Bangalore Celebrates World Kitchen Gardening

World Kitchen Day was celebrated with gusto which saw hoards of Bangaloreans flocking to JP Nagar to check out the organic side of life. From wannabe gardeners wandering around looking for seeds and soil, to crowds loving the purchase of healthy organic products. Lots of exclamations of “Ooh’s and Aah’s” and “How nice!” could be heard, followed by dozens of questions, quite overwhelming for the organic sellers.

Sunday indeed saw a happy crowd as they bounced from stall to stall buying, learning, listening and being
pro-green on this green day. OFYT brought its 6^th edition to the city with newer faces, products and fun-filled activities for families to enjoy.

What struck this time was it was not a crazy mad rush to buy organic products and seedlings, but families and young couples wanting to be clued on how they can eat, live, go to work and exist in a better, cleaner and environmentally inclined world. And they were getting all the answers right here. Stalls for every kind of audience possible, from buying compost pots from daily dump for the busy workaholic who doesn’t have the time, to getting the right nutrition from grains and Millet's for an older crowd.

A kids corner in one section was filled with board games and colourful pictures teaching the how’s and why’s of gardening along with crossword puzzles of knowing your veggies, painting spots and small displays of biodiversity know-have’s of gardening like worms and compost, display of organic vegetables and fruits was completed with a sapling given away to each child who participated. A wonderful educational workshop as a stepping stone teaching kids about the natural world and goodness of gardening. Other products included Mystic Hues beautiful pottery designs to funk up your balcony with colours and Muddy Waters which sells ceramic landscape gardening designs that gives terraces and balconies a beautiful earthy feel, lots of foodie products such as Vaathsalya, The Wheatgrass Farm and organic hand baked cupcakes coming in vegan style at OFYT called Taantraa filled with various khatta meetha flavours. The millet drive Earth360 was full power with a tasting of multi grain porridge which ran out quickly and in no time saw people purchasing their starter kit’s along with helpful recipes. 

Fun ways of reducing, reusing, and recycling at home was shared by Malleshwaram’s experts answering all questions and a small demo on composting held a good crowd  entertaining enthusiasts with “Wormi words of wisdom” had them listening intently and enjoying themselves.

Besides the compost, gardening equipment and various products, Bangalore organic kitchen gardeners enjoyed a salad party at the back, “We exchange seeds, knowledge and meet new people, bit of a get together with fresh greens from everyone’s home thrown in”,  said an enthusiastic city farmer.

An lovely moment was when a couple were showing their small son the worms used for composting, “We don’t compost but we would like to start, we want our son to learn about gardening and being healthy” his mom said. Gingerly trying to touch vermicomposting worms, he watched fascinatingly as they wriggled deeper into the soil.

OFYT is created by Dr. B.N. Vishwanath Bangalore’s organic agriculturalist and Bangalore's city farmers and saw one its biggest turnouts in JP Nagar on Sunday 25^th August, 2013.