Last week’s article Kodava Identity – Genes or culture? elicited thoughtful responses, different perspectives and encouraging messages, which is any writer’s dream. Thank you, dear readers, for sharing your views and expanding the thought process to making it a powerful exchange on the CLN Online platform. This is a reminder on why we should value this space and the conversations we create through it in a positive and meaningful manner.
This week, I want to turn to something much closer to our everyday lives – Growing our own food. In the words of Toby Musgrave. “People the world over want to eat healthy and rightly have concerns about food provenance, excessive packaging, carbon footprint, pesticide residues, and conservation of heirloom varieties”. On an equally serious note, there is a quiet revolution taking place – we need to understand the global market that lies behind the food we eat. The “system” that drives biodiversity loss, accelerates climate change, harms our health, threatens the livelihood and weakens local communities. This is a major area of concern and study with countries like the USA and Russia adopting large scale farming (mono culture and dangerous genetically modified seeds), leading to monoculture and severe logistical challenges contributing significantly to global warming.
In keeping with our ethos, let me focus on farming as it relates to Kodagu.
Speaking about what we can do in our beloved Kodagu and for myself – growing our own paddy, vegetables, coconut, coffee, ginger, turmeric and other daily use produce is not just about food. It is about the joy of consuming produce that has come from our own cultivated land and the satisfaction of knowing the energy of the hands that worked to give us what we eat. This is our precious inheritance; our heritage and we must respect this sacred process of cultivating our own household needs.
It also takes me back to the wisdom of our ancestors, who knew how to grow, preserve, use and respect what this precious land that they were instrumental in clearing and tending provide us. In the good old days weddings were conducted with contributions of produce from the Okka members and the inhabitants of the Ur. Karikmuripo was a real community involvement that brought everyone together and created a sense of interdependence.
We order food with a carefree click. Clothes arrive at our doorstep. Household products come from thousands of kilometres away. Even things that can be made from our own people, from our own land and with our own skills are increasingly bought from elsewhere. Our ancestors grew their food. Somewhere along the way, we resorted to the wasteful convenience of “buying” it. But I am sure most will agree that there is a different kind of satisfaction in consuming what our own hands have produced – something that money CANNOT BUY.
When we grow our own paddy, vegetables, fruits, coconut, coffee, and keep a cow and drink our own milk making butter/ghee that we know exactly where it came from, is an indescribable feeling of satisfaction. Tilling our own land, the joy of preparing the seed bed, nurturing, watering and seeing the gentle rain bless the plants in appreciation of the hard work that we have put in. It’s a true miracle!
There is a trust in food when you know its source. A handful of rice from our own paddy field feels different. Milk from our own dairy, coconut from our own trees – these are not mere products…. they are the connection to our land, our ancestors, our heritage. For generations, our people understood this. A Household did not depend on the market for everything it consumed. Our ancestors had a very different relationship with the land. They grew what they could, preserved what they produced and made use of what Nature provided with compassion.
Paddy was cultivated in the fields. Vegetables were grown in the backyard kitchen garden (Bollary thota!). Coconut, fruits and spices came from the land. Cows / Buffaloes provided milk and manure. Food was seasonal, local and closely connected to the households. The medicine cabinet was often growing around them. They knew their herbs. They knew which leaves, roots, bark, seeds and other plants were traditionally used in the communities for common ailments which we call household remedies. This knowledge was observed, remembered and passed down through generations.
I was absolutely thrilled to read what the CLN News Desk team sent for inclusion in this article. It is incredibly meaningful and thought-provoking, especially the excerpt from the Hukkumnama (Royal Edict) of the Haleri Raja, Lingarajendra Wodeyar (1811–1820), issued on the advice of his predominantly Kodava Diwans, encouraging to grow our own vegetables and other produce:
Hukkum No. 26 – Of the Encouragement of Cultivation.
The Patel shall give the ryots living within his village injunctions to grow various kinds of crops for household purposes, so that they may enjoy prosperity. They shall plant freely in the gardens attached to their houses the following: plantains, chillies, tobacco, the betel vine, ginger, turmeric, bajé (Acorus calamus), the lime tree, the bitter orange tree, dodhuli (Atalantia monophylla), the orange, margosa and other trees. They shall grow too from seed vegetables of various kinds such as the brinjal, hagala (Momordica charantia), bili tondé (Cephalandra indica), cucumber, pumpkin, milk-white gourd, hirekāyi (luffa), beans, ash-coloured pumpkin, haruvé (Amaranthus gangeticus), coriander, yams, potatoes and kindred roots. The ryots shall be enjoined to sow seeds of these and other vegetables in the gardens of their houses.
