From her childhood memories of foraging with her father and grandfather in Africa and learning about the medicinal properties of her bounty from her mother, Dr. Maryanne Lobo discovered more superfoods in Goan vegetation!
As a health coach and nutritionist, Maryanne believes in healing through nature! Find out what local blueberries are and where you can find them. What was it like growing up in Africa among some of the most breathtaking landscapes?
Tune in to find out!
Travel tip: If you are in Goa in the monsoon, you must visit the Pomburpa Spring, which is said to have natural healing properties.
Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound edit by Kshitij Jadhav
Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.
Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor.
From her childhood memories of foraging with her father and grandfather in Africa and learning about the medicinal properties of her bounty from her mother, Dr. Maryanne Lobo discovered more superfoods in Goan vegetation!
As a health coach and nutritionist, Maryanne believes in healing through nature! Find out what local blueberries are and where you can find them. What was it like growing up in Africa among some of the most breathtaking landscapes?
Tune in to find out!
Travel tip: If you are in Goa in the monsoon, you must visit the Pomburpa Spring, which is said to have natural healing properties.
Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound edit by Kshitij Jadhav
Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.
Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor.
00:09
This is Sue Seagal stories from guava I cried de Sousa take you deep into glob beyond the beaches and help you live and love the SUSE God lifestyle no matter where you are
00:27
my favorite memories of Goa involve roasting cashews in my backyard, picking up carbon, the berries and stealing mangoes from my neighbor's tree. Now go ah as some of you may know, or may not know, is home to over 1000 species of plants, including medicinal plants. Now, I didn't know that Google just told me that. So I'm going with Google. But today my guest is an expert on all of this. Her name is Dr. Marianne Lobo. She has what I think is a dream life of making a career out of plant walks among other things. She is a health coach, a balanced nutritionist and runs plants walk go up. Not only does she carry out walks in GWAS beautiful forests, but on her walks, you can eat, taste and smell go was rich flora and fauna.
01:24
Welcome Marianne to say God stories from guar podcast.
01:29
Thank you so much Clive for having me. I mean, it's an honor totally love the sacred life in the sacred stories that you have written. And so I feel you've done me more than justice. I mean, it's it's too much the contented life.
01:50
Thank you. Thank you, Marian. And we have really I think we have bumped into each other so many times. And, you know, I've always wanted to go on one of your plant walks and I'm sure very soon I will. So you know, before you take me on to this virtual plant work that we are going to be doing on this podcast with our listeners. I want to give the listeners a sense of where you are in Goa right now. You know where you live? Where are you right now? Can you describe your surroundings a little bit?
02:20
Okay, currently, I live in this beautiful village of Cibola, which is surrounded, I'm surrounded by fields on three sides of where I live. So our morning rocks consists of peacocks walking with us through the fields. I get woken up by Rufus three pi in the morning, and sometimes in the season. There's a nice red flame, that woodpecker that wakes me up. And there are some birds that are there on my balcony. So I come to work in the city of matzah, which is a concrete jungle. But also at the same time it's still this vintage part of mapsavvy which is closer to the massage sound drum This is pharmacy if you've ever heard of. So it's still got
03:12
it still has homes with tile roof. So yes, the old and the new meeting and amalgamating together.
03:20
Lovely Sangala sounds like Garden of Eden. So beautiful.
03:26
I wish I could see some peacocks sometimes. Lovely. And I don't know if anybody knows how hot can go can be during the summer but it's also a time for some really great summer fruits. And generally I have like this summer fruit ritual that I follow every year you know, I start with like, you know, things like watermelon lychee tart gola have some kokum juice but I finally end summer only by eating mangoes and mostly man Corrado, Alphonso mangoes. So I want to ask you since it's the beginning of summer right now, what are your favorite summer fruits? And what are the ones that tastes great are also good for us? medicinally
04:08
Okay, so summer in grab for me means berries, and all the wild berries that are there in nature. Now everyone knows the famous Carvanha which has become like, you know, so famous because it's equivalent, according to me, from the local aspect, in quality to almost blueberries because it's something that's local, that seasonal, that's natural, but that's something that everybody knows there are unknown berries which many people do not know. Like there is Tara there is Safira there is tuna which many know there are love apples are exam that is Agama also, which you you know, you swirl them on the palm of your hand. With a little bit of pressure. It could soft a
05:00
influenza turns sweet with that movement of your hand. Wow, I need to find out of some of these. I'm going to have to try them out next time. You have to you have to collect.
