forage/foridz/ verb (of a person or animal) search widely for food or provisions
All that is old becomes new is the way of the world. Millennia ago, our ancestors roamed the land looking for food. Later, with increasing urbanisation, the practice became restricted to indigenous communities. But now, there is a renewed interest in foraging with a growing emphasis on eating local, reducing our carbon footprint and reconnecting with nature.
And people such as Shruti Tharayil, who conducts online sessions on wild edibles and medicinal plants, academician and researcher Seema Mundoli and chef Thomas Zacharias are introducing urbanites to the world of wild edibles, thereby helping preserve indigenous knowledge of traditional foods. Tharayil, who splits her time between Kerala and Chennai, holds online talks and walks that teach foragers the name and properties of a particular plant; when and where it grows and how to incorporate it in their daily diet.
“After I began working with rural communities in Andhra Pradesh I became interested in foraging,” says Tharayil, who started her Instagram page, Forgotten Greens, in 2018 to share her knowledge about wild edibles. In 2019, she conducted her first urban foraging walk in Kottivakkam, Chennai. Since then, she has conducted 20 walks in Bengaluru, Chennai, Surat and Coimbatore. She also conducts online talks on medicinal plants that grow locally and their uses.
“Not everyone can come for a walk but some may be interested in knowing more about foraging. I introduce them to wild edibles found all across the country. For instance, purslane, which is high in Omega 3 fatty acids, can be cooked like any other green. Gujaratis call purslane luni bhaji and have used it traditionally in their dishes. Euphorbia hirta or dudhi is high in iron content and is a good supplement for menstruators,” says Tharayil.
Mundoli, faculty, Azim Premji University (APU), Bengaluru, believes urban foraging is more popular and common than we think. In 2021, three research associates and fellows from the school of climate change, APU, did a study on urban foraging.
“We brought out a field guide, Chasing Soppu, in September 2022, which people could use to see which greens are foraged in Bengaluru,” says Mundoli. She became interested in urban foraging in 2013 when she began working in urban ecology: “I was studying lakes in Bengaluru. I saw women who had brought cattle to graze, collecting greens around the lakebed areas.”
In Mumbai, Sanjiv Valsan, who runs Waghoba Habitat Foundation, conducts foraging walks in the Aarey Forest. The platform aims to create an urban-tribal connect and get city-dwellers to understand sustainability, traditional ecological knowledge and conscious living. “Foraging doesn’t require fertiliser, pesticide, or deforestation to cultivate food, unlike conventional agriculture. It’s about living with the seasons, feeling their rhythm and thriving on what nature gives you,” he says.
Chef Zacharias, who has been introducing urbanites to wild edibles was mind blown when he first tasted moras bhaji, which grows in the marshes of Navi Mumbai. “Every now and then vegetables that are not cultivated make their way into the markets of Mumbai.
And that’s how I came across the moras bhaji, which is so salty that some communities, like the Gujaratis, use it to replace salt. They add it to rotis, parathas or make pakodas with it,” says the Mumbai-based Zacharias. In 2012, he launched The Locavore, a platform focussed on promoting local food and sustainability in India.He, however, believes that introducing people to urban foraging is also a double-edged sword. “Overexploitation is dangerous. If everyone starts doing it, nothing will be left. For instance, wild mushrooms in Goa were so overexploited that the tribals who used to consume it can’t have it any more,” he says.
Foraging comes with its own set of dos and don’ts. First, get to know the area and the native species so that you don’t destroy the local ecosystem. Don’t forage indiscriminately, and don’t forage in low-income areas where people could be doing it already. However, proponents of urban foraging see it not as a way to supplement diets but as a means to reconnect with nature and indigenous communities.
“Foraging is meditative. Your consciousness is not led by random thoughts as you focus your mind to look for a particular leaf or vegetable. The more you develop knowledge of foraging and spend time in the forest, the more likely you are to understand indigenous people and get motivated to conserve the forest,” smiles Valsan.
Look and ye shall find is the forager’s motto.
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