Further, on every Monday during the season of cultivation the Patel shall go from house to house noticing those who are diligent in husbandry and likewise those idlers who leave their gerekadu* uncleaned and plough not well their fields. He shall see which among the ryots have manured their land after ploughing, which have cleared their gerekadus and sown their nurseries. Then shall he summon and rebuke those ryots who, having men and cattle, have spent their time idly, and he shall admonish them duly to cultivate their lands and see that his orders are obeyed. If then among the ryots any one be found behindhand through illness or poverty, the Patel shall select a household that has accomplished its labour, and explaining how the ryot has fallen into difficulties and his work into arrear, shall desire it to give his help for one or two days; it being explained that the assistance thus given will be repaid when those helped are in advance with their own work.
Thus shall the Patel gather information, and the Parpattigar shall instruct him so to act, visiting himself every village once a fortnight and sending a report to the Diwan kacheri.
*Gerekadu = Scrub Jungle near the Paddy Fields.
In our mindless and cavalier adoption of so-called modern convenience, we seem to have forgotten something very precious. The joy of growing our own produce – safe, unadulterated, organic, no pesticides from our own land. Look beyond the supermarket shelf and Online shopping websites, adopt “slow living” and get back towards feeling the mud and grass beneath our feet.
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Thank you Mamatha for the wonderful article. How the minds of such creative authors such as your – works, is much beyond me.
Traditions – be it customs, dress code, agriculture, respect towards elders, for that matter even life – has changed drastically.
Should there be a marriage proposal, the girl will choose a person working outside Coorg in preference to someone looking after perhaps a large ancestral property. Again, the choice is one who is working abroad to one in India.
With education reaching every nook & corner of the country, where do we get manual labour- the backbone of Plantations? Mechanisation be it tractor for ploughing or drones for spraying can only go that far. The most important operation in a plantation is harvesting be it tea, coffee or rubber. None have solved it. Should it be solved the density and type of planting has to be changed which is not practical nor is the shade pattern or the terrain.
So marches time with little or no thought for the people and hardly a generation away awaits AI. One sometimes shudders but mankind has always overcome and perhaps this too will pass.
With good wishes & blessings.
Your words of appreciation and encouragement mean the world to me Uncle. I write from my heart and after all its the everyday routine that really makes up our lives. The glamour and glitz associated with attending social functions besides resulting in wasteful spending, is a major distraction to running the estate. Unfortunately this has become the new world order for the Kodavas along with a variety of irrelevant Nammes and Most recently – Nadups’. Let us show our strength with economic progress and innovative ways of value creation.
On the matter of girls preferring grooms from cities…let me mention something that I overheard long ago and wrote in in one of my articles – Kodava men may not be great boyfriends but make good husbands!. With Work From Home, there is lot of flexibility now to have one’s cake and eat it. There has to be accommodation of aspirations by all in the family. I have loved every day of my life on our estate and living in Coorg.
Good, solid and meaningful writing by Ms Mamatha Subbaiah. The Kitchen Garden was found in every home and was an essential part of the food security that was important for the times we lived in then. This is a wonderful practice that should be continued even now.
I was moved by Ms Mamatha Subbaiah’s article. As is often said – Necessity is the mother of Invention. That must have been the genesis of the Kitchen garden in places like Coorg in the days gone by. The time has perhaps arrived for further innovation and let me draw attention to the greenhouses in Ladakh.
Protected cultivation in Ladakh has enabled the growth of over 30 vegetable varieties, extended the growing season and improved food security and livelihoods in one of the world’s most challenging agricultural regions. Ladakh is embracing organic farming as a sustainable pathway in its fragile ecosystem. Integrating organic methods into greenhouse systems using composted farmyard manure, biofertilisers and botanical pest control improves soil health, reduces environmental impact and boosts the region’s appeal to health-conscious markets. Together, organic and protected cultivation offer a robust, climate-resilient
Thank you for the insights on Ladakh. Yes – with the large Army presence, securing vegetables was an important necessity. Over a period of time the locals also started with more sophisticated innovations of growing vegetables in greenhouses subsidized by the Government.
Such innovation is required in Kodagu too with methods to protect the kitchen garden especially from wild boar. There could be learnings from the North East and Bhutan.
Kaverappa’s comment to Ms Subbaiah’s article brings to my mind what many techies have done in Bangalore. Here is an excerpt:
“My dad and brother, who were frustrated with agriculture due to shortage of water, are now busy growing, packing and transporting vegetables.”
“Fenugreek, asparagus, celery, carrot, knolkol, radish, capsicum, chillies, ridge gourd, tinda, amaranthus, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, mint, beetroot, bottle gourd, ash gourd, cabbage and other vegetables are grown on the farm without the intervention of inorganic materials”.
