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Honey bee publish details |
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SATTVIK 2010 |
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Savouring Tradition, Sustaining Diversity |
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For all the food lovers of Ahmedabad, the destination was IIM’s new campus, when the Sattvik- 2010, the 8th Traditional Food Festival was organized from 18th-20th December, 2010. The food festival had 87 stalls with participation from various states like Chattisgarh, Bihar, Assam, Rajasthan and Orissa, apart from Gujarat. About 45000 visitors tasted the traditional delicacies like bamboo rice and pickle, paranthas of Saijan (Saragva) leaves and, Surati ponk. Contemporary recipes with traditional ingredients like multigrain pizzas, nutritious products of Amla, Aloe vera and cactus fruits were also there to tantalise the taste buds. A quiz which highlighted the pros and cons of fast food viz-a-viz traditional food was conducted for the children, along with drawing competitions, creative games, pottery wheels where children could express their creativity and more. There was also a recipe competition to create awareness for food from rarely or un-cultivated plants. Indigenous organic grains, fresh vegetables, books on ayurvedic and herbal practices were available for people to see and taste and learn as well as take home. On display were innovations from NIF to see and churn people’s mind to seek innovative solutions to their problems. This food festival was started eight years ago to popularise the vanishing traditional recipes, create market based incentives for the conservation of agrobiodiversity and incentivise the farmers to adopt organic ways of growing crops through consumer support.
Pattern in Particpation
Out of the 87 stalls, 23 were put up by farmers, 19 by non-governmental organizations, six were put up by people from other states and 39 by private owners. Among the 23 stalls put up by farmers, 13 were food stalls and 10 were of various products and purposes like nursery pots, solar energy applications, and products of SHG’s and cottage industries. Among the 39 private stalls25 were that of food items with the rest 14 selling other products like books, herbal products, utensils, herbal mouth fresheners, etc. Of the 19 stalls of the non-governmental organizations, 14 were for creating awareness on a range of issues like organic food, ayurveda, herbal healing, environment and physiotherapy. Books were available on subjects like healthy living, creativity, herbal remedies, spirituality, etc. Also, on display were grassroots innovations from NIF which continued to catch attention of the people amidst eatables all around.
A bitter lesson
The innovator duo, Mushtaq and Fayyaz, had brought walnuts from Kashmir. Rajasthani “pyaz ki kachori” and dal bati churma offered by Sundar Ramji was as always among the favourites since the first food festival. The stall from Koraput sold chikkis made from baked rice, which was sold out on the very first day. But, we are sorry to share that the owner, an economically poor tribesman from the Koraput, was robbed of his purse. Hence, he lost all that he had earned. Though, we could not
make up for his emotional loss, he was
given an amount of Rs 5000 and ticket to go back home. Since the festival pulls a huge crowd, it is at times difficult to control such mishaps, but such incidences are really unfortunate.
Innovative and nutritious recipes
Several new food items were introduced: mahua based ice-cream, laddu, biscuit and bread; vegetable and bajra soup, sukhdi (a type sweet candy) made up of ragi flour, traditional palate of the tribals of Dang with rice chappatti, dhekra (also made up of rice flour). . Another popular attraction was jowar soup. There was also garlic chapatti, dahi wali undhiyo, baigan bharta with curd, guava drink, multigrain laddu and sarson ki bhajji with bajra rotla. A variety of delicacies were made from ragi like laddu, sandwich dhokla and dosa; other crowd pullers were oat uttapam, kang, maize, oat pizza, pineapple kheer, surati undhiyo, mung dal nu sirra, puran poli, chikoo and saunf ice-cream, nagli sukhri and kuler (sweet dishes), tuvar totha, amaranth laddu, and drumstick soup. The fruit biscuits made without mixing with any kind of flour and fruit ice-creams prepared right in front of the consumers were quite popular.
