocasia.
“The effort is to popularize the tubers that were once an integral part of our diet and also help the forest communities economically. Now, tapioca has overtaken all other tubers in Kerala. In Mulika, tribal women will serve dishes cooked with tubers harvested in upstream villages,” says Lakshmi R, DFO, Vazhachal.
Ms. Lakshmi explains that our diet is mostly based on rice and less importance is given to tubers. However, among forest-dwelling tribal communities, tubers such as wild yam are part of their staple diet. Earlier this week, a team of two elders from Kadar took a long journey into the forests of Vazachal in search of forgotten tubers. Congee, Nutta And waven, This was part of the documentation work of Peoples for Nature Fund (PNF) Fellow Reshma Raman belonging to the Kadar tribe. Since these tubers are rare and laborious to harvest, it was decided to keep some of them as specimen displays and serve as cultivated yams.
to the fetus, ripe Kachil, Chena And Chembu It will be served with a curry made by the women of Vazhachal to accompany the catch of the day. There will also be beef dishes. Ms. Lakshmi says that from the second day of the festival, they are planning to add puzukku Made from mixed tubers cooked in coconut gravy. They hope that the consumers will understand the nutritive value of the tubers.
“Winter tubers are available in abundance in the tropics. The message we want to convey is that a tuber based diet is not only healthy but also represents a sustainable farming system. We will also serve Sarsaparilla (narunendi) Juice, which is also an aromatic root,” says Manju Vasudevan, co-organizer of FATE, a new brand under the Dhara Livelihood Initiative, founder of ForestPost.in.
Apart from this, hibiscus juice and millet payasam will also be part of the fetus. Another counter will have curry leaf cookies and Moringa Cookies made from whole wheat and palm sugar. Bamboo baskets will be available for sale from Admalayar Valley.
Ms. Lakshmi says this is an experiment she is trying for the first time. Before the pandemic, women were given awareness classes about the importance of tuber crops and how to cultivate them.
The festival is being organized by FDA, Vajachal and Dhara Livelihood Initiative, a social enterprise supported by UNDP.
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