Stone soup with Horse gram

It was a pleasant Tuesday morning when the three of us ventured into the outskirts of Bangalore. Varthur is a typical suburb of Bangalore, home to Varthur lake.We were visiting the Varthur Goverment school and first grade college to survey the place for gardening. The space that was earmarked by the school as vegetable garden was now full of Parthenium with a couple of radish and tomato here and there. 

From whatever knowledge we had gathered about organic and natural farming, we started discussing about whether to cut the Parthenium and just leave it there to decay or clear it entirely and grow something else. The thought of propagating millions of Parthenium seeds seemed scary. So we decided to pluck out the existing Parthenium and dump it elsewhere for composting and replace it with another weed - a 'useful' one this time. The kids were free and we could't wait, so, within a matter of a few minutes, about 15 boys and 5 girls were plucking out existing weed even as we discussed if we need to cut it at the base or pluck the whole plant out. In the meanwhile, two of us got horse gram from the nearest grocery shop.

This is when it occurred to us that we were replicating the story of stone soup. The story goes like this:
A hungry weary traveller is passing through a village and wishes to have some food. However, he doesn't have any means to buy food. He requests one of the villagers to help him with some hot water to make soup from a magic stone. As the stone starts boiling, people start gathering around, curious to know about the soup. The traveller then asks for some potatoes to make the soup tastier.. and then tomatoes, and salt and pepper and finally some bread to go along with the soup.

 Coming back to the Varthur school, we felt a need for some gardening tools and sent a couple of kids to look for them. Soon, a ten * ten patch was ready for planting. The children, some of them who were quite eager about gardening, quickly broadcast some seeds and went for lunch, happy after doing the good deed of the day or may be it was our good deed of the day. Once the ground is covered, we plan to plant vegetables.

Horse gram is a ground covering weed that grows very close to the ground and acts as living mulch and prevents other weeds as well. Being a leguminous plant, it has another important function of fixing nitrogen into the soil.


Typically, horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) is grown at the end of the growing season, it is one of the easiest beans to grow, hardly requires water and very nutritious. Once the beans are ready, the entire plant is plucked  out, dried, beaten and heaped to gather the beans at the bottom. It is one of the lesser known beans and is mostly associated with poor people's diet or as cattle feed. It is often considered a last resort for farmers if rains have failed.


Coming up next: Yummy recipes with horse gram.

Schoolyard Project: Sowing the Seed

Ramagondanahalli govt. school is down the Whitefield main road. Most people pass by it on their way in or out of Whitefield. It's quite unremarkable in every way except that it has a bunch of volunteer teachers from the neighborhood who are determined to make early learning an exceptional experience for the children. Informally they call themselves 'Whitefield Ready', Sumedha Rao a volunteer teacher with a sea of experience in the corporate world, who now teaches English to the motley bunch at the school, told me they decided that they were 'ready' for anything. I saw how true that was when we pitched the idea of an edible garden at the school. Sumedha saw our vision of a community farm, micro enterprise that could fund every little pencil the school needs, the children learning to be self sufficient, and the larger community getting involved. The school authorities were very open to the idea, they were only worried about one thing - vandalism.

RGhalli school has a vast property that is freely utilised by the halli/village. Young men play soccer and cricket on practically every square inch, farmers bring their cows to graze, neighbours throw garbage over the compound wall, municipality trucks use it as a garbage collection spot, neighborhood real estate uses the campus to store construction material, and its vast ground is largely used as a thoroughfare. At night drunks sleep on the school verandah, leaving behind broken bottles, damaging property that is left unattended.

I believe education and a stellar school environment is the birthright of every child. Children who attend govt. schools like RGhalli belong to the lower economic strata of Indian society, children whose parents work as housemaids, migrant labourers, drivers, street vendors, farmers. Govt. schools provide free and/or subsidized education to those who cannot afford. RGhalli is no different in that sense. There are about 280 children study in the school - right from grades 1 to 7.

