Seeds And Their People - EP. 22: Gujarati Seeds and Flavors with Nital Vadalia-Kakadia

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

This episode features Nital Vadalia-Kakadia. Originally from the state of Gujarat in Western India, Nital has been fascinated by farming and food since she was a child on her family’s farm in India. These days, she tends to beautiful gardens filled with her ancestral Indian vegetables and herbs, as well as lush native pollinator plants, fruit trees, and cut flowers at her family’s home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not too far from our home in Philadelphia. She has introduced us and our community to many Indian seeds and so it was great to have this chance to visit her home and speak with her about her life, her beloved food plants, and even get a chance to share a delicious meal featuring bindhi, guar, curry leaves, amba, and so much more. You will also hear a couple voice recordings from Truelove Seeds apprentice Tika Jagad and her father Mr. Krutarth Jagad. And at the end, our son Bryan asks Nital and Dinesh’s son Soham a couple questions about his favorite traditional foods.   SEED STORIES TOLD IN THIS EPISODE: Bindhi, Okra, Abelmoschus esculentus Guar, Cluster Bean, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba Curry Tree, Murraya koenigii Ratalu, Purple Yam, Dioscorea alata Lablab, Hyacinth Bean, Lablab purpureus White Eggplant, Solanum melongena Transkutukú Peanuts from the Shuar people of Ecuador, Arachis hypogaea Chana, Chickpeas, Cicer arietinum Pigeon Pea, Cajanus cajan Fenugreek, Trigonella foenum-graecum Surti Papri, Lablab purpureus Karela, Bitter Melon, Momordica charantia Lauki, Bottle Gourd, Lagenaria siceraria Luffa Jewels of Opar, Talinum paniculatum and Waterleaf, Talinum triangulare  Red Amaranth, Amaranthus spp. Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum Mango, Mangifera indica Amla, Indian Gooseberry, Emblica officinalis Falsa, Sherbet Berry, Grewia asiatica Papaya, Carica papaya MORE INFO FROM THIS EPISODE: Nital's Instagram Amirah Mitchell's Sistah Seeds Tika's garden, Rabbit Hole Farm, Newark, NJ Kula Nursery, Oakland ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden   THANKS TO: Nital, Dinesh, and their son Soham Tika and her father, Mr. Krutarth Jagad Zee Husain Amirah Mitchell Our son Bryan Ruth Kaaserer Cecilia Sweet-Coll

I was just whacking at normal. Welcome to Seeds and their people. I'm Chris Bolden Newsom, farmer and co-director of Sancofa Farm at Bartram's Garden in sunny southwest Philadelphia. And I'm Owen Taylor, seedkeeper and farmer at True Love Seeds. We are a seed company offering culturally important seeds. grown by farmers committed to cultural preservation food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture this podcast is supported by true love seeds and by our listeners if you'd like to support our storytelling and seed keeping you can do so at patreon.com slash true love seeds thank you so much to our newest Patreon members Annie and Hannah this episode features Nital Vadalia Kakadilla originally from the

state of Gujarat in western India, Nital has been fascinated by farming and food since she was a child on her family's farm in India. These days, she tends to beautiful gardens filled with her ancestral Indian vegetables and herbs as well as lush native pollinator plants, fruit trees, and cut flowers at her family home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not too far from our home in Philadelphia. She has introduced us and the community to many Indian seeds, and so it was great to have this chance to visit her home and speak with her about her life, her beloved food plants, and even get a chance to share a delicious meal featuring bindi, war, curry leaves, amba, and so much more. Having listened to this interview a couple times, what stood out

to you? Well, I think more than just the interview is because I've met, Sister Nita is just the deep generosity of spirit that she has. We have been guests in her home and she has a very beautiful home and in a very beautiful and powerful garden. And I say that it's powerful because the crops that she grows are her traditional crops. I mean, some of them, some of the things I don't think are even easy to find in Indian, the Indian grocery stores that we might shop at, you know, the guar beans, for instance, that she grows. So, I mean, that's just the very first thing is what an absolutely splendid hostess and matriarch Nita is and how comfortable we felt in her home. And I really love how she introduced us to each one of her ancestral crops as though they were relatives.

She took us from bed to bed and talked a little bit about them. And that's what I like to do at my farm, introduce my ancestral foods as relatives. Just hearing about some traditional practices in Gujarat, which is not a state in India, that I've met a lot of people from, you know, was also really meaningful to me. I know it's a very agricultural area in India. And for me, I'm always impressed when people take it upon themselves to continue their agricultural heritage, you know, particularly because she didn't have to. She came at such a young age to this country, which is very brave, you know, for a girl of 16,

you know that I think that she was when she came I mean that's a really big deal and I think about that I think about our nieces and nephews and to imagine you know going not just from one city to another but to a whole different culture and then to have the wherewithal to even in that process say that I'm going to take this enduring piece of home my seeds and my food and grow them so for me all of that is part of the inspiration that goes you know the inspiring story rather that goes into her seeds and into her crops. I think that that was one of the things that stood out to me the most, that this young, brave girl, you know, would come across the ocean

and then continue work because she didn't have to. Her family went into business, you know. And generally, that usually in most agricultural families that I know of, that signals the end of the farming story for a family. But the fact that she continued in Pennsylvania to grow her traditional crops to me is just absolutely powerful. And one more thing I think that really stood out to me is that like so many farmers who come from the Southern Hemisphere or other places, she didn't know what she couldn't grow, you know, or when she couldn't grow with them here in the United States, both, you know, through her because she's traveled and lived in different parts of the United States.

And I just love that she just put seeds in the ground and she was on Indian time, you know, as opposed to thinking about or knowing, you know, all of these details before she went to school for horticulture that this has to be planted at this time and in this way and all of those so-called rules. And just the miracle that happens every time is that the seeds grew oftentimes anyway, you know, and I think that for me, I really love to hear that story reminds me of the gentleman from South Carolina that I heard about. out of the airport garden here in Philly, who planted a pecan tree because he didn't know that folks don't grow pecanes, you know, this far north. And the tree is probably about 40, 50 feet tall and bears pecans here in Philadelphia. And I think a lot of that is because he didn't have that fear or that lack of faith dropped into his spirit by telling him, oh, you can't do that in this zone or in this. You know, so all of that was very much familiar to me in hearing Sister Nita's a story. And besides, just a wonderful way that she delivers it and takes us through her life and her family's life. And I brought home some of the food from lunch for you.

