The Wild Food Project is an attempt to study, archive, and celebrate indigenous forest produce, and the vast traditional knowledge that surrounds it.
If we go back even a 100 years, the diets of our ancestors were far more diverse as compared to what we eat today. At present, the diversity of what we eat has significantly dwindled. What we’ve lost along the way is not just an abundance of flavours and textures, but also a knowledge of seasonality and where our food comes from. In present-day India, this knowledge largely rests with indigenous communities, many of whom still rely on wild food produce for sustenance. As its custodians, they also play a vital role in conserving our biodiversity.
Why do this?
With this in mind, we began the Wild Food Project in the monsoon of 2022, in Palghar district, part of the Konkan division in Maharashtra. A part of the district is formed of the mountains of the Sahyadri, rich with biodiversity. We were keen to learn about indigenous forest produce specific to the monsoon, and document this knowledge by working closely with those inhabiting the region. At the core of our project are people from the Kokni tribe in Palghar.
These foods have been an important source of sustenance for communities in Palghar, as they have been for indigenous communities across the world, and we want to archive this knowledge for future generations, while bringing together people from various fields to celebrate them.
Outcomes
• We researched over 35 wild foods, including tera (alu or taro), kharshinga (padre), and fatangadi (ambat tingra), during the course of the project.
• One of the most important outcomes for us was a rekindling of pride within the Kokni tribe of their own culinary heritage.
• We were also able to increase awareness about the nutritional value of wild foods, along with the role they have played in offering sustenance to indigenous communities.
Working on the Wild Food Project opened new doors for us—since then, our team has been invited to participate and contribute to other projects across India that are committed to spotlighting the diversity of wild foods.
We researched over 35 wild foods, including tera (alu or taro), kharshinga (padre), and fatangadi (ambat tingra), during the course of the project. One of the most important outcomes for us was a rekindling of pride within the Kokni tribe of their own culinary heritage.
Challenges
Trust is vital while working with indigenous communities. Fortunately, OOO Farms—a Farmer Producer Company democratising agriculture by ensuring profit-sharing among tribal farming communities— guided us, facilitating interactions with sensitivity.
At present, knowledge of forest foods is fragmented even within the forest-dwellers. As the transfer of knowledge over generations is carried out orally, it is often difficult to pin down accurate information. Moreover, with time, ways of cooking have changed as well. For instance, the use of certain ingredients, and even utensils.
Some highlights from this three-month-long project include:
The Wild Food Festival (2023), with nearly 200 wild foods, millets, and seeds on display
The Wild Food Festival 2023 included talks by experts such as Debal Deb, Shikha Kansagara, and Kurush Dalal, offering guests an opportunity to taste over 40 wild vegetables. They also enjoyed a lunch prepared by the members of Palghar’s Kokni community, which included 32 wild food items. The festival was attended by over 400 people.
Publishing the Wild Food Zine—an archive of 24 ingredients—in English and Marathi
A labour of love, this zine captured the efforts to document and preserve knowledge of Maharashtra’s wild foods, harvested in the monsoons. It features 24 wild ingredients with information about their seasonality, how to identify them, how they are traditionally cooked, along with interesting recipes to try. The zine was also translated into Marathi which you can buy here for Rs. 750.
Documenting recipes and ingredients of the Kokni community
Two recipes—Kantola Bhaji and Mahuja Flower Bhaji—of the Kokni community were documented in Palghar, and three new contemporary recipes were created inspired by wild ingredients and their traditional ways of cooking.
Organising a guided ‘Wild Food Walk’ at Mumbai’s largest national park
To learn about wild foods growing within city limits, we organised a walk inside the lush Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai along with Shailesh Awate (co-founder of OOO Farms). We learned to identify vegetables like wild bamboo, suran, and turmeric root, among others. We also gained an understanding of their medicinal properties, and how they are traditionally cooked.
In the media
On a journey to find where the wild things grow by Avantika Bhuyan, published in Mint Lounge.
Dinner From a Grove by Nidhi Lodaya, published in Mid-day.
Meet the team
Conveners
Shailesh Awate, and Shikha Kansagara, are co-founders of OOO Farms, an organisation deeply entwined with the farming communities and wild foods in the Western Ghats. It is an enterprise determined to conserve rural livelihoods and introduce native foods to urban diets. It works toward supporting food security for everyone.
Zainab Kapadia, Takshama Pandit, Thomas Zacharias, from The Locavore
Editorial
Rushina Munshaw-Ghildiyal, owner of A Perfect Bite Consulting is a culinary chronicler and consultant focusing on food histories and stories around ingredients, cuisines, and the people who cook them.
Art Direction
Rhea Shah is a transdisciplinary environmental designer who believes design should be a cultural manifestation of ecological processes.
Photography
Natasha Bandlish is a Mumbai-based English teacher, photographer, and visual storyteller passionate about capturing people, food, and the spaces where the two intersect.
Illustration
Jaya is an illustrator and designer based in Mumbai who likes drawing people, food, and mundane everyday things.
Research
Shreshtha Chhabra is a researcher with an inclination towards the food-art-community nexus. She aims to learn about food from the intricate perspectives of policy, societal impact, and collective sustenance.
Amar Gutta has a keen interest in food anthropology and aims to research and document aspects of food in India from historical times to the present.
Aditi Prabhu is a nutritionist who aims to make people forge positive relationships with food by making nutrition accessible to all.
Recipe Testing
Gresham Fernandes, Culinary Director at Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., has been cooking for 22 years and is always inquisitive.
Rajesh Moolchandani is a research and development chef with Zion Hospitality mentoring 19 restaurants with his menus across 30 brands.
Chaitali Pednekar not only aims to understand sustainable ways to grow diverse indigenous food, but also cook and serve it to people more conscientiously.
Akshay Purohit is a chef who likes to drive cuisine towards the experimental, without shedding the reins of familiarity and history.
Jyoti Vishnani left her corporate job to pursue a career in the culinary industry. She works with renowned chefs across India.