These kids come into school at around 8 am though schools begins only by 10. They walk into school in slippers and sandals and in uniforms that are occasionally donated by a large hearted corporate. Their first task is to sweep and mop their classrooms and toilets. Which is ofcourse not a bad thing, I wish all schools teach children to value and respect labour, and be self reliant!

Over the first few interactions with the kids, we sounded out the idea of a kitchen garden. They loved it! But a lot was yet to be done. The principal had assured us that the tiny plot he said we could have will be dug up within a month and the earth changed if required. Turned out to be the longest 30 days!

Meanwhile I came across this amazing slideshare on wild plants. So we thought why don't we do a workshop on edible plants that are so accessible, so common, and so prolific that they are often dismissed as weeds. In the coming weeks we conducted a small workshop with the children of Grades 6 & 7, talked to them about soppu/greens. It turned out they knew much more than we did, and they very enthusiastically participated in an art session with us.

We wanted more. We wanted that their families and the community at large see the wonderful potential in our children.

x
Rajani

Next: An Idea Germinates

A New Beginning

The story is simple enough, I watched a video on TED by Pam Warhurst which completely transformed my thought process. It struck me that here is a bunch of people who are not lamenting about the situation that has become but have taken it upon themselves to be the change they wish to see. And it worked and theirs is a success story that has been replicated in many countries across Europe.

Pam puts it so simplistically... "None of this is rocket science. It certainly is not clever, and it's not original. But it is joined up, and it is inclusive. This is not a movement for those people that are going to sort themselves out anyway. This is a movement for everyone. We have a motto: If you eat, you're in. Across age, across income, across culture."

Ultimately we all know we live on borrowed time space - this rock we call home no matter how much we divide it will continue to exist long after we have departed. What we can hope to leave behind is a lasting legacy for generations to come, as Pam says "... create edible landscapes so that our children start to walk past their food day in, day out, on our high streets, in our parks, wherever that might be. Inspire local planners to put the food sites at the heart of the town and the city plan, not relegate them to the edges of the settlements that nobody can see. Encourage all our schools to take this seriously. This isn't a second class exercise. If we want to inspire the farmers of tomorrow,then please let us say to every school, create a sense of purpose around the importance to the environment, local food and soils. Put that at the heart of your school culture, and you will create a different generation."

I have just returned to India, I spent a better of, but a year short of, a decade living in the middle east, in a country that relies heavily on food imports. Food has been on my mind for a very long time, what we eat, what goes into it, food security, ownership, policies, and how the market shapes our choices, the films I have worked on have dealt with many of these issues. No matter what my films have said, I had often felt that I am preaching to the choir. The people I met during filming were all inspirational, people who taught me that no matter who you are or what you do your voice matters. Simple, ordinary folks who choose lone battles to change systems, and they succeed. They succeed because of conviction. They believe so intensely that you cannot merely exist instead you must engage in life around you.

When I first met Nitya... I had no idea who she is... that she is one of the founders of a citizen led movement slowly gaining ground in Bangalore East called Whitefield Rising. An exemplary leader, and community gardener along with her friend Vallari Shah, she took Eat Your Street under her wings, and simply told me "You dream, and we will make it happen". And that is how things began to take shape. Next I met a singularly the most fascinating and passionate woman that I have met in a fairly long time. How can I sum up what Lavanya is all about? I will not, she will do that herself in our upcoming posts. Lavanya brings into our fledgling team josh... a keen desire coupled with drive to see our streets cleared of litter and growing food instead! That is our vision! And finally I introduce you to Dhanya - who is my neighbour, a former teacher, and biotech grad who now volunteers in a local govt. school as a science teacher. I look forward to more people matching our passion and dreaming our dream, I know it is not a lonely battle I have had many, many friends joining us, asking us questions, and engaging with us in the past few weeks. This is just the start!

Next post will be about what we have been doing the past weeks at , and our agenda in the weeks to come. you can write to us at eatyourstreet (at) gmail (dot) com.

Happy sowing!
Rajani