05:13
Yeah, so what sooner. So tonight is a white cotton fruit. It's called it's cotton fruit. It's also called as the junuh Berry on Google, you'll find it as the Juna Berry. Now, it is stored to be equivalent to cranberry in properties, because just like cranberry is useful in UTI. So now is useful for UTI. And again why UTI summer heat and tract infections. So there you have pharmacy in nature. Lovely. So where can we get any of these foods? Are they available at some of the local teen tours or the local markets? Or does one have to go to either maps or like a big market? In the south maybe Marga or something? Are they available at the local Tinto markets? So local team has its dwindling now but yes, maps are market does. And it's not just a Friday market, you will have these ladies that come in. Now by 839. They will be sitting down with these players like cones, leaf cones.
06:20
Yeah. And they will be selling you to NAS in that.
06:25
Or you can also get them on the famous maps app engine highway. But at the nether Berna bypass area, right I always see some ladies you know sitting just before the bridge whether it's you know the pendulum bridge or this worry bridge or whichever bridge there's always going to be a few ladies sitting down with them on the on a mat and they'll have these variety of fruits. So I'm guessing if you're like me to like some of
06:50
then this is the time to indulge before mango season hits. Right. Exactly. That's the place you need to frequent. And of course need to pass it's available. So if you are gaming up to a little bit of scratches and pokes you can pick it up straight from the wild. Yeah, absolutely like my adventure, which I do every year about the corona, but we'll get to that a little bit later. I want to know a little bit about your childhood. Can you tell me about like where you grew up in Goa? And was it a lot of plant walking adventures? Is that what got you into studying plant walks of Goa?
07:24
Yes, yes. That that is you've hit the nail on the head, actually. So I grew up in Africa, not the Africa. Everybody knows now, which is like almost immediately. But
07:40
I am talking about is the Africa that was full of florists
07:45
full of life, no shops. So for everything we have to come to Moxa we had no grocery store. No hotels, no restaurants, no pharmacy,
08:01
roads reference, you still have coverage issues, even now with everything in Africa. So and you know, it was thickly forested area. So come summer, come the season of March and your exams get over. We will always be in the forest in the morning and in the field is in the evening. Wow, what kind of trees were there in Moscow? And then can you you know, remind us of some of your childhood adventure perhaps that you went on. So a lot of things that I don't see now one of them is adult, which is
08:39
Chico, but it's a smaller fruit. Even sometimes people don't know what's an adult. So the adult is the Portuguese word. Adam's apple is the English word, because it's just like the Adam's apple in a male on the male throat small like that. So it's just like that. And it's also brown in color. Now, there is a little bit of how would you say, you know, controversy because this fruit again, gets it comes to the Portuguese to go. And also it's difficult to grow. So now the tree trees are very less in fact, every Friday when I go to the market, I'll ask the ladies to the other our other fruits have come they will say no, no one grows them now no one wants to not even know but nobody knows. In fact, the younger generation of vendors in the market who are asking the older women who I was talking to keep their get down that means what is this adult? Right? What does it taste like and what does it look like? So there is a cross between not so right Chico, and
09:48
off. How would you go? It's a bit astringent. So online Chico mix. Oh, very interesting. I haven't I've never been heard of this sounds really good. And did you ever climb
10:00
The trees and all that. I mean, did you climb any other trees in US ago when you were growing up? Or what was it? So I planned adult trees, there are actually two to four different varieties of gemstones also here in Africa
10:16
will not have. So you have from the smallest to the big brand is only the restaurant German.
10:23
So I have turned on the Champion three, then you have the cashew tree, and you know the varieties of cashews. And when we were small, that is below the age of six, you are a boy or girl, you just ate cashews without your top t shirt or your dress on top on because it would stay in the clubs. Absolutely. At that time, there was no How would you say at the prejudices that exists now? Yeah. And so you know, there was so many things that we just enjoy that childhood. childhood was fun childhood was games, running through the forest trees, of course, hearing a snake pass by sometimes and just being cautious, seeing
11:09
different varieties of birds. And of course at night, we have even heard the dogs and foxes in the forest of Africa, which Wow, no longer exist. Yeah, no, that's yeah, that is quite crazy. So now I've also seen that that obviously, you've taken all of your childhood experiences, all of these are the hours and the casual experiences that you had, and you've turned it into plant works. And I've seen on your Instagram, you know that you're showing people around, you're taking them foraging, you're making them eat stems, and I also saw a photograph of an ants nest on a leaf. So now tell me like where all do you take people on plants work? How long have you been doing plant works? And you know, and some of the exciting places that you know, one can go on a walk with you. plant crops actually is don't just about two years old, it actually took its birth in person's mind.
