Kodukanni, rakthasali, black rice, navara, mullan kaima, valichoori, poongar, jeerakalasala, karumkuravu, palthondi, ilipaipoosamba, chomala...are a handful among 30-odd varieties of rice available at Natural Edibles, a store that sells organic, naturally farmed produce at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kaloor. Biji Hilal, the brain behind the store, says she wants to create awareness about rice — varieties and their health benefits. “When people come to the store, it starts a conversation, and it makes people aware that rice is not the villain it is being made out to be. And by that I mean rice which has not been ‘chemically treated’ to appear a certain way.”
The rice varieties have been sourced from Wayanad and Palakkad in Kerala, besides Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The store stocks, besides rice, rice powder (puttu) and flakes, grains, vegetables, spices and condiments, oil — coconut and sesame, ghee and pollen honey. The store stocks 30-odd varieties of rice. “I do not always have these many varieties in stock because these are not cultivated in huge quantities, and are subject to availability,” says Biji.
“Almost all the processes of treating grains such as cleaning, milling, pounding, sieving, for example, are all done by hand at our unit in Puthusserry, Palakkad. The only mechanical process is ‘de-stoning’.” Biji sources the merchandise directly from farmers and farmers’ collectives. “These are people whose farms I have visited and ensured that they practise natural farming. That is they have indigenous cattle. A no-residue certification is given to farmers in Tamil Nadu who were into chemical farming earlier but converted to natural farming.”
