Stories - The Locavore

Culture

मी उद्यापासून सात्त्विक आहार सुरू केला तर त्याने माझी जात बदलणार आहे का?

Oishika Roy and Mukta Patil
June 25, 2025

मराठी लेखक आणि निवृत्त सरकारी अधिकारी शाहू पाटोळे आपल्या पुस्तकांमध्ये, लेखांमध्ये, आणि सामाजिक माध्यमांमध्ये जात, धर्म, अन्न आणि राजकारणावर चर्चा करतात. फोटो सौजन्य शाहू पाटोळे.

शाहू पाटोळेंनी ‘अन्न हे अपूर्णब्रह्म’ लिहून झाल्यावर तब्बल नऊ वर्षांनी म्हणजे 2024 साली त्याचं इंग्रजी भाषांतर प्रकाशित झालं आहे. मुख्यधारेतल्या माध्यमांमध्ये क्वचितच दिसणारे पदार्थ या पुस्तकात कसे अवतरले, संशोधनाची पद्धत, आवडत्या भाज्या आणि अशा बर्‍याच गोष्टींबद्दल पाटोळेंशी मारलेल्या या गप्पा.

View Post

Culture

“If I adopt a sattvic diet, would my caste change?”

Oishika Roy and Mukta Patil
June 25, 2025

Photo of Shahu Patole. Marathi-language writer and retired government officer Shahu Patole addresses caste, religion, food, and politics in his books, articles, and on social media. Photo courtesy of Shahu Patole.

Nine years after Shahu Patole wrote ‘Anna He Apoorna Brahma’ in Marathi, its translation in English was published in 2024. In an interview, he takes us through the process of translating dishes that have rarely been articulated in mainstream media, his research methodology, and his favourite greens.

View Post

Books on Food

Meat wasn’t available anytime you desired!

Shahu Patole
June 25, 2025

Image of Book Cover. Excerpted with permission from ‘Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada’ by Shahu Patole, translated from Marathi by Bhushan Korgaonkar. HarperCollins, Rs. 399.

For the Mahar and Mang communities in Maharashtra, meat was never easily available. When one came upon some, it would be made to last long enough, every bit of offal and fat put to use.

View Post

Inside My Kitchen

One Must Listen to the Sound of Sun-Dried Chillies

Afshan Mariam
June 24, 2025

How to eat more attentively in an increasingly warming world.

View Post

Books on Food

One Sultan’s Lavish Dinners Shaped Delhi’s Food Traditions

Pushpesh Pant
June 10, 2025

‘FROM THE KING'S TABLE TO STREET FOOD: A FOOD HISTORY OF DELHI’ WAS PUBLISHED BY SPEAKING TIGER BOOKS IN 2024.

Delhi’s food is tied to several happenings from the city’s tumultuous past. In ‘From the King's Table to Street Food’ Pushpesh Pant offers a delightful account of each of these periods, including that of the Sultanate.

View Post

From the Fields

In Odisha, Farming Festivals Archive Fast-Disappearing Indigenous Knowledge

Abhijit Mohanty
June 6, 2025

In southern Odisha’s Malkangiri district, indigenous communities keep traditional foodways and sources of sustenance alive through festivals. All photos by Soumya Ranjan Mohanty.

The wait for mangoes, a cooling finger millet drink, one hundred coconuts. Abhijit Mohanty documents how summer festivals in Malkangiri, Odisha, preserve foodways of memories.

View Post

The Locavore Champions

Hand to Mouth: The Precarious Connections Between Food and Labour

Mukta Patil
May 29, 2025

What do we see and invisibilise when we think about the connections between work and food? What does access to resources—and organising for them—have to do with nutrition and dignity of labour? Photo courtesy of Priyanka Tupe/BehanBox.

In this anthology-style feature documenting the fraught relationships between food and labour in India, Mukta Patil gathers perspectives from journalist Priyanka Tupe, union leader Anita Kapoor, and economist Dr. Jean Drèze.

View Post

Culture

To Save Camels, Herding Families Are Rethinking Traditional Beliefs About Pastoral Milk

Shirin Mehrotra
May 16, 2025

Camels munching on the wild greens in Sadri, Rajasthan. Photo courtesy of Camel Charisma.

Since 1961, India’s camel populations have seen an alarming decline. Shirin Mehrotra explores the nuances of mainstreaming camel milk, shifting views among camel-herding communities, and the challenges that still lie ahead.

View Post

Books on Food

“Our mangoes define us”

Sopan Joshi
May 16, 2025

An 18th century Mughal miniature depicting mangoes in varying stages of ripeness, from green to bright orange-yellow. Photo courtesy of The Cleveland Museum Of Arts.

Stories of growers, geopolitics, and even fruit flies, Sopan Joshi’s ‘Mangifera Indica’ describes multiple aspects of India’s most beloved fruit.

View Post

From the Fields

Farm Workers On How Heat Impacts Their Work

Mukta Patil
May 16, 2025

We spoke to agricultural workers from The Locavore's community of partner producers to understand how heat intersects with labour, especially for working women, and how they cope with rising temperatures.

View Post

We’ll Keep You Posted

Login

Sign in with email

Register