Cities and Canopies

by Harini Nagendra

  The drumstick tree is a powerhouse of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. A study by the National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad found that it has seven times more vitamin C than oranges, fifteen times more potassium than bananas, ten times more vitamin A than carrots and twenty-five times more iron than spinach. It also has seventeen times more calcium than milk and nine times more protein than curd. Small wonder then that the drumstick is also called a ‘mother’s best friend’. Nursing mothers eat the leaves to help increase milk production. The tiny white flowers of the tree, which appear in clusters twice or thrice a year, are also used in cooking. A paste of drumstick leaves can be applied on the skin to reduce pain and swelling. The oil from its seeds is used to make soaps, cosmetics and perfumes.

  The root of the drumstick has a pungent taste, similar to that of the horseradish, which is why it is also called the horseradish tree. It turned out to be a boon for British cooks who struggled to replicate the taste of their English sauces in India. They peeled and dried the roots, and mixed them with vinegar to use as garnish. Wyvern (Colonel Arthur Robert Kenny-Herbert) in his 1880 book Culinary Jottings for Madras described how the drumstick roots could be used as a substitute for horseradish. He said, ‘Scrape as finely as you can a cupful of the root shavings, simmer them in half a pint of chicken broth; when done, thicken the broth custard-wise with the yolks of three eggs beaten up with a dessert spoonful of tarragon vinegar; add pepper, salt, and a very little grated nutmeg, and serve in a sauce-boat.’ Colonel Kenny-Herbert also suggested that tender drumstick pods be used in a recipe for topping of toast. The common man’s drumstick thus made its way into the multi-course meals of the British in India.

  Despite the many uses of this miracle tree, it does not look very imposing. In fact, it looks bedraggled compared to trees we see in cities, such as the rain tree. The drumstick belongs to the Moringaceae family. It is fast-growing and can quickly reach a height of 10?15 metres. It is a hardy tree that can survive in both wet and dry climates, it grows in poor soil and even in tiny spaces. These qualities make it a popular tree in many congested inner parts of cities, such as Bengaluru’s Chickpet area, where people plant it in their backyards. The only thing to watch out for is the ever-present murangamara kamblipoochi (the drumstick blanket worm), the brown and bristly caterpillars of the Eupterote mollifera moth. If these brush against your skin or fall on you, you are in for hours of intense itching and pain.

  Drumstick trees are also popular in slums. Long before the drumstick was recognized as a superfood, families living in slums used the leaves and pods in their meals. For women, on whose shoulders the daily task of cooking and providing a healthy meal falls, the drumstick is of help in meeting the hunger and nutritional needs of their families. Women living in slums also come up with different arrangements to share the pods and leaves among themselves, to ensure that there is food for all, without fights.

  Today, there is an increasing number of movements to plant drumstick trees in schools and anganwadis (childcare centres) to feed children and address malnutrition. A single tree can supply a large number of pods that can be added to the midday meal. Of course, getting children to eat the pods is another challenge altogether. Some children enjoy crushing the boiled pods in their mouth and sucking on the fibre, while others gag on them because of the slimy texture. The leaves are excellent sources of vitamins, but young children may find them difficult to digest. In South Africa, porridge with drumstick powder is now being introduced in some communities. There are complaints though that this adds a bitter taste and changes the smell and taste of the traditional maize porridge. Mothers, however, are willing to try it to give their children better food. We too need to think of ingenious ways of using the drumstick in our anganwadis.

  Another use of this miracle tree is to purify polluted water in cities. Women in Sudan use an extract of the dried seed instead of alum to treat turbid water. In fact, the tree is also called Shagara al Rauwaq (the tree of purification) in the Nile Valley. The dried and ground drumstick seeds have similar coagulation properties as that of alum but are healthier. The seeds are also antiseptic and antimicrobial, treating the water as well as precipitating out the murky material from it.

  Hunger, malnutrition and polluted water are huge challenges facing the poor in Indian cities. Encouraging the planting of drumstick trees can help address many of these problems. The economic capital of India, Mumbai, has some of the highest levels of child hunger. In the early 1900s, the city had a large number of drumstick trees whose pods were collected and sold in local markets. Maybe it is time to re-green Mumbai’s landscape, and those of other cities, with the drumstick that was once so common? The drumstick has fans outside India too. Cuba’s former prime minister and president, the iconic Fidel Castro, is said to have been a big fan of the drumstick. He, in fact, planted several trees in his backyard. The tree was originally brought to Cuba from Brazil by Castro’s comrade, the equally iconic revolutionary Che Guevara (whom we see on T-shirts across India) in the 1960s. But of the sixteen seeds that Guevara brought, only one is said to have survived. The drumstick that Castro planted in his house was brought more recently in 2010, from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, when Castro discovered its medicinal and nutritional properties and got 100 tonnes of seeds shipped to Cuba.