12:06
Okay, and it was definitely was pushing me. So listen with your wonderful husband, because he's a wonderful husband. And he had been pushing me to why don't you share this knowledge with everyone, but it took the pandemic to
12:21
happen for me to actually start plant walks. And with plant walks, I mean, I have literally, you know, it has been an endeavor to make people have a showcase into some of the plants that may not exist into the next generation or the generations to come. So Acida company name, then a showman sucker, Sam, Golda sandiego are the areas that I normally frequent. And not to forget, we've also done tanjun
12:59
Oh, wow, that's cool. Okay, so quite a quite a few places and where do these walks like for example, like I have described, you know, like, when I go in May, to my uncle's place in commonly, we just go right? Opposite the houses, the houses on a sloping hill, and there's these thick bushes, the corona bushes, of course, you know, that I described. And you then told me that Kamuli has the maximum growth of carbon does right? I didn't know that. So now on your walks, are they are they like just off the road? Or is it like into a thick forest? Can you like tell me about specifically about like, say one of them, maybe the Sukkot one or your favorite one? Actually, I accident would be my favorite. Commonly comes a close second with score. Okay, so what can one see in a second right now, as a girl right now we take the hill. So I took the hill walk, but you know, the forests are depleting very fast. But you will still get at least four to five different berries currently that are there now. Like the wildlife Zora Berry, you will get the carbon, when of course schedules are there, one or two nights remaining still. And so you know, there is something still remaining. And that's what actually gives me joy that at least through every of these things, you still have something that one can forage and eat. And I would love to just enjoy this experience where you forget every of the city tension and worries and for a moment you're just cut off because there's not much coverage in the forested area. So you know, you're just walking in and having the sensorial experience with the plants. Right and and how long how long is the duration of the plant work and what time like do you start in the morning and all of that? So we start in summer by about seven sometimes even 630 as it gets hotter. Right. But otherwise it rains it is from nine to 11 generally because it's raining
15:00
And then you know, then the winter starts are just too much to do, then you can't see anything in front. Because of the like, you know, the miski conditions. Yeah, that's the time from the Envy started nine and end up at 11. But it can go longer. Because when you talk about food, and when you talk about medicinal plants, there's so many questions and then everybody, as the progresses, people remembering their childhood experiences, visiting their grandmother's homes, then.
15:33
I don't know. I mean, one of my favorite things to do, as always, I mean, I used to do this way sneakily where you, we used to either try to knock down our neighbor's mangoes, you know, or try and maybe run up some other neighbor's tree. And, you know, especially in the afternoons when everyone was sleeping, so do you also help people steal other people's mangoes?
15:51
Walks?
15:53
So normally, we never go into anybody's private, obviously, yeah, we're just joking.
16:02
Are certain private forests. So when I use a private forest, I'd normally ask permission from the owners first. And then we wonder, and you had a question earlier, I remember when you asked when I go to do something off the road. Yes, I do something off road, especially with the older
16:23
folks and with the younger children, because for them, I need something to be on the easier side without, you know, the slippery slope much working and
16:36
you don't need gravel coming under your foot and you know, losing your support or you're losing
16:43
your grip as you're walking. So we choose sometimes easy paths to
16:48
it's for everyone. Anyone can have an experience with plants. Right? Now another thing that I remember when I was growing up my Nana, my grandmother, she always made me go short of karate, right? Which is this really the most bitter pukey juice I've ever had in my life. Right? So So now what is it? Do you know? Because I mean, I'm just I all I know that it's it is bitter leaves, right? And it's supposed to be good for digestion, if I'm not mistaken. So can you tell me a little bit about karate and do people still have it is it now common still among you know, guns and especially young kids and all that. So karate is what is called as the bitter tonic that exists. And it's a very good febrifuge Also that means it helps come fevers and it is given for people who are have just recovered from malaria. It is given to people who have just recovered from typhoid.
17:47
So, Kid it is had generally in Govan homes on Wednesday and Sunday, so and they were very particular to tell it, you should not have it on any other day, just Wednesday and Sunday. And people still do have it. It is still followed like this and had. And of course many of the younger kids don't like it, the younger generation don't like it. Even some of the older people will just try to avoid it. So the frequency is not as much as it could have been in, you know, before maybe like 1520 years back. But yes, it is still used. And karate is my research drug. For the second year I read a medicine. So I have a great fondness for karate myself. And we still use get it at home.
18:37
Wow. Okay, cool. So I'm not coming if I come to your place, please don't give me criteria
18:45
to meet my maternal grandmother, who would tell us it's time for champagne. Because Can I
18:54
like champagne?
18:57
Oh my god. Okay, fine. So now I know that if you tell me to have a sip of champagne, I know what to expect.
19:05
Now, the other thing that the thing that I was surprised to know, you know that on your walks, you've mentioned that there are ginger leaves, mango leaves and even some thorns that have medicinal properties. So what what is all that about? I mean, I never knew that thorns could have medicinal properties. So tell us a little bit about that. Wow. So have you seen the silk cotton tree, which gives lovely pink flowers in summer. It's called as
19:36
in Hindi and it will always be just a nude tree with pink flowers. And commonly again has a lot of them currently these days because they are in full bloom. And I used to call it the juice bar for the birds because I would always see birds on that tree as a child. You
20:00
cranking away that to their heart's content with their books dipped into the flour. And then you know, they're using their head and enjoying themselves. Bees around this tree. So the tones of this tree are very pointy, and pokey
20:18
resemble acne on the face and the tones on the street. I used to treat acne.
