People in South India have been eating Millets from the Sangam age (i.e. from 3rd century B.C.). But due to the popularity of rice, especially the polished rice, millet cultivation has been greatly abandoned and rice became a staple food in South India. Now Millet cultivation is slowly coming back as people are realizing the ill effects of rice and exceptionally nutritional benefits of millets. Millets are the best replacement grains for rice and wheat and even to Quinoa. I have provided below the names of the millets that are grown and consumed in South India. Saamai - Little millet Varagu -Kodo Millet Thinai -Foxtail Millet Kuthiravaali -Barnyard millet Kezhvaragu-Finger millet Kambu-Pearl millet MS Swaminathan Research foundation has been encouraging farmers to grow millets and they started a pilot project by adopting 410 farmers to grow millets. What is interesting is, millets are grown only by rain clouds so there is no need for additional irrigation, suitable for hot humid weather, and grows so fast (harvested within 65 days) so there is no need for any fertilizers. It doesnt attract any pests either so no pesticides either. We bought some thinai packets from the local Sri Lankan Tamil store here and Harini Krishnan cooked thinai upma two days back that tasted well, just like wheat upma. Internet provides tons of food recipes using millets. I wrote this huge status post to bring awareness about this millet and would strongly encourage you to advise your elderly kins (as well as you) to start eating this wonderful grain. The more we eat, the more the price will reduce and we can just buy it from the local store rather than buying it from Nilgiris or other expensive super markets.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 17:34:08 +0000
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