And I know that you were particularly excited about the guar or the cluster bean and we're like, we got to grow that here. Yeah, absolutely. That was, I'm excited about growing that because I only know of guar being as a food additive. you know, in all kinds of prepared foods and maybe even some junk foods. And it was just a deep reminder that, like so many parts of our cultures in a colonized land, that crops and species that have been our familiar and helpful relatives for centuries have been so often taken out of context, commodified, their story erased. You know, and like so much of our own traditional cultures, oftentimes, the material part gets sort of used, and then the story, the narrative, that fills it out, becomes erased, just like the guarg gum in a box of coconut milk or something.

You know, so it's a stabilizer. It's no longer, you know, a nourishing, exciting food that carries. with it, lifetimes and lifetimes of memory and traditions and story. So yeah, just hearing that really reminded me of how, you know, this process happens both with our stories, with our cultures and our whole lives oftentimes in this colonialist context, which is why it's so important. I think that what we're doing and what Natal is doing and what she's going to talk about in this wonderful interview. And in this episode, you'll also hear a couple of voice recordings from True Left Seeds

apprentice Tika Jagged and her father, Mr. Krutthar Jagad, who are also from Gujarat and Nital's responses. And at the end, our son, Brian, asks Nital and her husband Dinesh's son, Soham, a couple questions about his favorite traditional foods. Now we start the story in Nitao's living room. Hi, my name is Nita. I am from the western part of India, the state of Gujarat. I grew up there until the age of 16, and I migrated here, and I've been here since. Currently, we live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and I have a garden, and I grow all the vegetables that we consume. So growing up in India, I come from both sides of my family, a line of farmers.

My ancestors were all farmers, specifically when you say India and Western part of India and the people who we are, we are considered farmers. That's what people did, my people. my grandmother from the maternal side she used to go to everybody's fields because that's what you did as farmers harvest time you help each other and she would just go harvest and then of course my both of them my maternal grandmother and grandfather they farmed their own fields and then on my paternal paternal side, before my grandfather, I think it was my grandfather, maybe he did some farming, but what I've been told is they went into business early on. I don't know what

business they had before I was born, but we were in the oil industry, and so they did that. But I think the roots were so strong that my grandfather and my father, they purchased and they always had farmland. They just hired people to work the farmland. And so I grew up around farms. Like every weekend, that's all we did was just drive up to the farm. And we would just play all day in the fields. And that's what we did. And then the food was harvested from the fields.

that was our lunch and that was our dinner. And then we would take that food, you know, the extra, the harvest that was delivered to the house that my mom would cook. And I remember those Sundays because we had Saturday schools. So Sundays, my dad would just take me around the field, especially in winter because in India, most of the crops are grown in wintertime, specifically where we are from. and so he would actually test me based on the leaves just by looking at the morphology of the plant what identify which plant is this in the field

and you know it was just all all three of us you know my siblings and I but it was just I who was so intrigued by it my siblings were just busy playing and so he he loved to quiz me and I was just always fascinated by this world of agriculture and just plants and food i think the main part is growing up which was truly farm to table and of course we had cattle too buffaloes and so we got the milk from that delivered to the house which my mom you know she's to sell she's to make ghee out of it sell the ghee and so that's how we grew up and i just love to do carry on all the things my parents did. Of course, I cannot do everything. I'm limited in terms of

ghee. Guy, yeah. I do make my own ghee, but with the Costco butter, I don't have a cow. But yeah, so it was, it's great. And then, of course, coming here, after, you know, I turned 16, I was in high school at that time. I did my 11th and 12th year. And, um, I was in, um, I was in high school at that time. You know, whatever teenagers do, I did. After that, I went to college. I dropped out of college, and I married young. I moved to California in 2000, and I was a young mom. I had my daughter.

I was pregnant at 21. I had my daughter at 22. The county that we lived in was Santa Clara County at that time. and one time I remember my daughter she was probably I believe she was a year old or I think a year and a half and I just went to my local hardware store well the county had set up tables to educate people on growing their food and how you should do it they had this whole brochure and booklets that they were giving out and so I don't know what strikes me and I just like stood there and I was like okay I'm I just picked up those things.

I took them home. I read up on that. And then I went to my local library. I got so many books on gardening in containers because at that time I was living in an apartment in Sunnyvale, California. I had not much space. So I just bought reading those books, I realized you can grow food in massive containers. So I filled my this very tiny balcony. I would say it was 12 by 6 feet.

It was so small. But it was like pots everywhere. Even, you know, I grew tomato. That's where I started growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers. And I'm not sure if you know we love fenugreek too. So fenugreek leaves. So I grew fenugreek, cilantro. That's how I started.

And I was 22, 23 at that time. And it's just, this bug just took over me. That, okay, now I have to, as a parent, a young parent, feed my child, something that's fresh. It's organic, organically grown. And just first try to grow and eat what you're growing. But if you cannot, then we were very lucky to have so many wonderful farmers markets in the Bay Area that, you know, and then you have a connection with the farmers you make because you see them on a weekly basis. So I was very lucky. And so that's what I used to do.

I used to buy everything from the farmer's market. And then, you know, I used to grow whatever I could grow. And of course, it's very limited in what you can grow in containers. Yes. But then I think I was 27 when we bought a house in the Central Valley. And we had a backyard. That's when I just went crazy. I went crazy. I started growing everything and anything. First thing I did was I told my dad, I want all the seeds that we grew up with because I want to eat those vegetables. It's the okra, which is called the bindi, the loki, which is the bottle gourd. We have also, we have, it's called duria.

I don't know what kind of gourd it's called. I forget, the lufa, the lufa, basically. We eat that, the turia and the gulka. So I wanted to grow all those vegetables. And so I was lucky that my dad could send me those seeds. and I just started experimenting. I would sew the seeds literally on New Year's Day in California inside. And then by March, I had them big enough to just plant them outside.

And that's what we ate. And I had lots of fruit trees, but of course not Indian fruit trees. And then in 2017 January, I moved to... to this area, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. And, of course, I was so ignorant thinking I know how to grow things. I started the same way I did in California. In January, I started sewing seeds. My husband's like, I think you're making a mistake.

