Wild Food Festival 2025
Wild foods, by themselves, will not deplete or disappear. But if we forget how to traverse the jungle terrain, how to properly harvest wild foods, and which ones to harvest when, [they] will be at risk,” says Sunil Bhoye, a farmer and seed-saver with OOO Farms. Since the inception of the Wild Food Festival in 2018, OOO Farms and Sunil have been at its heart, reminding us that the survival of wild foods depends not only on appetite but on the knowledge and ecologies that sustain them.
Since The Locavore first collaborated on the festival in 2022, this balance has remained at the core of its work. The 2025 edition, hosted at Bunts Sangha’s Ramanath Payyade College of Hospitality Management Studies (RPH) in Mumbai, expanded into a month-long programme comprising field trips, student orientation programmes, a virtual panel, and restaurant collaborations that brought wild foods and their stories into wider view for an urban audience. Alongside, a fundraiser ran throughout August to build girls’ toilets and sanitation facilities at Prabha Hira Gandhi High School in Vadoli, Palghar—ensuring the festival’s impact extended beyond the table and into the everyday lives of the communities that sustain these foods. The festival was also framed by the motif of ‘Abhal Fatle’—“when the sky falls apart”— highlighting the urgency of these conversations against the backdrop of the climate crisis.
A Wildly Abundant Farmers’ Market
The festival opened into a vibrant bazaar, each stall drawing visitors in with a variety of wild ingredients. OOO Farms showcased jars of wild honey alongside an array of indigenous rice and grains. At the Ground Up table, wild ferments sparked curiosity—kimchi, syrups, and pickles made with ingredients like Khurasani, Fatangdi, Keni, and Kurdu. Nearby, stalls offered a sampling of mahua ladoos, introducing many to the unique flavour of the Mahua flower.
At the Farmers’ Market, visitors could taste and take home freshly foraged wild foods and ingredients that rarely make it to supermarket shelves. Photos by Rhea and Tanvi.
For many festival-goers, this was their first encounter with such ingredients. “What brought me here was the very concept of wild foods,” said Ruchi Bajaj, an architect visiting from Pune, as she browsed the stalls.
Fresh green produce foraged by Adivasi communities associated with the Wild Food Festival was laid out in baskets, offering city visitors a glimpse of seasonal abundance from the forests. More than a marketplace, it became a space for exchange—where every taste or purchase carried the story of the people and practices that sustain these foods.
Discovering Wild Flavours
At the heart of the festival was the Wild Food Tasting, where members of the Kokni, Warli, Thakar, Mahadeo Koli, Katkari, and Bhil tribes prepared dishes using several freshly foraged ingredients. Ingredients like Fatangdi, Mohari, Aliv, Surang, Star Fruit, Terra, Mahua, and many more were transformed into small tasting portions, served on pattal (sal leaf) plates.
The idea was simple yet powerful—to give festival-goers a first-hand experience of wild ingredients in their cooked form. Each bite introduced unfamiliar flavours, textures, and stories, turning curiosity into connection.
For filmmaker and amateur cook Mittwa, the tasting was a revelation. “This is interesting because I’m getting to experience completely unknown vegetables and dishes that you don’t find anywhere else. It’s very tasty and very unique,” he said.
A Wild Food-Inspired High Tea
(L) Bite-sized Mahua Sticky Toffee Pudding by Maska Bakery; (R) a vibrant spread of high tea offerings. Photos by Tanvi and Rhea.
As the afternoon unfolded, guests gathered around a buffet-style spread designed by students of RPH College, guided by chefs and members of the tribal community. The menu reimagined familiar formats with wild twists: buttery Mahua–Almond shortbread cookies, bite-sized Pendhra Chokha Canapés, and Bamboo Kimchi Noodles were just some of the highlights.
Students remained by the tables, speaking with visitors about the dishes and ingredients, and sharing what they had learned through the process. For them, the high tea was as much about building confidence as it was about showcasing creativity—an exercise in transforming new knowledge into hospitality.
The session also tied into the broader August-long restaurant collaborations, where chefs across Mumbai and Pune introduced wild ingredients on their menus. At the festival itself, restaurant partners like Ishara, The Bombay Canteen, and Maska Bakery joined in, presenting their own creations and sparking conversations on how these ingredients can enter mainstream dining while staying rooted in the communities that have protected them.