  There is a saying in Tamil: vethalam pinnayum muringa marathil. Literally translated, this means ‘running behind the ghost while forgetting the drumstick tree’, which refers to running after an illusion while forgetting the thing of utmost importance. The phrase is taken from the famous stories about the legendary King Vikramaditya’s encounters with a wily vethalam (ghost) who hangs upside down from a drumstick tree located in a cemetery. To fulfil a promise made to a magician, the king attempts to capture the ghost. Each time, the ghost tricks him with a story and escapes, returning to the topmost branch of the tree. The folk saying remains apt even today. While the world is turning back to the drumstick and food stores across the country are offering bottled drumstick powder, we seem to have forgotten the importance of this once-common tree. It is time to raise a drum roll for the drumstick, plant it in the nooks, crannies and corners of our streets and backyards, and include the pods, leaves and flowers of the miracle tree in our daily diet.

  Drumstick (Moringa oleifera)

  Description: Medium-sized tree with a light crown. Pale brown bark with deep fissures.

  Flowers: Small yellowish-white flowers that grow in clusters.

  Fruits: Green, ribbed, long stick-like pods hanging downward; within the pods are winged seeds in a fleshy pulp.

  Leaves: Leathery small leaves that are elliptical in shape.

  Seasonality: Deciduous with leaves turning yellow and falling in December and January. Flowering is between January and March. Fruits ripen between April and January.

  Family: Moringaceae. Only a single genus, Moringa, is included in this family.

  Origin and distribution: Native to India.

  TWENTY-ONE

  TREES

  OF RECIPES

  AND REMEDIES

  A young child is taught early on in school that the food she eats is produced by farmers and that medicines can be bought from pharmacies. But how many of us see the trees in our towns and cities as sources of food and medicine?

  Many people from the older generations have memories of using the trees that grow around them for food and medicine. Today, this knowledge has largely faded from our collective memory, except perhaps for migrant labourers from distant villages who bring with them the knowledge about different trees and plants as sources of food and medicine, or the residents of erstwhile villages that are engulfed by cities. The rest of us, the city dwellers, never really view trees through this lens.

  We are of course familiar with the uses of some common trees. The tamarind is a hardy tree with many uses, but it is primarily planted for its fruit whose pulp is commonly used in cooking. It is mostly bought from stores these days, but children still gather under these tre
es to pluck and suck on the green or semi-ripe pods. It may be difficult for us to imagine now, but during the grain crisis in India in the 1950s, tamarind kernel powder (or TKP as it was known) was once considered as a subsidiary food. The Government of India was spending crores of rupees on importing foodgrains. Concerned that the crisis may worsen, scientists began to explore alternative options. Tamarind kernel seeds, a well-known source of food, were consumed mainly during times of famine. But that is not to say that they weren’t eaten at other times. The powder was used to make laddoos or mixed with other kinds of flour to make chapattis. These seeds came with the added benefit of possessing medicinal properties and were used in Ayurveda and Unani medicine.

  Other common fruiting trees sighted on Indian streets are the jamun, mango and star gooseberry. Purplish tongues are signs of afternoons well spent under a jamun tree. Bringing down a mango with a well-aimed shot is as satisfying as eating it with some salt and chilli powder. Mangoes seem to taste even better if the process of plucking them involves being chased by cantankerous owners of the house in whose compound the tree stands. Some old mango trees still line the streets in cities, but few children have the time to climb it—and neither is it safe given the traffic. The other fruit is the star gooseberry, which is different from the more common amla. The fruits of the star gooseberry grow close to the branches of the tree in bunches. They can be eaten fresh, plucked right from the tree, with a pinch of salt. They can also be pickled.

  Coconut and drumstick trees are important for the flavours and nutrition they add to our daily diets. Neem flowers are used in cooking for the bitter flavour they impart, believed to help in digestion and in treating stomach disorders. Bengalis sprinkle neem flowers, roasted with ghee, on their bhajas and poshtos, while in south India chutneys are made from neem flowers or added to rasam. The dried flowers can also be mixed with rice and ghee and eaten, though this is an acquired taste. Shops in cities also sell dried neem flowers. Slums are a microcosm of the city. For women who must feed their families and growing children on tight budgets, trees like the drumstick and coconut, which grow in confined spaces, are very important to supplement their nutrition.

  Flowers of the banana are widely used in cooking. Cooking with flowers may be a fad today, making appearances in upmarket restaurants in dishes prepared by gourmet chefs. But other flowers, less known than the banana flower, have been mentioned as ingredients in ancient books such as the Lokapakara, Ni’matnama and Supashastra. Flowers of common avenue trees such as mango, ironwood, champaka and palmyra are mentioned as being cooked with vegetables and different kinds of meat. Children love to eat the striped part of the gulmohar flower that lies at its centre, which has a characteristic sour taste. The buds of the silk-cotton and orchid trees are relished in meat and vegetable dishes.

  Some seeds also make it to our tables. The jackfruit has recently been in the news as a superfruit, touted for its ability to tackle the food and nutritional problems of the developing world. The seeds are incredibly tasty when roasted or steamed. Once viewed as a poor man’s food, people are now waking up to the nutritional benefits of its seeds. The jackfruit is now popularized by animal rights groups, who see its texture as a substitute for meat, used in restaurants to make pulled jackfruit tacos and other meat substitutes. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) even named the jackfruit as the hottest food trend in 2017. Another common city tree, the cluster fig, is also becoming popular in everyday cooking, with a number of recipes being shared by chefs and homemakers for dishes ranging from kebabs to vegetable curries and fries. Figs are power-packed centres of nutrition, dense with calories and fibre and particularly sought after by diabetics and the elderly.