And I was like, no, I know what I'm doing. I've been doing this for many years. But lucky, the winter of 2017 was very mild. And so I managed to plant everything in March, and I still cannot believe that they all survived. What a brave person, I think, at that time. But then I told my husband, I said, look, I told you, and he just didn't know what to say,

but the following year I tried to do the same, everything was destroyed because there was frost. I think, and then I realized, okay, you have to wait till Mother's Day to plant everything. And now I have been pushing on the date to when to start because you don't have to start that early here. But yeah, and then, of course, when I moved here, I was going to school in California. I had started going to school for nutrition because I really was very, and I still am, very passionate on what food we consume. and food as medicine, and also farm-to-table concept. And so when I moved here, I couldn't find a very good school for nutrition that I would

like to go. And so then I decided, okay, another next passion is, of course, plants. So I got a degree in horticulture. And that taught me a lot of science behind the plants, which I did not know. I'm fascinated by it, and I'm glad I got a chance to do that and learn about the plant world. So that was part of my family and my story, but my husband's family, they're, you know, generational farmers as close as my in-laws. So they actually worked the fields.

They grew all the food. They sold that food. That was their livelihood. And so when they moved to the city, I believe my husband was actually 10 when they moved to the city. They brought their seeds. And I think it's very easy. Once you know people, you're always going to be able to get those seeds. And so they started growing their seeds in their terrace.

So the terrace in India is the top most open floor of the house because it's so hot. Every home has a terrace on the top. And so they just put big old water barrels, and these are like giant water tanks. They just filled it up with dirt. And that's how they grow until today. They grow all of the vegetables that they consume. They hardly buy, I think only in the winter, summer months is when they have to buy because it's so dry. But otherwise they just eat whatever they grow, both of the first.

them and so when they come visit they always bring seeds when i went to india in 2017 after 19 years i was lucky to see that how my mother-in-law grew all her vegetables and my father-in-law and i brought home a lot of seeds with me um yeah so those are the seeds i used to grow because um again in india it's very tricky in terms of um um seeds because I'm not sure when this happened timeline-wise, but I would believe in the 80s or 90s, men Monsanto came in and started giving farmers all GMO seeds. Of course, I don't know much about it, so I wouldn't try to say much on that topic. But I do know that in 2017, when I did go told my dad, I said, I want to buy

I give him a whole list of seeds that I wanted to take back. And he took me to the store and all I could find was these GMO seeds. They were all just coated, you know, with the pesticides or insecticides. And I was like, I don't want these. And sadly, my dad says, well, this is all you'll find in a store at this time. And so I was lucky that I went to my mother-in-law and she, She had the seeds that I asked her, where did she get the seeds from? She says, oh, I've been growing for such a long time.

We just save our own seeds. I did ask her to make sure that these seeds are the heirloom seeds that, you know, they used to grow back in the villages and stuff. So she says yes, but then again, I don't know. I cannot 100% verify because, again, in India, if it cross-pollinates, you know people are growing next door we don't know we we can't guarantee but according to her she says yes those are the seeds that they have been growing for generations i mean the plants that they've been growing and then saving the seeds so the bindi you were able to share some of the seeds from your

mother-in-law with us um i remember you told me you asked us to grow them because you were having a hard time here because I cannot share those because I hardly save enough seeds for myself and we we love it so much and then of course what I do is once I grow we eat during the summer but then I grow enough so we can consume it in the winter too and so it's hard to save the seeds that's why I told you you love to grow it yourself yeah we have that relationship with a few people and communities where they're like, we're going to eat every bit of this. So here's a few seeds. You can be the seed keeper.

So it's a role that I'm excited to play. I'm glad. I'm glad what, you know, true love seeds is doing. Actually, I really admired it. The minute I came to visit you through my friend, Amira, and I heard about you guys, and I said, yeah, I have to come to the farm and check it out what you guys are doing. and of course Amira being so passionate about what she's doing it's amazing and so I was I was always intrigued by what she really wants to do and I really admire what she's doing and so I said I have to come to

the farm check it out and then I met you and I was really fascinated by you know what true love is doing in terms of saving seeds for people from all over the world different cultures and so I I was like, okay, I got to be part of this. Absolutely, yes, Amira Mitchell. Our dear friend worked with True Love for many years, still does, and now from her own farm, growing seeds for our catalog. She says hi. She says, please come visit.

Oh, I want to, and I'm going to, actually, this summer I'll make a point. But when you came and we got to show you our farm and you handed us seeds to care for, you know, we started regenerating them and offering them through the catalog. And there's a nursery in Oakland, California, back in the Bay Area, Kula nursery. Kula in Sanskrit means ancestors. So it's really focused on South Asian heirloom plants in particular. And so they were really excited to see the Indian Bindi in our catalog and then offer it through their nursery. They're offering a lot of our varieties to their nursery now, not even just South Asian.

and they're growing the low-key bottle gourd for our catalog. Anyway, so I asked Z. Hussein, who runs the nursery, if she had any comments or questions since we'd be having this conversation. And she says she's found that variety to be cherished among their community and extremely difficult to find in the U.S., exclamation point. It would be really cool to hear about how her family stewarded that variety over the generations. And so we've gotten into that a little. Is there anything that you can add to that story?

My mother-in-law and my father-in-law would be able to answer more of that. And of course, they're not here. But whatever she has told me is, again, they have just, in India, it just is, it's more economical to save your own seeds versus to buy. And so that is what they did. It's just save their own seeds. And then if that, you know, that, year for whatever reason it was a bad crap or what they couldn't then they asked their neighbors which

they also did the same and so um that's all i know about where the seeds come from in terms of what i'm growing but um yeah i wonder you know if there's a certain trait that they look for in the bindi or that you look for as you're stewarding this crop so what they look for no uh because Because in India, we don't have so many varieties of, say, Pindi as we do here. They just know one. And that's the Indian Pindi. So it's tender. It's thin and long, not super long, semi-long.

It's medium-sized. And the fruit is sweet and nutty at the same time and delicious. which you're going to try right now. But this is from the store. You've already run out of your frozen okra? Oh, yes. It's done now. Now it's time to, you know, of course, it's, the garden has started.

So hopefully soon. But I had to run to the Indian store to get some. Yeah. So I actually would not be able to say what they're looking for. But personally, I want to grow that Indian pindi that I, grew up with and what I saw in my farm and at the market. And so that is because of the texture, the taste, and it's more tender. And it's more delicious. I also brought you now the guvara, isn't it, I learned about from you, which I really appreciate. And you, I forget how

how you told me, but at some point you were like, by the way, if you really want to make the Indian diaspora excited and reunite them with an important food, you should look into Guar gum. And so we did. And I was able to find some seeds at Caribbean Garden Seed. And they grew, and we had them in our garden last year, and then we got a lot of seeds from them. And so this year we have a 50-foot row, you know, maybe 100 plants sprouting in the ground. And I brought a bunch of the seeds for you here. And I just wanted to thank you for introducing us to that, because I know it's something that many people are really excited to find, and we've already met some of those people. So thank you. Thank you so much, first, for bringing me the seeds,

because this is something, it's like Christmas, you know. Owen came with a whole bag of seeds. That's amazing. And having gore, I have had so many challenges growing gore here over the years. And of course, the seeds that my mother-in-law had given me, when I tested them in the garden all these years, I basically depleted the whole bag and I was not successfully able to grow them. But last year, when my mother-in-law came to visit, she went to Texas to a friend. and she says, oh, my daughter-in-law wants some seeds of gore, and she only grows things organically. And they're like, oh, so do we.