Reflections on Safeguarding Wild Food Knowledge
The first to take the stage was Dhinda Baba, one of the last remaining Tarpa players (a trumpet-like wind instrument traditionally played by the Warli tribe) from Walvanda, Maharashtra, whose performance filled the space with the haunting, celebratory sounds of a tradition at risk of fading. This was followed by introductions from the members of the tribal community whose foraging, knowledge-sharing, and cooking formed the backbone of the festival. Among them was Sunil Bhoye and his family, who spoke of their continuing commitment to protecting wild food practices.
Community leaders spoke from lived experience, while researchers and practitioners like Dr. Debal Deb added context and urgency—underlining that the survival of wild foods depends not only on foraging and cooking traditions, but also on the knowledge frameworks and advocacy that protect them. Dr. Deb pointed out that abundance alone does not guarantee survival. Many wild foods may continue to grow around us, but without the tribal knowledge systems—the “software,” in his words—that tell us how to recognise, prepare, and value them, they lose their context and slip into obscurity, no different from weeds. Protecting wild foods, therefore, is as much about preserving cultural wisdom as it is about conserving biodiversity.
Closing the Day with a Wild Food Dinner
Student volunteers supported the community-led dinner, where guests and foragers dined together. Photos by Rhea.
The festival drew to a close with a sprawling wild food feast cooked by members of the tribal communities whose knowledge had guided the day from the start. Long tables were set up for a communal buffet, inviting guests and community members to sit side by side, eat together, and reflect on the stories that had unfolded.
On the menu were dishes that carried the essence of the forest: Terra Patrode, Bamboo Mushroom Ran Bhaji, steamed red rice, and an array of lentils, pickles, and accompaniments. Many of the ingredients had already been introduced during the tasting and high tea earlier in the day, now transformed into hearty dishes meant to be shared.
Student volunteers and faculty supported the service and logistics, but the spotlight remained firmly on the community’s food and voices.
On why it was so important to work with hospitality and hotel management students, ChefTZac reflected on his own time in culinary school. He noted that he had never been exposed to concepts like wild foods back then: “These are the hospitality and F&B leaders of tomorrow. Most chefs in India are completely oblivious to a lot of these ingredients and traditions,” he explained. “Today, trends and movements around food are driven by chefs and restaurants, so it was important that some of this begins as a long-term vision for educating and creating awareness among students. When I first met them, I asked [the students] if they knew what asparagus and broccoli were; they all nodded, but then, when I asked them what Akkarghoda was, they were dumbfounded. Today, they know not only how to identify, but also cook and innovate with different wild foods.”
For ChefTZac, the Wild Food Festival is not just about curating dishes for visitors, but about seeding long-term change. By equipping the next generation of chefs with the knowledge to recognise, respect, and reimagine wild foods, the festival ensures that these ingredients and traditions remain part of India’s evolving culinary story.
An Extensive Display of Ingredients and Seeds
The festival presented an extensive showcase of nearly 200 wild leafy vegetables, grains, and fruits from the Sahyadri mountains, alongside a display of OOO Farms’ community seed bank. Together, they highlighted the ecological diversity of the region and offered a first-hand glimpse into the remarkable variety of wild foods that surround us. Detailed description cards accompanied each display, noting the local and scientific names, edible parts, and medicinal uses—transforming it into an interactive learning space for attendees.
The extensive variety of wild ingredients and native seeds were carefully labelled in English and Marathi. Photos by Tanvi and Rhea.
The Locavore Zone
At the Locavore Zone, we highlighted our ongoing work with wild foods and connected with visitors eager to learn more. Our Wild Food Zine—created to celebrate the ingredients and communities at the heart of the festival—was sold out, a reminder of how strongly these stories resonate beyond the event.
We also collaborated with some of your favourite eateries in Mumbai and beyond!
The Wild Food Festival 2025 may have ended, but the journey of celebrating and protecting wild foods continues. Explore our stories, support the communities we work with, and join us in shaping a future where these ingredients and traditions thrive. Until the next edition, let’s keep tasting, learning, and sharing the wild.
At The Locavore, we love planning and executing events that highlight India’s diverse local foods, celebrating community, sustainability, and cultural heritage. Our events feature engaging workshops, discussions, immersive experiences and other formats that connect you to India’s rich food culture. Interested in collaborating or having us organise an event? Reach out to us at connect@thelocavore.in.
Login with Google