Teri Mitti Me Mil Jawa...Three Promises To Make To Our Mitti

Har Din Tiranga!
Pic Credit: Pixabay

   

15th August, 2022 - 75 years of Independence! 

Tiranga is fluttering everywhere with 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign. Every Indian heart is filled with pride and joy. The song that's playing in my heart is -"Teri mitti me mil jawa...." which then set me thinking...

Our freedom fighters sacrificed their lives to get freedom for our mitti.

Our soldiers do the same to uphold that freedom. 

What do we civilians do for our mitti? 

To die in our desh ki mitti is a romantic dream that many of us cherish, but what do we do for the mitti while we are still alive?

I thought of these three promises that we can make to honor the mitti we so love:

1. Compost

Our soil is dying. The least we can do to nourish it is to compost at home or support composting at community level. Composting helps in building organic matter in soil and makes it healthier. 

2. Stop Food Waste

Wasting food is nothing less than a crime. When we waste food, we not only dishonor our mitti which has gone through a lot to grow all that food, but also our farmers. (Remember Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan?)

3. Reduce Landfill Waste

Where does all our rubbish go? In the heart of our mitti! We raise mountains of waste on the sacred soil or bury it in its folds. So wherever we can, let's reduce and recycle.

If har ghar makes these three promises, our contribution to our mitti would be much more meaningful. Don't you agree?

Happy 15th of August!

Won't Waste Watermelon Whites Again!

Summers are here and so are watermelons. While we all (or so I believe!) love the juicy, cool, refreshing goodness of a watermelon, we don't really like the waste left after a juicy melon. 

While I haven't ventured to experiment with the outer rind yet, the whites below the rind have been looking at me with imploring eyes. I don't have the heart to toss them in the bin - even if it is a compost bin! 

My Mom makes a curry with diced white parts but I'm not a big fan of this curry and the whites are just too much to be consumed in a curry. So I was on a lookout for other uses. 

The red part goes in the tummy
The green part goes into the compost bin
Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

And whites go in an.... adai batter (lentil pancakes)
Pic Courtesy: Greenkarma360

Here's the recipe for adai. I've made this adai using a single lentil. You can add other lentils like toor, urad, masoor and chana in equal quantities. 

Ingredients : 

Moong daal - 1/2 cup

Toor daal - 1/2 cup

Urad daal - 1/2 cup

Masoor daal - 1/2 cup

Chana daal - 1/2 cup

Watermelon whites - 2-3 cups

Tomato - 1 medium

Onion - 1/2 

Coriander - A fistful along with stalks

Ginger - 1 inch

Garlic (optional) - 3-4 cloves

Green chillies (optional) - 1-2

Curry -leaves -10

Lemon juice - Half a lemon

Spices: Red chilly powder, cumin seeds and salt.

The whites impart volume to the batter without altering its taste
Pic Courtesy: Greenkarma360

Way to Go:

• Wash and soak all the lentils for 4-5 hours.
• Blend all the ingredients together. You can skip onions and tomatoes while grinding. These can be skipped or chopped and added to the batter later.
• You can add more watermelon whites or water to get the consistency right. The mix should not be too watery or too tight. 
• Season the griddle with some oil. 
• Scoop the batter and spread in a circular fashion on a hot griddle. Don'r spread it too thin.
• Add oil around the adai.
• Keep the flame medium. 
• Flip the adai when well done. 
• Sauté lightly on the other side. 

When done, enjoy it with a dip of your choice. Here's a lovely ridge-gourd peels chutney to savor it with.

The watermelon whites made the batter very light and fluffy. I loved the fact that the whites gave body to the batter without altering its taste.

I brainstormed on different ways to use these whites. Here are a few other ideas. Add watermelon whites to a:

1. Smoothie

2. Soup

3. Dip or Chutney

4. Lasagna Sauce

5. Pasta Sauce, Pasta Veggies

6. Daal or Sambar

7. Paav Bhaji

8. Dough

9. Curry

I would advice you to add the whites in moderation, to begin with. Once you get comfortable, you can increase the proportion according to your taste.:) 

If you get inspired by this post and use the whites in some way, please post in the comments below. Happy experimenting!