And again, I don't know where they got the seeds from. Of course, from India. But how and the story of the seeds. But then now I have that seed, and it was pretty good. But I told you to grow gore because I was struggling growing gore. And I was like, man, this stuff. And of course, the part of India, we come from the western side. We are the Gujaratis. We are from the state of Gujar and we love

our gore and of course you're going to try that too today again from the Indian store but so we actually had a you pick farm here in Bucks County that stopped growing gore and all the all the people from this community used to love going there and stock up for the year because This gore, one, is very hard to find. Second, good goar. Number two, it's expensive. And so if you find a you pig farm and you can save for the year fresh from the fields, hey, people are going to flock to it.

And so I was like, Owen, you got to do this. You got to get these seeds and you got to grow them. And then there are lots of Indian gardeners that we know of that are always, you know, asking for seeds and guar is on top of their list because that is so hard to find and grow and um so that's i'm so glad you're growing this it's it's not a plant i'd ever seen before i've of course heard of guar gum because it's like an ingredient and everything a thickener and but i never thought to know the plant and so it's been a fun journey i i'm wondering if you can tell people a little bit about the plant it is it is

is from the Fab ACA family. And Fab ACA family, if you're not aware of or familiar with, it's part of the legume family. So it is a nitrogen fixing. So there's another plus to growing gore. And then also, they are the pods. It has these bean pods. And then you want to harvest them.

They actually grow like fingers in bunches. And then you want to pick them at the tender stage before it starts really forming the seeds and the venation on the pod because then the pods become too tough to eat. It's kind of like a sugar snap piece. But again, when we harvest the sugar snap peas, we still have the venation. You don't want that in the guar. So very tender.

We pick them and we just make just stir fry or just cook into vegetable. You can add, you could just make guar or you can add potatoes. Or we also, we use chickpea flour a lot in India, I mean the western part of India. And so we make these little dumplings out of the chickpea flour to add into the guar. And so it's made in different ways, but we love it with roti. It's a great vegetable. One of my apprentices last year, Tika, her father is Indian. she was taking care of that row, and it was like slowly dawning on her that this was a very

important vegetable in her family, and that she had grown up eating it and hadn't seen it growing before. And she sent me a couple of voice recordings that I want to play for you with her father. Hi, my name is Prutar Jagged. I'm from Gujarat, India, and I came here in 1988? So when I started working at True Love with Owen and the team, I noticed that we were growing this crop called Bargum, and I never heard of it before. I didn't really, it didn't register. And then as it started to grow, I noticed it right away.

And I saw that it was something that I ate at home. But we never really learned the name. of crops or food that we would eat. Like, I know we would eat it growing up like Hiroshima would say Indian milk instead of masala milk. So I just knew like, oh, this is like the Indian string bean, but I didn't know what the name was. So I guess when I called you, what was your response and, like, how do you feel now that I'm growing Indian crops, but also like farming in general? Well, when I heard you called me and you asked me that all about this vegetable and we talked about Gawar and I was very happy that you were doing something like that. And as you know, I always like things that you make which is productive for society as well as it is good for you as well.

as a hobby. So I was very thrilled that you are you were involved in that and especially when you talked about the Indian vegetables. So I know that if you can grow something right here so that all Indian population has access to it and which is fresh vegetables. So that would be nice for everybody. Since we've been talking about it so much, it would be good for other people to know like what is this how do you make it how do you like to eat it yes so generally indian people cook it as they we call as shock and that means it's a it's a subjee in Hindi so what we do is we pressure cook it so that it becomes soft and then we add different spices such as mustard, cumin, red pepper powder,

turmeric, cumin, and coriander, cumin, and coriander powder, and salt. And a little oil, cooked oil, the hot oil in it. And that's how you make it. You can also make it like, you can add a little more water so make it soupy but uh you know it's a preference whoever likes however yeah you like yours dry more that's how we eat it yes yes i like dry yeah so that's similarly that's how we cook it and he's right on in gujarati it is called shakshak meaning vegetable

and um so i cook fine and that's how my mom my mother-in-law they all cook goa is with indian Ennis seeds. We don't put mustard and cumin in there. We actually, you know, heat up the oil and then we let the Ennis release its oil in the oil and we put garlic with all the spices like turmeric and chili powder and we do coriander powder and cumin powder in it. And then we just add the guar and we pressure cooker it and of course we like it dry too we don't do the soupy version and it's delicious can't wait to try it yes one reason i wanted to play involved them was just again to show how your relationship to true love is is rippling out yeah so see that it's so fascinating to see what seeds seeds have i feel

agenda of their own they just want to spread their love and i'm so glad that these seeds are getting to people who before this were not able to get them and to grow them and so thank you all for doing this really it means a lot and you know thanks for all you guys are doing and there are I know there are so many people out there, you know, so passionately working towards saving diaspora seeds. Yeah. And every one of us is a piece of the puzzle. We couldn't do this work with the Bindi or the Gouar or the, you know, the eggplants, you know, without you carrying that on in your family. I would love to go outside to the garden, but I do hear a lawn more.

It's non-stop in the summer months. Maybe we risk it. And we just let people know we are surrounded by grass lawns. Curry tree. Muraya Konigy. You know this. Yeah, curry tree. And I got burned because I brought it outside and just put in direct sunlight.

But yeah, these are curry leaves. And I cook with it almost every single day. And is it coming? is it coming up from the roots or are those from berries no no from roots yeah i haven't gotten any berries yet but it's from the roots yeah what is your your trick i remember last time we were here your curry tree was looking so luscious and beautiful ours has an issue with spider mites oh yeah i get them in the winter often so what i do is i just get rid of all the leaves and then i just hose it down with um just put soapy water

And then sometimes what I do is I also take a rag and soak it with 70% alcohol and water mixture. And then just wipe with that rag, I just wipe all the stems. So if there is any spider mites left, they're gone. And they come back. They come back so fast. This year it's looking so sad. But hopefully now, as I brought it outside, it'll come back to its glory. Yes.