This is the story of Nisarga Native Farms which started due to the single minded determination of Roja. There are excellent opportunities in taking the concept of the Kitchen Garden beyond the requirements of one’s homes to create regular additional income and not be beholden to the annual sale that takes place with plantation crops like Coffee and Pepper. Small initiatives leading to big resilience.
This is a very moving article written by Mamatha Subbaiah. In fact I am reminded of a project that was undertaken by the famous chef and cookbook writer Alice Waters :
Edible education provides hands-on experiences that connect students to food, nature, and each other; and it systematically addresses the crises of climate change, public health, and social inequality. At its heart is a dynamic and joyful learning experience for every child.
Founded in 1995 by chef, author, and activist Alice Waters, the Edible Schoolyard Project began as an idea to transform the food experience at a public middle school in Berkeley, California. As the idea took shape, a coalition of educators, families, farmers, cooks, and artists joined the effort, working closely with students to create a flourishing garden and kitchen classroom.
Today, the Edible Schoolyard at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School serves as a demonstration site and innovation hub for the field of edible education. The curriculum offers students experiential learning opportunities that deepen their relationship with food, facilitate learning the skills of cooking and gardening, build their capacity for critical examination of the food system, and develop their agency to affect change in their own lives and in their communities.
All of the above is so relevant for being implemented in all our schools in Kodagu – Government and Private – it is a critical learning input for children, which often rubs off on the parents who have forgotten what their elders did when they were young.
The concept of The Edible Schoolyard is such an interesting idea. Thank you for writing about it. We must promote the idea in our Government Schools and for that matter in all our institutions. The children will learn about organic farming and the benefits of chemical and pesticide free vegetables and fruits.
This is a delightful read and brings back many memories and current initiatives that my 80 year old father is implementing in the Government School in Pallakad where all of us studied. This initiative or project has now been in place for over a decade and could easily be implemented everywhere.
How else can one describe this wonderful article written with rustic flair, smacking of our proud agricultural heritage and homely values – miracles happen when we grow our own food.
Kitchen Gardens – wonderful concept. More and more people are participating in weekend gardening for vegetables in cities. Well done in presenting your thoughts in this special article.
What a beautiful article Ms Subbaiah – brings back all those fond memories when we used to come to our Avvaya’s estate in Coorg for our long summer holidays.
The kitchen garden was a magical place. Initially we had to accompany Avvaya to be guided where the vegetables are planted, when they are ready for the kitchen – but before long we knew it all. The produce was delicious and organic. Thanks again for your evocative style of writing with strong messages for us to return to our roots.
Excellent suggestions.
Rainwater harvesting/conservation, and energy production through gobar-gas plants could also be added to the list, though not exactly kitchen garden category. I don’t know if our ancestors had access to these simple technologies
Thank you, as always for your thoughtful comments. While our ancestors may not have had the access to gobar gas, they certainly did not shy away from growing paddy every single year. This in itself is the best form of water conservation. Their respect for land and the water ways is what sustained us through the ages. This has changed in recent times. It breaks my heart to see the fallow paddy fields or the rich wetlands being converted to real estate and commercial buildings.
Human greed is insatiable.
Another beautiful peirce from the author. What i appreciate most is the way you turn everyday subjects into meaningful reflections about our roots and our way of life. This article truly makes us look at our food and our land differently. Keep writing and inspiring.
You’re absolutely right – it is how we lead our lives on an everyday basis that matters. My routine starts really early with having to manage and tend to the dairy. And then the workers arrive for their daily estate work and before one knows, the day has passed.
Of course we have our social commitments – but NOT at the expense of making sure that the estate work is overlooked. I wouldn’t trade this for an unhealthy city life! And my weekly column/essay for CLN provides the excitement and adrenaline rush of communicating with the outside world.
Keep highlighting our community, culture Mamatha, Proud of you!
Mamatha beautifully written indeed. What I especially liked here is the way she takes something as simple as a kitchen garden and connects it to land, memory, community and heritage. The Hukkumnama of Lingarajendra Wodeyar is a wonderful inclusion — remarkable to see how seriously household cultivation, mutual assistance and stewardship of the land were regarded more than two centuries ago. A thoughtful and very enjoyable piece.
I always look forward to your comments on my articles – not many people realise that the Kodava Diwans were always controlling these legislations for enactment behind the scenes. Their rustic wisdom was unbeatable – by growing our own vegetables we were not dependent on the “plains” for our daily requirements.
The entire scenario is different now as planters have done away with the kitchen gardens to their major disadvantage – they now consume pesticides and chemical fertilizers ridden vegetables and shockingly even rice for their table. It has had a major negative impact on my he health of people living in the rural areas in Kodagu.