Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Friday, March 26, 2010

millets - hardy and nutritious

our first tryst with millets started with making kanji - soul food.
on moving to pR, the early months were all about growing vegetables.

as our work and knowledge is growing, we are readying to move to the next phase - growing our grain.
the popular grains - rice and wheat - are inappropriate (definitely at pR, but also for most other rain-fed/dry-land regions) for many reasons, mainly excessive water requirement. as the green revolution elevated these 2 grains to brahaminical status, the millets were deemed pariahs, reflecting what the respective social classes eat.
but it is clearly established that the millet family (ragi, jowar, bajra, etc) is hardier and more nutritious than rice/wheat (ok - outlook is not the best place to go for technical information on nutrition).

as we use the summer time for preparation for the planting, here are 2 simple charts with all the local millet types.




as i could not find the correct source - i acknowledge it as anon.

try to shift to a millet based diet twice a week.

2 comments:

Preeti Aghalayam aka kbpm said...

i love ragi especially but also like every other member of this species in any shape or form. but dont eat it often enough...

Vanessa said...

Millet or bajra roti (bhakri in maharashtra.) We all love it. I was quite an expert at making bhakri. :) Stopped making it because in US we have electric stove. Bhakri is cooked directly on the flame.

I recently discovered that it can be made only on the tawa/ griddle.
Plan to start making it, just as you say, twice a week. :)