I was just listening to an interview with Kula Roots with Z. And she was talking about how you cannot kill a curry plant. They can lose all its leaves over and over, and it'll always basically come back. Yeah. So when I first moved here to Pennsylvania, my husband had gotten this, a tiny stem. I think that's what it was. It was a very sad old stem in a pot of a curry plant. And I was like, what is this?

And he's like, yeah, it's a curry plant. And I was like, oh, my God, it's so bad. It's like there's no leaf whatsoever. And then I guess I repotted it. And within weeks, I just started seeing changes. And it's growing taller. And then I keep cutting it down. And it's been doing well.

Well, how will you use these leaves? So we use it in all of our cooking. Anything. So if I make snacks, dried snacks, I fry the curry leaves. If I make dals, dals are lentils, it's kind of soupy, lentil soups. And I put them in our dals. I put them in, say, fried rice, Indian fried rice. So anything and everything. It's in everything. If we make chutneys, we fry them and put them in there. And so when I say fry, I think I temper them, not fry them. But yeah.

Can you explain that? Yeah, so we heat up the oil, we put the mustard seeds, or if we're doing cumin, mustard, or other whole spices, like say, cloves, cinnamon, and then we just add these fresh leaves in there with the chilies, and they splatter in the oil, and they release their oils into the oil, and that creates that flavor, that depth of scent and flavor. I don't know. It's so good. It's so hard to explain. So it sounds like what my partner, Chris, describes as impregnating the oil. Exactly. Yep. That's how we cook with the curry leaves and the spices.

Because that's where you get that maximum flavor. Here comes those yard machines. Bindi, okra. Abelmoscus esculentus. This is the bindi, the okra, the Indian okra that we're growing. I have multiple beds of this okra because we cannot have enough of them Guar Clusterbean

Siamopsis Tetra gonoloba I have multiple beds of guar because of course we cannot have enough gua as well So these ones came from Texas? Yeah, these seeds came from Texas that I grew last year and we were not able to eat them

because I wanted to save the seeds and this is what we have. So it's a short legume. It's got these pink, light pink flowers going up the stem, getting ready for those clusters of pods. So right now, about six inches tall. But they're looking pretty good. They look more advanced than ours right now.

And I started so late this year. What's your step? Rattalu, Purple Yam. Dias Correa Alata. Okay, this is one thing I want to talk about. this is the first year I'm growing it this I do not know the scientific name and the variety or anything all I know yes it is a purple yam and it is in Gujarati it's called Rattaru and it's it does not grow or in the part of Gujarat where I am from

but you know where my mother-in-law lives now Surat they actually you know it's native I don't know if it's native actually but that's where it grows and they make this special dish called undi in India suri undi and they cannot not not make the undi without this rataru and I bought it at the Indian store in the winter and I just held on to it till late spring and I just started sprouting it indoors in the winter months and now and then I planted it as soon as

you know I was able to after Mother's Day and this is what it is it's purple I will show you a picture of what it looks like and it's delicious it's slimy once you cut into it

but once you fry it up and then you add it to your curries and stuff it's delicious and so this is something fascinating to grow and again this is my first year I think it's the genus Diascora, which is like the true yam, the African yams are this genus.

And I wonder if it's the same as what's called Ube. We'll have to look it up. Yeah, we'll have to look it up. But it looks like somebody's big, big foot's foot. And it's purple. And it looks like it's growing, it's already taller as tall as me up this trellis, and it's growing with Lab Lab. Yes, that's the Indian Lab Lab Lab.

lab lab or hyacinth bean lab lab purporeus it's white it's I mean green it's not purple la blab yeah and then we added to this um undiou that I'm talking about

it's kind of like a stew Indian stew with an whole array of vegetables and it's usually they make it in the winter months because in India we get fresh vegetables during the winter months White eggplant Solano Melonjana

So these are the eggplants The white eggplants These three That I shared the seeds That my mother-in-law had given them We roast the eggplant The white eggplants They're so sweet

We roast them And we make Bengen's berta And Indian restaurants That's what it's called But in our side There's a different name to it basically you're just roasting the eggplant on open flames

you're you're taking off the skin you're taking that pulp and you're cooking it in garlic and tomatoes and onions and just garnishing it with cilantro and then of course rude vegetables I mean sorry spices not rude vegetables spices yes I think the lawnmower has gotten me yeah I wonder if they'll stop Let's wait again. Here we decided to go inside, have lunch, and wait out the lawn work noises.

Nital explained that most Indian restaurants in the United States cook food that is from northern or southern India in that the Gujarati food I would eat at her house would not likely be found at a restaurant. This is because it is specific to her region and to her people in particular. I know India has a caste system, and so we are the farmers, the Patels of the western site of India, the Gujarat, and so this is our food. So I want you to try. So this is gore with potatoes.

You see how tender these pods that I harvested are? Yeah, they're thin. Yeah, very thin. You can barely see the seeds. Yep. And then, so there's no fiber. Otherwise, it would be very tough to eat. So try that.

And this is the okra. See, very... And then we eat it with roti. It's spicy. That is yogurt. No, it's not too spicy. This is very spicy, but it's not too spicy. And we eat it with roti.

So, you know, you don't want to. just well I wanted to get the full flavor okay you know yeah I don't want to burn your mouth I'll eat the rest with roti and then we also have chas or buttermilk let's see so that can help you you know consume the spicy yeah yeah so the spice well I see is probably turmeric and chili powder the turmeric and chili powder yes and then of course um coriander powder and Cuban powder but then again we I put enne seeds in there with garlic okay so the okra is in these little strips they look darkened yes and what cost that that's just cooking process I darken it so basically just pan fry it and oil a little bit of oil

add garlic to it and a soffidita and then I just sauteed with turmeric and chili powder and salt and then I just actually I do put amture amture is dried green mango powder it gives the tanginess and you know adding liquid to okra creates the sliminess so I add the dry powder which gives you that tanginess instead of a lime or lemon and yeah oh it's really good this is dokla from where we live It's called Kamandhokra. So should I, do you want to try it? Yes, please.

Okay. You're saying this is chickpea flour. It looks like eggs. We just steam it. And so it's sponge cake basically, but it's savory versus sweet. And then you see the curry leaves on top, the sesame. This is all local foods to where we're from. This is coriander chutney.

