My obsession with all of these actually stems from the fact that I was born and raised in a small town in Kerala by parents who loved plants, gardens, and the outdoors! We grew a lot of fruit trees, vegetables, and tubers in addition to ornamental plants in our home. I suppose that because we are Konkani, our cooking was more traditional and it just aided my learning more about the edible greens and vegetables around us. Even though I didn’t like eating a lot of tubers as a child, I was always curious to find out more about them.

I chose to go to this event in Bengaluru city with a friend who is equally crazy about plants and learning after knowing about it. By 10 a.m., we arrived, and the location was prepared for us! We explored the lively market with its wide variety of tubers and distinctive flavorful tuber dishes, interacting with farmers and Indigenous groups from all around India. Meanwhile, the inauguration and a song by the Solega community kicked off the celebration. The song illustrates the significance of tubers in indigenous cultural traditions.

Tuber Diversity on display

The diversity of tubers! There were more than 30 varieties of tuber on display which were collected across India. It was really mesmerizing to see all these varieties under single roof.

There was a kiosk on Pathrode cooking that provided instructions and advice on how to prepare the dish, but as someone from a Konkani family, I found it to be a routine occurrence but happy to notice the huge crowd to learn this art of cooking.

Delicious, flavorful tuber dishes were being served at the various food kiosks run by numerous chefs and communities.

For the first time, we tasted a few items. Fresh and raw tubers of sohphlang (Flemingia vestita) and jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus). Dishes include tapioca flour boba, tuber chutney, tender shoots of Geejika leaves chutney (Caesalpinia mimosoides), monkey jackfruit (brined and pickled), and many more. We also tasted a few fermeted drinks by Chembotty Estate & munched on 80% chocolate, cacao beans by Huraco Craft Chocolate. Varavukada chips from Kerala brought in a variety of chips like beetroot, carrot, sweet potato etc. I was tempted to buy the koorka(chinese potato) and Colacasia pickles but somehow missed it.

There were several “Tuber Talks” on the subject. It helped us to relate to the diverse tubers, the culture, the stories and legends, the food, etc. The speakers also brought in some delicacies for the participants which included elephant yam dry pickle(which tasted like our Konkani Surna Edgayi), Jicama tuber, Masala Arbi with Sourdough bread & pickle..

The Kunbi community members of Joida along with Anumitra Ghosh shared how they gathered, stored and cooked certain tubers with a few recipes from their tradition like Khatkhate, Yam pickle etc. Gauravi Vinay’s session on Nutrition Unpeeled explained how we can include tubers in everyone’s without worrying the ‘sugar/carb’ nuisances. The third session was by Dipali Khandelwal from the Kindness meal along with other community members. Tripura farming community member spoke about how jicama is used as a quick snack which not only satisfies hunger but also quenches thirst because the raw tuber has a crunchy, slightly nutty, and sweet, juicy flavor explosion. Unfortunately, we had to skip the last session about Fermented tubers.

The ALTCarb 2050 attempted to bring in more awareness about the carb choices we make is affecting the carbon emissions but my friend’s genuine doubt made them rethink too 😉

I anticipate seeing more tuber variants next year, and I hope the team is working together to document the variety with images, habitat, applications, and other details that would be very beneficial to the general public. It would also be greatly appreciated if there were regular farmer markets or hubs in different parts of the city where people could see and buy the produce farmed in these communities.

With a full stomach and a cheerful mood, we headed back home with the intention of making new friends, learning new dishes, and seeing more tubers with more experience at the festival the next year.

Know more about the happenings of the event here