Hari Batti's Green Light Dhaba: Photo feature: Buying grain from a village shop 15/02/11 11:38 AM

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Posts Photo feature: Buying grain from a village shop

by Lina Krishnan
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I don’t know if too many kids nowadays know that rotis are made of atta, and
that atta itself comes from wholewheat grain. I guess we are so separated
from the process that we have almost forgotten these basics. I remember
though, in my childhood in Delhi, one bought kanak (wheat) and took it to the
chakki (grinding house), where it was first sifted, then ground into flour. The
bright colors of the odhnis of the Rajasthani women who worked there, the
golden color of the wheat spread out in the sun, the harmonious chak-chak of
their sieves as they worked, it was all from another time and space. Now we
buy boring packaged atta in a chain store, adding to the plastic on the planet,
and distancing ourselves from the source. Which is why it felt so good the
other day finding myself at a village shop buying grain.

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Ragi, the ubiquitous staple of Karnataka. It is ideal for dryland farming. Adding
twitter-- and spread the word
a bit of it to your daily diet gives a lot of energy, plus strengthens the bones.
in whatever way you can!
We got ragi grain for Rs 12 a kilo (plus Rs 1 per kg for grinding), as opposed
to Rs 25 that one pays here at the supermarket for a kilo of ragi atta. What’s
SEARCH THIS BLOG more, it was naati (desi) ragi, a lot more nutritious than the factory product.

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food (5) Greenlight categories rain, his village, our route. Since we were tempted to buy quite a bit, and
explained (1) greenwash (2) health ground ragi doesn’t keep for so long, the shopkeeper offered to come along to
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Hari Batti's Green Light Dhaba: Photo feature: Buying grain from a village shop 15/02/11 11:38 AM

Cows find a handy trough and some shade from the midday sun

Okay, I guess it’s time to get back.

****
Lina Krishnan blogs over at Jude Sessions. It's full of good writing about
important things.
For more about food-related issues, check out the dhaba's food security page.
And if YOU have something interesting to share, why not send it our way?

POSTED BY H AR I BATTI AT 8 : 1 0 AM
L ABEL S: FOOD , V OI C ES

1 COMMENTS:

Mridula Koshy said...

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Hari Batti's Green Light Dhaba: Photo feature: Buying grain from a village shop 15/02/11 11:38 AM

I really enjoyed this. Thanks you. We used to get wheat ground at Chirag
Dilli as recently as a couple years ago. There's a chakki there, and I guess
you could call Chiraq Dilli an urban village. We gave up on the chakki
there. But more recently buying preground wheat at Navdanya, and
mixing it with amaranth etc. Will see if we can mix in some ragi as well.
15 FEBRUARY 2011 9:30 AM

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