And this is what Annabelle from, from Iraqi seeds collectives was mentioning that they also eat amba so of course amba is mango in Hindi but yeah it's a mango pickle and with the spices so I just make it with the homegrown garlic and the mango from the Indian store because we cannot grow mango here but this is the homegrown garlic inside with all the spices the oil so you try it I love how dry this okra is. We always cut them in like rounds basically.

We do that too. We do that too. But my husband, he prefers this one, this way. This is more work. But then I like to feed people. Yeah, well, I'm going to try this way. It's really nice. Let me just try this one last. What did you call the chickpea flour?

It's kamand dokra. The flavors, it's like such a good bed for these flavors, like this spongy, kind of sweet, sour, spicy taste, and the nutty taste, too, of the chana flour. Did you ferment the chana flour? No, sorry, no, I did not, because I don't have time right now. So I did a shortcut. But I actually bought an instant mix, and then I just steamed it. Where's your favorite place to get things like this? The Indian grocery store.

So we were lucky we have one literally like six minutes away from here. Yeah, on 309. Have you ever tried planting any of the things you buy there, like from the packages? Yeah, I do the fenugreek seeds, which is methi. today I did not make anything with fenugreek but otherwise we love our fenugreek so I just harvested two whole beds of fenugreek my beds are eight by two and a half and so I did two whole beds which is like four huge the gallon size Ziploc bags and I freeze it for the year because we added into so many different dishes and so I just and then fenugreek grows best in the springy weather and the fall

weather so that's when I just maximize and I just do that then I also grow chickpeas the white chickpeas and the black chickpeas in the garden which will go back in the garden and I'll show them to you and then any kind of beans I feel like if I want to grow like black eyep peas I did the first year I moved here that was from the Indian store and so yeah those things sprout well and then coriander if I run out of the seeds that my mother-in-law gave me I just use the ones on the Indian store. I just planned those. I had never thought of that before until I was working in New York City with community gardens and there were, especially the gardens where there were a lot of Puerto Rican and Dominican people, I would see like the goia bags. Yeah. And they were just

planting the cilantro, planting the beans. And it worked. Yeah, it works. And it's so much cheaper than you go and buy those seeds. And plus, it's hard to find those seeds sometimes from a seed company here in the U.S. I mean there are a few that are like you trula seeds are keeping the seeds so please go to trula seeds okay we're back in the garden the lawnmower people have moved on we just had a delicious meal and we're going to take another walk around and learn about the plants that are most important in this home so again okra is like a staple the eggplant is another staple crop Transcutu Peanuts From the Shuar people of Ecuador

Arachis Hippojea Peanuts were again if you know during lunch My husband was telling you His family grew a lot of peanuts And most all Gujarati farmers Peanuts was on top of growing Because it produced oil And we use peanuts in so many different things

So yeah peanuts was big So I grow peanuts I grow chickpeas the Indian chickpeas. And you grow the peanuts from Ecuador that we offer. How do you feel about those particular peanuts? So I actually grow the Indian peanuts from the Indian store and the Ecuadorian, but this year it's only the Ecuadorian ones

because I find them to be very sweet and delicious. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to just keep that one because I need that space. So this year it's only been the Ecuadorian ones, and I love them. Thank you. They're like jewels. Let's check out your chickpeas. Chana, chickpeas.

Chichetianum. So these are the chickpeas. And let's see if there are any chickpea pods. Maybe not yet because it's a little early, but then I don't see any. Yeah, no, no more. Not yet. We don't have pods yet. But we just take the pods, the green pods, and we just dry roast them in a walk. The skin, outside skin gets blistery. And the steam from cooking cooks the pods inside, I mean, sorry, the beans inside the pod and they're so sweet and delicious. The sweet and nutty at the same time. Really good. Try it if you get a chance. because some Asian markets and Indian stores, they do have the green pods.

You just dry roast them in a walk. It's delicious. I'm going to try that. How do you know when they're ready to eat? Like in the plant? Oh, I guess both. I meant in the pan, but maybe both. Okay, so when you're growing them, the pods, they have to, like, really fill out.

Like, you can feel the pods. If they're very squishy and airy, they're not ready. You have to let the pod be full. with that seed, with the bean. So opposite of the gawar. Yes, it's the opposite of the gawar. And then when you cook it, and the skin gets all blistery outside, it's like semi-blistery.

You want some green and some blisters. So it's maybe 10 minutes of just dry roasting them, cooking them in the walk, and that's it, done. I love how you have all these multiple crops in one bed. I have three sisters, I have the four sisters sometimes, so I have the sunflower, the corn, the beans. See, the Lab Lab is growing in the support of the sunflower. Yeah, I just try to follow those things. That way I can grow multiple things in space.

And again, because I store the food for the year, I want to maximize on how much I can grow. And then see the corn with the Lablop. the zucchini right you've got the corn beans and squash pigeon pea cayanos and these are

our true love seeds crop that I grow every year now the first few years when I was growing the pigeon peas you know that's a staple in our culture from the western culture of India and actually India in general pigeon peas is very important crop

and so first when I used to use the seeds that my mother-in-law gave me it would produce flour in October and by the time it would start producing the seeds the frost came and just knocked down the plant so it just didn't help

but with your seeds oh it's amazing I get like my mother-in-law she was here last summer and she says what? You're able to get so much and I was like yeah it's these are not the Indian seeds these are from the you know the ones that true loves gave me

Right, and well, ours came from an Indian professor in Georgia who bred them to be day-length insensitive. And so they're, unlike most pigeon pea seeds you'd find in the world, they don't wait until October to flower. Because the day does not matter what length the day is. So they don't need to wait until they start getting shorter. They start flowering right away. Right away. That's amazing. Yeah, we actually found another one last year, which has roots in Puerto Rico, but has been grown in New Jersey for. 50 years. Wow. And so I'll get you those seeds for next year. Oh, okay. Yeah, we got to try that.