Recipe competition
The competition mobilised the culinary skills of 45 women and two men, eight were given prizes. The participants had blended nutrition, tradition and contemporary tastes and preferences. Ranjanben Shah made parantha of seven types of grains and made kadhi from germinated fenugreek. Nitaben Panchal made bajra and date laddu, pizza of finger millet, Chenopodium album leaves and capsicum; Jyotiben Bhatt made kodri (Paspalum scrobiculatum) and ragi vasanu (sweet dish usually made in winters); Sangeetaben Soni made rabri malpua of mahua (Madhuca indica) and lotus stem, betel leaves tikki (kind of cutlets), ice cream made from mahua and cashewnuts; satavari (Asparagus racemosa), ashwagandha and oat biscuits by Adi Ausadhya group from Dedhiyapara; Taraben Patel made kang (Setaria italica) laddu, soyabean thepla, sarson (mustard) muthiya and Murraya chutney. Germinated ragi kheer was made by Arunaben Salot. These are being compiled in the next edition of the book on The Forgotten Recipes.
Khedut Haat: verifying claims about organic cultivation
SRISTI- mitras (volunteers), along with the local NGOs, went to the fields of the farmers who participated in the food festival and verified the authenticity of their claim of the products being organic. This year, 43 farmers participated with the total sale of approximately Rs 12.5 lakh over three days with the maximum revenue generated by the women group from Jasdan. Organically grown bajra, white and black sesame, green bean, moth bean, groundnut, wheat, rice, black mung, gram, nagli (Finger millet, Eleusine coracana), Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), maize,
yam, turmeric, chilly varieties, neem,
amla juice, mango juice, aloe vera juice, ginger, white turmeric, honey, bamboo crafts, pickle of bamboo stem, bamboo shoot pickle, etc., were other popular items.
Fun, food and knowledge sharing
A quiz highlighting the pros and cons of fast food and traditional food was conducted for the children. In addition, drawing competitions, creative games, clay modelling etc., were also organised. Performance of traditional dance by the tribals of Dangs was another highlight of the festival. In one of the competitions, children were asked to move around and memorize as many food items as they could in a time frame of fifteen minutes. To the surprise of many, many children could memorize as many as 50 items.
Innovations on display
NIF, SRISTI and GIAN-West together put up an exhibition of innovations. Among the exhibits that were displayed, were bullock operated sprayer of Radhey Shyam Sharma, Madhya Pradesh, solar mosquito destroyer of Mathews K Mathew, Kerala, folding bicycle of Sandeep Kumar, Bihar, coffee making cooker of Md Rozadeen, Bihar, twin chambered cooker of Abdul Razaak, Tamil Nadu. The festival gave several innovators a platform to interact with the public such as: Mansukhbhai Prajapati with his earthen product range, Gopal Bhai Surtia with his cow dung cup for nurseries, Hussain Ajmeri with his gas operated iron, Arvindbhai Patel with his natural water cooler, Sheikh Nazim with his stencil cutter. There was a poster exhibition as well inviting the visitors to think creatively and come up with innovative ideas to be deposited in the idea boxes kept at different places in the pandal.
Visitors’ feedback
Dr Rakesh Bhavsar and his wife appreciated that events like this taught children about our traditional food and also about their nutritional value. They visited Sattvik on all the three days and suggested that representation of all the districts should be ensured in the festival. This time, the Kathiawadi stalls were more in number. The recipes if displayed outside the stall would spread more awareness and it would also help people to try cooking it at home. Prof. Pragnesh Suthariya said that the frequency of the festival should be increased. About increasing the frequency, around 20% of the total respondents in a survey done by PK Satheesh, a Honey Bee Network volunteer, replied in the affirmative. In the same survey, the top three suggestions were dust proofing the festival (32%), drinking water availability (27%) and food stalls from outside the state of Gujarat (27%). Some of the visitors also felt that the festival could be made more inte-resting by introducing traditional games for kids because the urban kids were getting away from the traditional/ local games like spinning top, gilli-danda and other games and these might also disappear like our traditional food, crafts, etc. The idea of a common pass for three days (i.e. people could get passes for all the three days together) was also voiced by many. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 21(4), 17 to 19, 2010 |
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