Jo Gardening Se Kare Pyaar, Wo Composting Se Kaise Kare Inkaar!

Remember this 80s ad?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVak3euwJyg

It was a regular on our screens and was so interesting to see a husband's love for his wife getting measured by the choice of a pressure cooker!

When I thought of convincing gardeners to start composting, I couldn't help mouthing the words from this ad!

Jo Gardening Se Kare Pyaar, Wo Composting Se Kaise Kare Inkaar? (How can you say no to composting, if you love gardening?)

If you love plants and like pottering around in the garden, sooner or later, you'll consider composting. Composting and gardening are joined at the hip.:)

Here's why you should start home-composting if you're into gardening:

1. Compost makes the soil healthy

Compost makes the soil light and rich 

Pic Credit: Pixabay

Compost adds organic matter to the soil which in turn improves the structure and water-retention ability of the soil. Though compost is not a fertilizer, it has immense nutritional benefits for plants. 

I've heard many gardening tips like burying potato peels near plants or watering them with banana-peels-infused-water. It's about growing healthier plants. 

2. Free compost, yay!

Even if you don't want to invest a dime on composting equipment, you can still compost and reap healthy benefits for your garden. Read my post on how to get started here. 

You can sure buy compost from stores but if you make it at home, you can not only save some bucks but also control the quality of compost, which brings me to the next point -

3. All those organic peels, organic compost doth make

Turn organic peels into organic compost

Pic Credit- Pixabay

If you're into gardening, chances are that you like to eat organic. What about giving your soil some of that organic love too?

Dumping organic peels into landfills is like making a villain out of a hero. Let me explain. 

Fruit and veggie leftovers, when trashed in a landfill, produce methane, a greenhouse gas that leads to global warming.  

The same leftovers, when composted, add to the nutritional value of soil, which help you grow luscious tomatoes and carrots.  

If the veggie remains are derived from organic produce, your compost will be organic, which in turn will help you grow organic produce. Aha!

4. Surprise, Surprise!!

Love surprises? Compost always has something up its sleeve:)

I added compost to my potted plants and in a few days, I had tomato, papaya, watermelon, pumpkin and even mango saplings peeking out at me:) 

Seeds from fruits and veggies that you eat, generally survive in the compost. They germinate whenever conditions are conducive. Tada -free saplings! I got a lot of tomato, papaya and cantaloupe saplings this way last year. This can be a nuisance for some as they have to weed the saplings out.

You can even sneak a few seeds of your choice in the compost and who knows, you might get the desired saplings without actually sowing the seeds separately. 

5. You're a natural

Love gardening - love tending the soil!

Pic Credit - Pixabay

If you're into gardening, you don't shy away from soil, organic matter and a few bugs:) Neither do you shy away from hard work and patience. 

You're good at soil-speak and plant-speak and are already a natural! Composting will come easily to you. You just need to get started :) 

So what are you waiting for? If it's shubh muhurtham that's holding you back, let me tell you that it's National Learn About Composting Day on May 29th. No better timing than that:) Click here now to learn how to compost.:)

Why Compost?

Compost aka Black Gold

Good question! 

With a fantastic answer:)

Because it's a Win-Win-Win. For you, your plants and your environment. 

Composting is like witnessing the circle of life. It shows you how everything is interconnected and how one system feeds into another. 

You eat veggies and fruits and discard the peels. Those peels get mixed with soil and dried leaves. Microbes feast on this mix and decompose it. The decomposed mix is an elixir for plants, which you eat. Repeat. 

Those of you who are convinced, stop reading here and start setting up the composting process. Those who need more convincing, read on!

Why compost?