And these ones are striped and the ones we found are just green. Okay. And so they're two different types. Nice. Okay. That's exciting. Fenugreek. Trigonella fenum Greikum. And then these were the fenugreek beds. And so we eat the leaves. See the leaves? we eat the leaves and they're delicious in um in curries and it's just so very and breads it's very very tasty can i ask you about both of these crops the pigeon pea and the fenugreek also a legume right yeah it's a legum how you use each of them so the fenugreek we use it uh we just mainly eat the leaves and so we can eat it like spinach it has more more it's on the more bitter side but again it's it's an acquired taste it's very delicious and of course a lot of curries also add it as a

finishing thing to the sauce because it's really good and we added in our breads so mostly leaves but we do eat the seeds and tempering we use the seeds to temper with Like when you heat the oil, you add the little pinaigreeks seeds along with mustard and cumin seeds. And then it creates this aroma and the flavor in the oil and in the curry itself. And then with the pigeon peas, we eat the dry, we make into a doll like a soup. But the fresh green ones, we put it in, you know, I was telling you about Surat and their main dish called undi. where we use that yam, well, this is one of the main ingredients in that. And so we use it, the green pods, the green beans,

the pigeon, green pigeon peas in our stews. Surty Papri. Lab, lap, purpureous. Then this one, Owen, I wanted to show you and then see, this year if I can save some seeds for you, that would be great. It's called Surti, again, that undi I was talking about, the main dish, the stew of Surat. This is called Surti Papri.

It's a kind of legume, it's a bean. And that also Indians, like, go gaga over. So if you can grow that for seeds, that would be great. Once I save enough, I can share with you. Karela, bitter melon. Mimordica, Charanthia. And then again, bitter melon. And this is the bumpy one I'm imagining?

Yes. Oh, yes. Why do you prefer that? The smooth one does not have that bitterness or the flavor that we Indians, I mean, grew up with, I guess. We feel it's got more flavor. Or maybe it's just us that we think that's what flavor is. I don't know. But yeah, it's, we just, I'm just growing it because that's what we are used to.

Because I did try growing the smooth one, but it wasn't a hit in the family. So I was like, okay, we'll just grow this one. Yeah, they're very different from each other. Laoki, bottle gore. Laginaria, sitiraria. And this is Laoki, of course. It grows like wildfire. Like, look at this.

It's already, like. Yeah, lots of little fruits already. Yes. It's all over it. All over. Oh, yeah. So it's a bottle gourd, which is the same species as cuckooza in Italy. Yes.

And it's eaten throughout a lot of the world. And also people often eat the leaves. Do you all eat the leaves of this? Oh, no. I had no idea we could eat the leaves. Yeah. I had no knowledge of that. Okay.

So how do they eat the leaves? I personally haven't done it, but people have showed me that it's the tender new growth and I know with different squash species you have to pull a kind of vein or string off I don't know if that's true for this one too I want to say that it's called I'm sure I'm remembering this wrong

but it might be called tenderoni but look it up I looked it up and I was close it's tennarumi, and you do have to remove the strings or filaments. Tenderroony. Well, I don't see any cucumbers, well, I do see some. But then I also grow... Remember I was telling you about Galca and Zuria?

It's a sponge gourd. There you go. That's what they are. And so I'm growing those two, and those seeds are from my mother-in-law. The lufa. Oh, there it is. Oh, I see it. It's too many things growing in these two beds because of this.

So it's hard. It's like cattle fencing bent over to make a beautiful squash trellis. Yeah. Because, you know, we need these squashes. We love them. These are all the peppers. We love spicy food. So we grow a lot of peppers, different types.

I do Italian cherry peppers. I do cayenne. I do the cow horn. cow horn peppers So, yeah All kinds Jewels of Opar Tallinum

Paniculatum And water leaf Tallinum Triangulari Interesting Underneath these peppers You have another crop Yes Was that intentional or did it reseed itself?

It just reseeds itself And I grow them for flowers Because I sell flowers too From my garden So I just make bouquets and just sell them. Well, these are edible as greens. Yeah, you told me that, and I had no idea.

I think this is more considered the ornamental species, but I've heard you can eat these greens too, but we offer seeds for the Nigerian water leaf, which is the same genus, very similar plant, very delicious greens. I got to try them. Very tender, succulent. Succulent, yep, that's the word. Red amaranthus species.

Do you eat the amaranth greens? Yes. I harvested about a whole bed full of amaranth grains, this red one, which reseed itself. And Dinesh and I, my husband and I, we really love them. And we just saute them in garlic, the fresh greens. Just eat them. Yum. Someday I want to do an episode on Amaranth greens, because it seems pretty like, pretty much like everyone in the world,

especially the tropical and subtropical world. enjoy them and they're they're awesome and I can't believe we didn't grow up eating them but now they're a staple in our house nutritionists you know nutrition packed high high nutrition packed food it's really good and easy to grow you just sprinkle the seeds

they grow themselves oh yes tomato solanum lecopersicum these are tomatoes we love our tomatoes um I save I process the tomatoes into sauce. It's just tomato pulp and salt. And we use it in everything and anything. That's the best way to eat the summer tomatoes and the, I feel like that's what

distinguishes our food here at the house versus, you know, food that we eat somewhere else or someone else's house. It's this, this storing, saving of food for the winter from your garden the flavor is just very very different it's very good I wish more people did it and I know I do understand it's a lot of effort a lot of hard work and not everybody has the time and space but I'm fortunate I have it and and I decided to just stay home and do this it's a beautiful life I don't know about that sometimes it can go crazy but because as you see the weeds you know it's crazy out here I prefer tomatoes and sauce now too and I make 50 quarts a year yeah see and we have one every week for the whole

year and it changes everything the umami's of a tomato sauce exactly that this you know you you buy you can buy like tons of tomatoes in the summer from the store and make the sauce but it's not the same it's the grown you have grown, the fresh grown from your garden or your farm, and then you make the sauce, the flavor is just insanely good. But yeah, this is it. This is the farm, the little mini, mini, micro farm. I like just imagining the journeys of each of these seeds, especially the ones that are, you know, that you use so much in your cooking from, for example, your mother-in-law's village to the rooftop, to your, to your garden back here and then beyond. Yep, yep.

This is one stop in the long journey. Oh, yeah, definitely. Like you said, the journey of the seed. It travels far and beyond that you can even imagine. Well, I have one more thing to play for you from Tika and her father as they think about the flavors that they miss from home. Sure. When I came here, food was very scarce.

Like all the items that I had in India was not available here. However, as the years passed by, more and more Indian food was introduced. And people were started to buy the things were available for the people. And however, still certain vegetables, fruits are not available in as good of a quality as in india that is one thing second thing is the taste that was not there then and that is not there now the same taste tasty food that you can buy in india you cannot buy here even to date so what foods i guess because you've had this disconnect what foods do you wish that you could could have introduced to us that you couldn't introduce to us before?

