Southern Living

I look at Chef Devagi Sanmugam and think, “this is what I want to do full time”. Cook for people, run a successful restaurant, create your own product line, host dinners, curate menus and write on food, and travel to learn about food. Phew!

I see her and I see so much joy! There is an eagerness to learn. To share her knowledge. And importantly, there is a modesty. And that tops it all for me. I spent my birthday week with her this year, and during the conversation, I came to learn about the important women in her life: her aatha (grandmother), amma (mother) and periyamma (aunt). These three women have shaped who she is and what food means to her. Her memories are strong, and very definitive – so much so that she is able to describe the sounds, sights and fragrances from her grandmother’s kitchen, so well! I’ve covered only a few elements in this piece, and possibly will do another later this year. Till then, before the monsoon starts, I’ll try to make her Malaysian Style Mixed Vegetable Aachar.

Lessons from Aatha - Southern Living

Lessons from Aatha - Southern Living As she opens the door to her kitchen, Chef Devagi smiles and you can hear her whisper, “good morning”, “hello” and on some days, it’s a smile and nod. She greets her kitchen and her kitchen appliances each morning, and thanks them at the end of the day. “I have been doing this since I

Sometimes, all we need is a little sunshine, and a window sil.

Here we are sun drying a handful of freshly picked ripened manathakali (night shades berries) and orange peels.

We ❤ curating gift hampers!
We ❤ collaborating with artists.
We ❤ experimenting on different material.
We ❤ ALL the sun kissed produce, that go into our hampers!
We ❤ what we do!

We created these hampers for a dear person, who just wanted to support our cause. We’ve put together 5 varieties of sun-kissed vathals; packed them in zip lock pouches, wrapped them in furoshikii wraps and topped it off with a hand drawn card. The idea was that the recipients could reuse all the materials used for packaging.

So many elements went into putting this hamper. Lots of people to thank! My mother for learning to tie together Furoshiki wraps like a pro, and .olga for their fantastic artwork and for their patience! for creating those intact rectangular kraft paper boxes, And importantly to the three women who made fresh stacks of vathal just for this festive season.

Call us, if you'd like us to curate a hamper from our courtyard.

took many months of research, learning, traveling, interacting with breeders of indigenous cattle, and several ‘months to set “Naachas Cattle Farm’. Today, at this farm in the outskirts of Coimbatore they rear pure breed Gir, Tharparkar, Sahiwal, Kangeyam and Red Sindhi Cows. Only when they knew they got it right, and they asked the final question “will I serve this to my family?” and the answer was “yes”, did they launch their nutritious A2 ghee.

We love their ghee and have been picking it up for personal use for two years now. Made from antibiotic free A2 milk, the ghee is rich and tastes more buttery than butter.

Churned every full moon day, using the traditional bilona method, they’ve created these 100ml sample bottles, exclusively for us.

If you would like to try a 100ml bottle, please DM. If you are convinced by my writing please log onto their website and pick up 500ml.

This is not a paid post, but just an effort to promote good ingredients snd food, that I have enjoyed.

It's such stories that keep me going!
Here are some of the magnets, in their new homes.
Thank you gor your support,.

It's moments like these that keep us walking!

Way before Barbie dolls came in, children played with the marapaachi bommais. Legend has it that these dolls were originally from Tirupati, made from a wood with medicinal values. Today, very few homes have these dolls, and even fewer give it to the children to play with. I met the very talented clay artist Jayashree in Chengelpet, who has created these marapaachi bommai fridge magnets. The minute I saw these handcrafted fridge magnets, it just reiterated what a beautiful culture and tradition that our ancestors have passed down to us. I beam with pride.

In her first batch, she has created 25 pairs just for us, and we are shipping this week. DM us to know more.

When there was a little if sunshine yesterday.
Protien rich mung beans being sun dried.

Some call it this the 'thalippu vadam', others the 'karivadagam', and when you go more towards the Tanjore side, they call it the 'karuvadam'. We love this kind - shallots, and chilly for the base for this vadam. Add it to a gravy, or fry it and pair it with your everyday meal. It's got the right amount of spice and everything nice! Limited stock, so message us and reserve your stock.

We’ve dried flowers – the basic line – hibiscus, rose, butterfly pea flower, jasmine buds etc. But hyacinths, we’ve never explored. For starters it’s not in our garden. And we had so many questions with regard to this bulbous, spring-blooming, fragrant perennials – how do you dry them? What do you use them for? How do you store them? What do you do with the flowers? Sun drying shrivels large blooms and stalks beyond recognition. But it’s the best way to include them in your diet, skin care routine and even an as art and craft.

All these questions arose, when we saw use our sun dry racks to dry these stalks. It’s been two weeks since we receied these images, and we are looking forward to reading her descriptive post on insta and seeing the final out come of her sun drying.

We love what Deepa of does – it’s a honest effort. There is so much of learning and unlearning we’ve had from her notes. That’s what’s fascinating about the Indian culinary trail, you think you know it, and just then, one more question pops up, and you continue your search. You find similarities in cooking patterns, arrangement of kitchens, planning of menus based on seasons, hierarchy in the families, food preservation, storage of ingredients – across India. It all looks the same, yet, there is something really unique in each household.

Happy Summer Folks! We have just another six racks left. If anyone is interested fo ping us.

Ginger and Curry Leaves
The Coccinia and the Turkey Berry
Plants and Climbers
Giving all the Vegetables in-house

- a part of the poem The Village House by Raghu Menon

In all honesty, you don't really need a big space to grow the basic range of Indian vegetables. Avvarakkai (broad beans), ingee ( ginger) manjal (turmeric), pudina (mint) malli (corriander) vettrilai ( beetle leaves) sundakkai (turkey berry) and a few more. Oh yes, and the karuveppillai (curry leaves). A keerai (spinach) or two in a corner.

Last year, we had a conversation with an architect on how much space do we really need to be able to grow your own food. We assume we need a large space. But, in reality no. For the quantities urban households cook, you really just s handful to cook a meal. The above list of vegetables, we just have one sapling of each, and it keeps us going.

If you think it's now enough, sun dry whatever you yield, and it will get you through the monsoon.

Thats why we came up up with the 2 feet by 2 feet rack. That's all the space you need - if you can grow vegetables in hour house that fills up that rack, you are sorted.

Make your vegetables while the sun is out. In this pictures is a turkey berry plant from our garden.

Such joy to see our racks being used this summer! Here mangoes are being sun dried, in a terrace in CIT colony. Look at ghe precision in which it's laid out!

Imagine all terraces in being use to sun dry produce. Like terrace gardens, it'll be a sight to behold. We'd hear conversations across terraces around 'what's cooking?". And there will be and exchange of summer treats!

It's a slow life. But it's worth it.

Do pick up a rack, bring back those wonderful summers of the 70s, 80s and 90s.