1. To save organic matter from going into landfills: 

Organic matter is what makes the soil rich and healthy. Throwing away organic matter is a double whammy - robbing the soil of nutrients and clogging landfills with stuff that emits a greenhouse gas. Basically, throwing something incredibly useful to make it totally harmful. How smart is that!(And it takes the smartest species on earth to accomplish this!)

Organic matter doesn't biodegrade in a landfill. On the contrary, it emits methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas which is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

When you compost, you reduce greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere. Imagine that - you could be a global-warming-fighter operating right from your home. Feel the green cape fluttering around you yet?

2. For your kids: 

Kids know the pressing issues of climate change. They're the ones who will suffer the consequences the most. 

When kids see you act, they'll take pride in the fact that their family is a part of the solution. When helping you with composting, they'll learn the process and when they run their own households, a composter would be a natural part of their homes. Action speaks more than words. 

Don't we all want a good future for our kids? One of the coolest gifts for them would be a cool Earth!

3. To improve soil health: 

There are alarming reports about how earth's topsoil is depleting. 

With our current ways, we could run out of topsoil in another 60 years. 

No topsoil = No crops 

No crops = No food

When you compost and return the goodness to earth, you help improve soil quality. Healthy soil also holds much more water and helps reduce erosion and flooding. If you grow vegetables and flowers, this nutritious compost is like manna from heaven. Even if you don't grow anything, having good soil quality is good for your yard.

4. To conserve fuel:

By reducing the organic and yard waste going out of your household, you're not only easing the burden on overflowing landfills, but you're also helping conserve fuel that is required to ferry this waste till landfills. 

Less kitchen waste to be carried around = Less fuel consumed. 

5. To reduce your trash bag content and hence trash bag usage:

Look into your filled trash bag. How much organic waste is in there? 

If you cook most of your meals with fresh produce, the proportion of organic waste in your trash bag would be quite high. You can divert all this organic waste to your compost bin. Less trash means fewer trash bags too. 

In addition, gardening waste bags will also get reduced because you can divert leaves and garden clippings to the compost bin as well. 

More bags saved, yay!! (In fact, this is what motivated me to start composting. I used to recycle stuff wherever I could. It was the kitchen waste that could not be stored for long and needed a plastic bag for disposal. I cringed every time I had to use a plastic bag for kitchen waste. So one fine day, I said enough is enough and started composting.)

6. To get rid of stinky kitchen trash bins: 

In single family homes in the US, waste is not collected daily. It's collected weekly at my place. You're supposed to store the kitchen waste for a week, which starts to rot. Soon, the trash bin starts smelling and it takes courage to open the lid even to toss in the waste.

A much cleaner alternative is to dispose kitchen scraps in a composter. By adding browns and with proper aeration, the waste decomposes without unpleasant smells.

7. To express your love to your houseplants: 

"Jo gardening se kare pyaar, wo composting se kaise kare inkaar!" 

(My non- Hindi speaking readers, please excuse my take on a famous jingle from the 80s:))

If you like plants and gardening, you'll love composting. Remember the joy when you spot a seedling sprout, a flower bloom or a baby tomato peek through leaves? Composting gives you the same woozy feeling of happiness when you see your kitchen scraps convert into life giving black gold!

8. To witness a beautiful natural process: 

Nature does not know waste. Every output is an input. It just converts one useful resource into another. 

Nature also shows an intricate interconnection between everything. Take a piece away, and you jeopardize the whole system. Composting gives you a subtle reminder of this interdependence.

Are you convinced yet?

I can keep adding to the list in different ways. But the gist remains that if you take from the earth with one hand, you should return to it with the other. Composting completes this give and take and completes the circle of life. 

Doubts? Keep them coming! But the best way to slay your doubts is to start the process and learn along the way. For the rest, there's Google, FB composting groups, composting practitioners in your locality and this blog! :) You can post your questions in the comments section and I'll try my best to answer them.

Let's get started!