Mainly the fruits, such as mango, for example. Mango you cannot buy here of a taste that you can buy in India. There are different varieties of mangoes available in India, which are very, very tasty. And another fruit is Amla. In English, it's called gooseberry, which is very good for your health and very tasty fruit. There is third thing is Falsa that I wanted you to have, which is called Shalbert Berry in English, which

is not available here as well. These fruits like Falsa and Amla, they are available. but they are in frozen section you can buy only not fresh or some like amla you can buy also pickled amla but you cannot buy fresh amla here so my question is if you guys can make here grow here rather fruits such as mango especially that you can buy in india that they grow in India, same kind of mangoes, falsa, amla. If you can do that, that would be perfect. Yeah, because we are really appreciative of the guvars being introduced now to the catalog. Yes, Guar also you can buy here, but that gore is not fresh at all. And the quality of the gore is also pretty poor quality. All right, cool. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, so I agree with him in a lot of things. Like he was mentioning, and I did tell you this too, in the garden, that the flavor that we get from homegrown vegetables or fruit is just insanely much better, high-quality taste, versus which you can find it at the store. And that's how it is because the food travels so far to get to our table when you go to a store.

We don't know where it's been grown, how far it's been, you know, brought to us from. And hence, that is when I started those so many years ago in that apartment, is I wanted to literally just decrease those mileage that the food traveled to get onto my table and my daughter's table. And so, yeah, hopefully people, And people are doing, and especially with the pandemic, I think a lot of people have created these, you know, victory gardens like they did back in the 30s after, you know, during the Great Depression. And so that's great to see.

Regarding what Tika's dad said about growing fruits, well, so Dinesh, some part of Dinesia's family, they live in Florida and Atlanta. And so in Florida, they have been growing mangoes. and, you know, some Indian fruits and vegetables like guava and stuff. Because of the climate, you're able to grow. There is this farmer in Florida that is growing the kayser mango from western part of India. And of course, those flavors are delicious. Of course, we find very good mangoes here. And we are actually able to now, and again, Tika's dad migrated here in the 80s versus.

I came in 96, I was able to find a lot more things than he did. And then now it's just out of this world. How many things you can find an Indian store from India? Like these mangoes in mango season. That's crazy. The different varieties of mangoes. And we bought them. They're a little pricey, not worth giving the price.

But if you really love the mango so much, you can buy one box and eat one box. in that season, it's really good. And I wanted you to try the gruseberries. So let me get it because my mother, she, it's very good for health. So, you know, at our farm, we have the grusberry trees. So what she does is she cuts them up. She soaks them in salt and turmeric. And then she dries them.

And then we just eat them like a mouth refresher after meals. It's great for digestion. Let me get you some. Sure. Thank you. Wow, and these are not the same as what we would call gooseberry here. I looked it up. No, that's different. No, these are amla.

They have sour and bitter taste. Wow. There's so much flavor in there. Yep. It's dried fruit. Yep. It's like an explosion of sourness. And they are high in vitamin C and other vitamins, but that I don't know of.

But my mom does this just for health. And she eats them. She eats them every day. Yeah. So have you ever tried growing tropical fruits here? I did. So I was successfully able to grow papayas for two years in a row. I even harvested them, the green papayas.

I tried to grow the Hawaiian papayas, but that year was, was bad, and so I destroyed all my papayas, and then I haven't grown them since. Mango, I did sprout mango seeds, and I raised them for eight years, and then I just got tired of bringing them in in the winter and then taking them out in the summer, so I gave them to a friend. So I've tried avocados and stuff like that, too, but it's hard to live here in the east, and unless you have the infrastructure to grow stuff, it's hard. But papayas are easy to do.

They're manageable because it's, you know, it's an herbaceous crop versus a woody crop. And so it just requires nine months of care, and then you plant it outside, and then it'll produce fruit. And of course, it's daisias, so you have to do multiple, daisius, meaning it needs a male and a female plant. plant because there are some plants that produce female flowers and some plants that produce male flowers and so you do need multiple crops of papaya and if you have the space it's worth trying because it's a lot of fun we're growing papaya this year because we work with the karen community from burma who grow up for the leaves and they wrap like curries and things and eat them oh really just like as a way to pick up the food

like we were using the bread. And so we're growing it. I just got a fruit at the store, planted the seeds. Oh, yeah, it's so easy to grow. Then maybe we'll dig them up and keep some over the winter to see if we can get fruits next year when we replant them. So try, this is what I did. You either do it in fall or you do it in spring,

sprout the seeds, in pots. You keep them. in the pot for nine months and then you plant them outside and you will have a crop so again you have to do succession planting for each year

but it's worth it you think they'll I can dig them up in the fall but they don't like to be disturbed much so try them if you have if you dig enough big enough circumference and gently get them yeah I can always just plant new ones this fall

they're abundant in the market Yeah, exactly. But try Hawaiian ones, because that one you will be able to harvest the fruit, too, the ripe one. I mean, what I do is I just do it for the green papaya salad, but Mexican papayas, they take forever to ripen. So, but the Hawaiian papayans is where it's at. Try that. That's an awesome tip. Oh, man, maybe we should do a weekly garden on podcast, just the two of us. That would be so much fun. Well, I have taken a lot of your time, and I have really enjoyed it from the delicious meal to the garden talk, to all the stories. I want to thank you very much.

Thank you. It was such a pleasure to have you over. Thank you so much, Owen, for everything. Thank you. Next, our son, Brian, wanted to ask some questions of Nitao's son, Soham. Hello, my name is Brian. I would like to ask you a little question. questions what is your favorite dish from india and if you are going to learn how to make a dish what would it

be what's your favorite food from your culture brine greens and beans that's it's it okay hello My name is Soham Kak Diyah. I'm 18 years old and my favorite Indian food is Choleh, Puri, and Russ. Cholea is curried chickpeas, pouri is fried dough, and Russ is pureed mango pulp. If I could make one Indian food, I would make Kadi and Bhat. Kadi is a yogurt and chickpea flour-based soup, and bath is just rice. And I would make it because it's very simple to make. Bye. Thank you so much to Nital Soham and also to Tika and Mr. Krutart for sharing their stories with us.

And thank you for listening and sharing this episode of Seeds and their people with your loved ones. Please share this episode with someone you love and subscribe to our show in your favorite podcast app. Thank you also for helping our seed keeping and storytelling work by leaving us a review and also ordering seeds, t-shirts, and more from our website. True loveseeds.com. And again, if you'd like to support our podcast for $1 or more monthly, please join our Patreon at patreon.com slash true love seeds. And remember, keeping seeds is an act of true love for our ancestors and our collective future.

Thank you.