Walk on the wild side: foraging during the monsoons

As monsoons lash the land, weeds and wild plants are thriving. Meet the people who can help identify what you can add to your next Sunday lunch menu

Foraging is not a new concept. Indigenous communities across the world have always gathered wild plants, berries, and other edibles. In Odisha, for instance, among the Kondh community, a typical meal would consist of grains, wild onions, mushrooms and greens such as gondri saag, all foraged from the surrounding forests. The Khasi community in Meghalaya gather wild mushrooms and edible greens (like jatira and jamyrdoh) for their meals and to sell in the local market.

We aren’t strangers to it either, in cities — I remember picking up ripe jamuns that had fallen off trees in Delhi, and bunches of kalmi saag or water spinach, and kochu pata or colocasia that grow around water bodies in Kolkata.) In the last few years, a growing number of people is embracing urban foraging. You will find foraging walks in almost every metro city in India. While some gather produce, others use the walks to connect the younger generation to traditional food systems.

The monsoons are a great time to forage, and what people eat and forage for during this season differs across India. “In Bengal, for example, people avoid eating greens, but in Tamil Nadu, greens like amaranth or gotu-kola [centella asiatica, with detoxing properties] are consumed,” says Nina Sengupta, an ecologist based out of Auroville who conducts edible weeds walks on weekends. But what all expert foragers agree is that you need time, patience, and lots of training to do it right — because you could confuse something poisonous with one that’s edible. We speak to four foragers who are helping people ‘eat the wild’.

Founder, BuDa Folklore

Come monsoon, in August, you will find crowds of urban school children in the middle of Angadibail forest in Uttar Kannada (North Karnataka), taking part in the Mungaru events that celebrate the rains. Foraging walks will be a big part, as “the forest at Mungaru has so much to offer”, explains Uday, who started the organisation in 2006 to conserve the rich biodiversity and folk tales of the indigenous people of Uttar Kannada.

“For instance, we forage for kusumale hannu, a wild flower that is used in making a type of tambooli [a digestif drink]. The berries taste like apples. There’s also moor dharekai, a wild fruit, that’s used as an urad dal substitute for dosa. When ground into a paste, it resembles the mucilaginous structure of ground black gram.”

Each season has its own variety of edibles. In winter, they forage for tubers and roots, and in summer, wild fruits and berries. “nature has already created a food chart for us to follow,” she says, adding that during the monsoons soppu (tender leaves) are plentiful. “We held a wild colocasia leaves festival once in the village, where we documented more than 10 varieties, including one that grows on trees. They are rare and grow on old trees, so you have to climb to forage. We made the best patrode with these leaves.”