Hello everyone,
I am happy to share updates for the month of November at the Millet Revival Project!
In November, the Editorial Lab collaborated with the National Coalition for Natural Farming to publish an ‘as told to’ farmer interview with a farmer couple from the village of Devasiya in Dewas district, Madhya Pradesh. The interview takes us through a sowing day, as experienced by the farmer couple, and the things they do in order to get ready for sowing. It includes a section about sorghum, and how place it holds in the sowing cycle and lives of the farmers. We worked with a translator to translate the interview into English, so we could publish it in the original Hindi as well as English. It has been time consuming but well worth the effort to continue to make translations a part of our work at the Millet Revival Project, to make our stories more accessible.
We also published recipes for a Jowar Dal Dhokli and a Proso Yam Galawati Kebab this month.
Apart from these, we have been working for many months on our Millet Profiles - Mingle with Millets. They showcase important information for every millet, and are a resource by the Millet Revival Project to help consumers learn about these ancient grains and make them a kitchen staple. We are continuing to edit a series of expert interviews that will give our audience better insights into the millet landscape, ranging from chefs and restaurant owners, to agricultural scientists and farmer organisations.
The volunteers of Cooking Lab were assigned 5 recipes for November ‘24 inclusive of 4 text recipes and one video recipe per volunteer. Out of the assigned five recipes, two recipes are under the category of ready to eat with a longer shelf life and three recipes under the category of fresh consumption. The recipes from Phase 1 of MRP which were left unfinished by previous volunteers, have been re-assigned, re-shot and documented.
The Cooking Lab Lead travelled to Bhopal along with other team Locavore members for the Bhopal Potluck and Culinary Workshop events. Along with the manpower assistance provided by Cafe Amado, Sayani, our CL team lead executed 3 recipes: Chef TZac’s Mixed Millet Salad Bowl, Ragi Chhena Malpowa with Mahua Rabdi and Smoked Proso Yam Galawati Kebab Chaat keeping in mind how Bhopal loves its Kebab and Garadu ki Chaat, desserts and rabdi and a health friendly option in salad. Ragi Malpowa and Proso Yam Galawati kebab recipes are from our own bank of recipes submitted by previous volunteers. Chef TZac’s salad consisted of Foxtail millet, Kodo millet and Little millet with multiple toppings from Jeeravan masala marinated Roast Chicken, another spice blend classic from Madhya Pradesh, spicy Chimichurri, Garlic yoghurt, Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette, wild honey vinaigrette, oven roasted tomatoes, toasted nuts and seeds, pickled Tendli, tender young amaranth leaves to lettuce, charred corn kernels etc
In November, the Resource Lab achieved significant progress in advancing the development of high-fidelity mockups, particularly for the Resource Bank page. These mockups were tailored to the needs of the three primary stakeholder groups: Producers, Restaurants, and Experts. Key updates include:
- Stakeholder-Specific Formats
- Designed three distinct formats, each customized to address the unique needs of the stakeholder groups.
- Incorporated highly detailed yet concise content to ensure clarity and relevance.
- Integrated visual elements such as images and icons to enrich the user experience and communicate complex information effectively.
- Explored innovative features, such as a ‘View More’ option, to simplify the presentation of detailed content and reduce on-screen clutter.
- Iteration and Feedback
- Multiple options were developed for each stakeholder group.
- Based on stakeholder feedback, iterative refinements are ongoing to improve alignment with user expectations and usability goals.
- Enhancing Usability with Clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
- Special emphasis was placed on making the CTAs more prominent and user-friendly to guide stakeholder actions intuitively.
- Exploration of a Regional Legend Format
- Initiated the development of a legend format to compile and present the regional names of different millets in a more user-friendly and accessible manner.
The mockups reflect a careful balance between functionality and aesthetic appeal, with a focus on improving usability and engagement across all stakeholder groups. These ongoing efforts ensure that the Resource Bank page will cater effectively to diverse user needs.
The Climate & Policy Lab completed data collection for the opinion survey ‘Fill it with Millets’ and expert interviews. We received a total of 295 responses and completed interviewing 16 millet experts in policy, agriculture, culinary arts and nutrition. Throughout the month volunteers were engaged in conducting interviews, data cleaning, interview transcription, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and drafting the final report. This month we also finalised the concept note for our December BTP and began reaching out to panellists. Our upcoming session will explore the nutritional benefits of various millet types, and their efficacy in addressing current health challenges in India among women and children. We also made significant progress on the millet mapping project. Our volunteer completed data cleaning and visualising production and cultivation data over the last 30 years in India. We began sharing these visualisations with the editorial team to develop a narrative and ideate on the final presentation of this data on the Millet Revival Project website.
This month, a significant part of our communication efforts for the project focused on promoting and gathering registrations for our cluster events in Bhopal. We were thrilled to receive over 60 registrations through our online outreach. However, what truly warmed our hearts was the turnout at our potluck event and the variety of millet dishes people brought—without us having to nudge them persistently. As always, we also dedicated a substantial part of the calendar to promoting the editorial stories and recipes published under the project. In the next reporting period, we are excited to promote our upcoming Beyond the Plate session and strategise ways to bring our millet profiles on the website (a work in progress) to the forefront.
The Locavore’s first time in Bhopal was incredibly special. On November 16 and 17, The Locavore brought its Millet Revival Project, a collaboration with Rainmatter Foundation, to the city of lakes. We hosted the events at Cafe Amado, a local gem in Arera Colony, helmed by Meenal Rai Shejwar.
On Saturday, November 16, at our Millet Meetup we had 37 people attend and enjoy a lineup of events that included the Locavore Shuffle, a millet film screening, and a potluck that saw such an incredible diversity of cooking with millets. Participants also enjoyed a DIY Salad bar curated by ChefTZac himself. What was incredible was that we were able to have farmers and even some protagonists from the film join us for the screening and the discussion. It’s not often that we get to bridge the gap between rural and urban, and find space to have conversations between consumers and growers.
On Sunday, November 17, at our Culinary Workshop we had 45 guests where ChefTZac, our Cooking Lab Lead, Sayani and Chef Meenal from Cafe Amado showcased delicious millet based dishes. The workshops were very interactive with discussions on each dish, different types of millets etc.
We’ve shared two Ragi recipes to Vanita Pachakam, a popular, Malayalam language culinary magazine for their December issue for the column titled ‘Millet Mania’.
Through our events we also encouraged Cafe Amado to test and introduce millet based recipes on their menu.
: Tuesday, 13th August 2024
: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
: Online (Google Meet)
Saturday, 16 November
2:30 pm onwards
9:45 am onwards
5:30 - 7:00 PM