Hunting & Gathering

The second article for Pratham is out... I love working on these articles as it keeps me in touch with the Garrulous Gastronaut!

http://blog.prathambooks.org/2011/10/hunting-and-gathering.html

Femina- August 24th, 2011

The project got me on  Femina... :D

I know I'm a little late in posting about it, but better late than never! I was interviewed by the Bangalore editor of Femina in March and the article was finally out in the August, Power issue.

Blogging for Pratham Books...

I will be doing a series of articles based on the food related topics that the Garrulous Gastronaut explores for Pratham Books. The first article is out and you read it here: http://blog.prathambooks.org/2011/09/from-farm-to-plate.html


Pratham Books is a non-profit trust that publishes high quality books for children at affordable prices and in multiple Indian languages.

Article in Gaia Magazine

I was recently approached my Bhoomi Network to write an article about the project for their magazine- Gaia. 

Bhoomi Network is a not-for-profit organisation which is committed to education and training for sustainable living. You can visit their website at http://www.bhoominetwork.org/

If you're interested in subscribing to their magazine, you can find the details here http://www.bhoomimagazine.org/join-us-now

Core77 Design Awards

I had entered the Garrulous Gastronaut for a design competition a while back... Unfortunately I didn't win but it was worth a shot! However my video testimonial was chosen among many as a good one- which was a REAL surprise to me! You can see it on the link below.

http://www.core77designawards.com/2011/submission-videos/

Postcarden

A wonderful idea for growing a herb garden by Postcardem that can even inspire people to re-look at their balconies- window sills... etc.. to make them into little green islands! 

"Leagues beyond just-add-water trinkets, this vegetable ink-based greeting card sends sentiments - with seeds. Just pop open the card, water the base, and sprinkle its packet over the diorama. In just a few days, you'll have unruly sprouts of "Lepidium sativum" (that's watercress) furling through the paper arches of your mini botanical garden. "


Instead of watercress for those of us in India, we can try growing Coriander - Dhaniyaa, or Fenugreek - Methi as they grow pretty fast! You can also check out the Postcarden website at http://www.postcarden.com/shop/

Planting an Edible Garden

My workshop at iLeap got over yesterday and I had two participants- Tejas and Ishan. The enthusiastic duo were a LOT of fun to work with and I'm glad to have added two more members to the Gastronauts Club!

Day 1:
I started with a book reading of "A Garrulous Gastronaut's Guide" after which we discussed the different activities Cheeku does in the story. This was followed by an activity where the aspiring Gastronauts made their own table mats by sticking character cut outs on A3 sheets of paper which was later laminated.

 

Day 2:

We began work on our "Edible Garden Guide Books"... Each plastic container that was used as a planting pot was labeled with different coloured papers and the book had a corresponding coloured tab that made an easy navigation system in the book. The Guide Books had information on how to grow a few basic herbs and plants at home using seeds from the kitchen. We were going to plant coriander, fenugreek or methi, and chilli. We also soaked all our seeds and loosely packed our planters with soil.

Day 3: Continued our Edible Garden Guides and planted our seeds...

Day 4:

Our last action packed day we watered the planted seeds, made a home made insect spray to ward off any bugs that might bother the future seedlings and made a tangy mixed salad with watermelon, grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers with a lemon, salt and pepper dressing.

DELICIOUS!

Bees and Earthworms are good for plants... so no bug spray on them!