The Nilgiris: Keystone Foundation which has been working in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) with indigenous communities on improving their lives, livelihoods, and maintaining their unique cultures, organised 'Terra Madre', a slow cook food festival between January 3 to 4, 2020, in Kotagiri.
The Nilgiris: Keystone Foundation which has been working in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) with indigenous communities on improving their lives, livelihoods, and maintaining their unique cultures, organised 'Terra Madre', a slow cook food festival between January 3 to 4, 2020, in Kotagiri.
Over 300 Indigenous people of the region, local communities and people from the town enjoyed cooking traditional dishes through slow cook process.
A wide array of sumptuous local dishes like Avarai Kuzhambu, Thinai Ladoo, briyani and curd rice made of Samai, Amaranthus grains with honey, Ragi Kali, Samai Payasam and traditional fish curry were served at the festival.
The 'Disco Soup' which was made out of surplus vegetables was the highlight of the event.
In addition, there were stalls set up to showcase food grains grown in the region and the savouries made out of them were given to the visitors to taste.
And, the exhibition showcasing pictures of indigenous cultures, traditions and food practices from the archives of Keystone were well-received by the visitors.
As part of the festival, communities cooked, shared and cherished local cuisines.
The festival proved to be a platform for people to discuss and update each other on preparing traditional food using vegetables and grains grown locally in the region. Discussions on the benefits of slow cooked food were also held.
Playing and dancing to their traditional tunes, the Irula tribe music band enthralled the visitors and participants.
The festival as envisaged, reminded the communities of the fabulous, diverse range of local grown food and inspired them to revive traditional cooking practices that are slowly fading away.