  Another very valuable tree is the mahua, whose flowers and fruits are used as food. The mahua is of great importance for the poor in India, who depend on its flowers and fruits as a source of food, while oil is extracted from its seeds. The flower is especially sought-after; it is collected, sun-dried and stored to be eaten throughout the year. In the forests of central India, a host of animals and birds feast on its flowers. The flowers can also be distilled to produce a fermented intoxicating brew that is known to make both humans and bears dance. This potent brew was even exported to France in the early 1900s, with the hope that it would sell like French brandy, but the French government put a stop to it.

  While the mahua is a tree that most associate with the forest, solitary specimens are found in temples, along roads and even in the urban groves of Bengaluru. Pradip Krishen, in Trees of Delhi bemoans the fact that a tree of such value can be found only on one avenue in the national capital. Similarly, a variety of fruit trees that grew in abundance in our cities seem to have been lost over time. Some of the most widely planted fruit trees in Mumbai in 1909 included pomelo, wood apple, bael, mango, cashew, hog plum, jackfruit and breadfruit. These trees are rare in the city today.

  Many trees are especially valued for their medicinal uses. The devil’s tree, planted in many parks, is held in awe. Many believe that spirits reside in the leaves of this tree, and once every year, the other trees come to pay homage to it. The dark grey, rough bark of this tree is considered a powerful tonic. The Tulu and Konkani communities extract a bitter juice from the bark that is forced into the mouths of all family members during the lunar month of Aati as it is believed to ward off all stomach disorders.

  Many of the common trees in our cities have a range of medicinal properties and are used in home remedies, as well as in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha. Extracts from leaves, fruits, flowers, seeds and bark have been prescribed for a wide range of ailments, from a simple headache to leprosy. There is a saying in Tamil about the banyan, aalum velum pallukkurudhi (both the twig of the banyan and the Arabian gum tree give strength to the teeth). The use of the banyan is not limited to just cleaning teeth. A member of a community of bamboo weavers who dwell on the pavement in Bengaluru told us how the milky sap from the tree was extracted by making a cut in the bark and mixed with day-old balls of ragi (finger millet) and swallowed in the morning to treat coughs. A simple but effective cure, according to him, it saved his parents from many a visit to the doctors, which they could barely afford to pay for. These trees have long been cut down to make way, first for widening the road and then for the metro. The weavers have lost not only the shade of the trees but also their free roadside ‘medical store’.

  The fruit of the mango—the king of fruits—takes our focus away from the other parts of the tree. But the leaves of the mango produce a compound called mangiferin which has a number of useful properties, including being antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, and having the potential to reduce diabetes and cholesterol levels. Decoctions and concoctions made from different parts of the tree are believed to have various health benefits. Then there are the more exotic stories one hears about its healing powers. Balwant Singh, a former conservator of forests in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, wrote in the Indian Forester in 1951 that he once saw an advocate friend relieve a child of the pain of a wasp bite. The forester repeatedly asked the advocate what charm the latter had used to soothe the crying child. The advocate responded, ‘Take some inflorescence of mango, before it is ripe, rub it between your hands and let it dry. Try it three to four times again on subsequent days. It will impart to your hands the charm exhibited by me.’ The forester claimed that he tested the efficacy of this method and found that it worked. Just by rubbing his hands three to four times with the flowers, he claimed, he found that his hands retained their healing property as long as a year later, until the next flowering season.

  There are many myths and legends about the uses of trees, and some facts intermingled with fiction. Champaka flowers can reduce fevers, cluster fig flowers and bark are used to treat urinary infections and coconut milk can relieve intestinal ulcers. The list of medicinal uses of trees is endless. While they may not provide a cure for more complicated or fatal diseases, they can definitely provide relief from minor ailments and infections.

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nbsp; We know that the trees we see in our cities provide shade, clean up pollution and are pleasing to the eye. But they are also a source of food and nature’s own pharmacies, an essential fact that is now fading from our consciousness. Cities such as San Francisco and New York now have communities of urban foragers who teach others about what food can be collected and consumed safely from plants and trees in the city, and what to avoid. In Kampala, Uganda, surveys conducted in 2015 by researchers found that half of the city’s low-income residents collect wild plants to consume as food and medicine. Celebrity chefs in many cities now advertise the joys of cooking with freshly plucked edible wild food from the city. A growing number of crowd-sourced maps also exist, pointing both novices and experts towards food sources in American and European cities. ‘Delhi, I Love You’, a movement aimed at helping residents reconnect to their city, took people on a walk in Lodhi Gardens, helping them identify and collect edible plants, which they later cooked and ate. It would be wonderful to recreate such efforts in India, helping to revive these memories of a way of urban living in harmony with our edible environment.

  Hair Oil with Amla, Curry Leaves and Banyan Roots

  Ingredients: