After guided tours, now a field guide-cum-cookbook aims to stoke the interest of Bengalureans in foraging for wild, edible greens in the city. It is free to download.
Foraging is the age-old practice of gathering plants from uncultivated spaces for food, medicine and cultural uses. And ‘Chasing Soppu’ documents 53 such plant species that one can find in lake beds, sidewalks, empty plots, wooded groves, gardens, and unused farmlands in and around Bengaluru.
Each plant identification comes with a photo and details like where to find it, common and scientific names, habit (whether it is an erect plant, climber, spreading plant), which parts to use, and what they are used for. The recipes section covers curries like massoppu with berike soppu, chutneys with komme soppu or vayunarayani leaves, and scrambled eggs with honagonne soppu. A section on home remedies follows.
The book has been co-authored by Seema Mundoli and Harini Nagendra, who are members of faculty at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, along with Dhruthi Somesh and Ranjini Murali who were formerly associated with the institution. It condenses the ethno-ecological and ethno-botanical knowledge that they gathered from women belonging to low-income backgrounds who forage for reasons ranging from providing nutrition to their family to continuing the tradition. Men do it too but their reasons are mostly commercial.
Rich with illustrations (by Rohit Rao) and anecdotes by foragers, the book is a reader-friendly extension of their decades-long research on how people use urban commons.
Curiosity led them to these foragers, who are mostly in middle-aged or older. “In 2013, we saw a woman scraping the ground in a lake bed to pluck honagonne. ‘It’s nutritious. I don’t have to pay money for it. I can pick it up in between my work and add it to sambar or palya’, she explained to us,” Seema recalls her early interactions with foragers.
But now, fencing around apartments, ‘no plucking’ rules and entry timings in parks, preference of aesthetics over wilderness in building projects, and defecation around lakes are hurting this informal practice, which supplements food security and livelihood. “We need to have a larger vision for cities,” Seema comments.
They plan to translate the book into Kannada to spread awareness.
Download from azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in
Dos and don’ts
Don’t consume wild plants you forage without checking with an expert (a botanist or experienced forager). Several plants look similar — consuming the wrong plant can be poisonous, the book warns.
Better to buy them from Banashankari market, Mavalli market, Madiwala market, KR market, and Russell market, and street vendors near the Halasuru metro station and Lalbagh, it adds.
Or, go on foraging trips to get familiar.