Snake gourd doesn’t look edible–its blossoms resemble spider webs. In South Indian cuisine, however, the gourd is more than just a decoration–it’s a valuable and nutritious food.
With a refreshing flavor similar to that of a cucumber, the snake gourd is used as a way to cool off in the Indian heat. It is important to harvest the gourds in their early developmental stage because they develop a very bitter taste as they age and in the Kerala region they are often combined with coconut milk to add sweetness.
And not just the guard part of the plant is edible. The leaves can be sautéed and eaten and the red gelatinous mass that holds the seeds can be made into a sauce.
The snake gourd’s popularity in Kerala cuisine may be attributed, at least in part, to its unique suitability to the soil in the region. While many crops are unable to survive in the region’s sandy soil—which has very low water-retention ability—the snake gourd thriveS.
When farmers in the city of Kanjikuzhy on the Southwest tip of the subcontinent were facing declining yields with more conventional crops due to lack of groundwater, as well as water contamination and pests, they decided to return to their roots and examine which crops were traditionally grown in the region. Snake gourd—along with cow pea, brinjal (eggplant), okra, and others—was chosen as a traditional crop more suited to the local growing conditions.
Over 6,000 households participated in planting the traditional crops, with support from a small grant from the local government and the 50 hectares of planted land produced over 100 tons of vegetables. The success of the pilot has since lead to the participation of additional communities, with more indigenous crops included every season.
The snake gourd is a very important—if not very well known—part of South India’s gardens and kitchens.
Guest Post by Andrew Boyd
Danielle Nierenberg, an expert on livestock and sustainability, currently serves as Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental think tank. Her knowledge of factory farming and its global spread and sustainable agriculture has been cited widely in the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and
other publications.
Danielle worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She is currently traveling across Africa looking at innovations that are working to alleviate hunger and poverty and blogging everyday at Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet. She has a regular column with the Mail & Guardian, the Kansas City Star, and the Huffington Post and her writing was been featured in newspapers across Africa including the Cape Town Argus, the Zambia Daily Mail, Coast Week (Kenya), and other African publications. She holds an M.S. in agriculture, food, and environment from Tufts University and a B.A. in environmental policy from Monmouth College.
