‘Forest Recipes of Goa’ | What Assavri Kulkarni leant from tribal foragers

Just implicit 18 months ago, lensman Assavri Kulkarni’s days began early. By 3 a.m., to beryllium exact. She would formal successful sturdy clothes, heft her 10-kg tripod, lights, and DSLR camera, and question 2 hours by car to northeast Goa, to the borderline of the heavy forests of the Western Ghats. There, she would conscionable a mates of tribal women successful their 70s and 80s and trek for hours, braving leeches and chaotic encounters with bears and snakes — each to hunt for and papers seasonal foods of the forest.

“Sometimes I felt similar I would not travel back,” shares Kulkarni, arsenic she talks astir the days of gruelling probe she did for her passionateness project, Forest Recipes of Goa - Stories of Tribal Food. The 119-page photograph publication has 65-odd ingredients and recipes, and was published earlier this twelvemonth by the Goa Forest Development Corporation.

Armpit mushrooms and fermented jackfruit

Kulkarni says portion she spent astir a twelvemonth and a fractional documenting wood food, her quest had begun implicit a decennary agone erstwhile she met Subhadra Gaonkar from the Kshatriya Gaonkar Samaj (a warrior-agricultural assemblage successful Goa), who told her astir kakhetli almi oregon armpit mushrooms. Also known arsenic sondaye (Termitomyces cantoniensis), these wild-foraged mushrooms are collected from the forests of Chorla Ghat, wrapped successful a leaf, sprinkled with brackish and placed nether the arm, wherever it ‘cooks’ utilizing assemblage heat. “I was blown distant erstwhile I heard that thing could beryllium cooked with assemblage heat,” she says. The past method was utilized by wood dwellers erstwhile they had to trek for miles together.

The publication is simply a treasure trove of specified ingredients. I travel crossed bamboo rice, which is foraged successful the villages of Canacona taluka erstwhile the bamboo flowers, the leaves of the grey mangrove (Avicennia marina) that communities surviving adjacent estuaries usage arsenic a substitute for brackish and arsenic an electrolyte. There are besides ingenious techniques specified arsenic fermenting jackfruit bulbs successful salt, which tin beryllium stored for years, and is lone eaten erstwhile the women of Sattari taluka are fasting for a festival oregon ritual. “I person eaten a bulb that is astir a decennary old,” says Kulkarni. “They stir-fry it and devour it with tea. This fermented nutrient is besides fixed to the sick.”

Foods of ritual

Many of the ingredients and recipes are associated with rituals. Devache pole is simply a peculiar pancake made with atom flour and wood ash successful Sattari for Aitar puja, to worship the prima god, during the period of Shravan (dedicated to Lord Shiva). The summation of ash tin beryllium traced backmost to section lore. The communicative goes that erstwhile the God erstwhile visited the village, a pistillate had thing to connection him. So, helium asked her to look astatine the ash astir her, frankincense starting the tradition. “This crockery is eaten lone during the monsoon arsenic the ash has alkaline properties,” shares Kulkarni.

The Velip Gaonkar successful Canacona marque a rootlike crockery that is cooked by the men of the community, connected the caller satellite time aft Ganesh Chaturthi. “It is known arsenic shaak oregon ushtan, and they usage some foraged and cultivated vegetables. The men and women spell to enactment lone aft they’ve offered the crockery to the Bhoomi Purush [a section guardian spirit],” adds Kulkarni.

Showcasing indigenous stories

The foragers featured successful the publication — from communities specified arsenic Velip, Dhangar, Kunbi, and Gawda — see the wood arsenic a ineffable space. “Women bash not participate the wood erstwhile they are menstruating,” says Kulkarni, adding that they besides connection thing to the wood each clip they participate it, beryllium it snake skin, a stone, oregon a bony to appease the gods and inquire them for protection.

The radical are besides successful the autumn of their lives, astir apt the past procreation who volition forage successful these forests. “The younger procreation is not interested; they person migrated to the cities. Also, entree to halfway areas is restricted now, and the upwind has go precise erratic,” she says.

This is not the archetypal clip that Kulkarni has photographed the forests and its people. But, she admits, this clip it was much intimate. Kulkarni explains that she was precise conscious of the information she did not privation to objectify them. “I wanted to [learn astir them], look astatine them with pride. So, I ne'er started my sprout immediately. I would stock a meal, person agelong conversations,” she says.

With this project, Kulkarni’s narration with the wood has besides evolved. “I wanted to archer the stories [of its children] earlier they are forgotten, and I besides wanted to showcase the indigenous, non-Brahminical civilization of Goa, wherever quality is worshipped,” she says, adding that the acquisition taught her to respect the wood and not to instrumentality it for granted.

The Goa-based freelancer writes connected art, civilization and ecology.