20:27
Wow.
20:29
So what do you do you? What do you do with the tone? Do you eat it? Yeah, I'm sure you don't poke your acne right with
20:35
acne and you don't eat it. But what you do is you take rosewater and you rub the tone on a stone. So it creates this friction and you get a paste
20:48
that pace is used on the face.
20:53
Especially when the acne is and within about 15 to 20 days you have a relief. But this is you know the beauty and I always say the ancients or the older generation people they just knew looking at something and then something in the body, which is similar. Like how would you say like he was like But yeah, it's not like it's how it is a nature like you. You will know this thing. One that looks like the brain. This is one that is good for the brain.
21:24
Yeah, that's interesting. So visually the way the fruit looks it also helps that part of your body or that
21:31
ailment. Oh, that's very interesting. So there is a nice plant that looks like pasta. Okay, the fruit of it looks like pasta and I always use it on the kids walk because the kids just enjoy it. It looks like fusee passed Okay and again it is twisted Fuseli so it will be things twisted right? So I always ask the question what is twisted in the body and there are some of course wisecrack jokes that I get that somebody will say the brain is twisted that is twisted
22:04
you know everyone trying to it a light moment, which is nice. But the intersections are what is twisted right? And that is supposed to be good for children stomachic So a tea is made of that fruit and consume. What is this fruit? What is the name of the fruit? So it's called as the screw plant because the fruit is like a screw it around. It's totally twisted, flat but not like a plaque but it turns around like a passport. You need to
22:39
yeah, really I mean I'm just so intrigued with all of this. I mean I'm just I definitely have to go you know food shopping in with you for sure.
22:50
This plant is this plant is used for Ganesh Dorothy as the screen to tie up the fruits for the metodi so this plant has explained even in our traditional Govan connection to the celebration, okay, wow, very interesting. Yeah. Now you also mentioned about the mango leaf I'm very very interested about mango leaves because I love the mango. So now you said that mango leaves also a medicinal in what way?
23:19
So the mango leaves one will always find them used typically in a given Hindu home as the torah in the front of the door. It's always tied at the front of the door. Do you have any idea and even pan India wherever mango was available? It will be tied at the your front yard. You will find the mango leaves. Now good. You mentioned it that yes, I've noticed that. Yes. Do you have any idea why wasn't like an air purifier? Very close. Yes, it is also an air purifier very good. But also there was not so much excess easy access to medical facilities in the past so that when you had a cut or you had a wound, they will immediately crush that man could leave mix a little bit of turmeric and put it on the wound to stop bleeding. Okay, so it was like a cool coagulant that sort of thing. It would help blood clotting,
24:26
blood clotting and also like an antibiotic, so the wound would not fester.
24:33
Wow. Okay, that's really interesting. So first pandemic. During the second wave, when I got affected with the virus, I recovered by sitting under a mango tree. And the pointed tips of a mango tree are traditionally also used for what is called as Azzaro which is a very traditional system of medicine to take away negative energy from your body
25:00
body to take away infection from your body. So it is moved in a very clockwise of motion from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. Yeah, I think my granny also used to do that she would just take an entire branch of mango leaves, right? And then just kind of in a circular motion, just start with your head and then go down your body. Right. Exactly, exactly. And how does that help? Exactly? So the one thing is, of course, the first thing is, it has this placebo effect. Okay, so you feel good, because it's not being cared for. Right? You're not well,
25:37
feeling the love, you're feeling the warmth, the attention. The second thing is they will do as as going through they will do, basically. Yes, yes. So then the second aspect, which is a scientific aspect, is that it's a pointed leaf. So it has positive ions at the tip of the leaf, your body centered immune, there is infection, there's, there's, you know, maybe some blood impurity or something. That's the reason why they would take for this arrow. So there is negative energy in your body. So this positive, that negative is typical signs here in play. Right. Okay, that's change. Now, obviously, it happens. Right. Now. Goins are also very, like you mentioned, they're also scientific, they're seasonal, they had a lot of these traditional wisdom, right. And one of the traditional wisdoms was the season of pure romance, right, which is talking and preserving of things during the summer so that when the, you know, the fierce monsoons come there is food to eat, because obviously at that time, there was no refrigerators and all that. Now, of course, there are refrigerators, so we don't need to really stock up, but a lot of the provement traditions still continue right. So now other than the bungalows and the pickles and the mangoes and Dora Shiro that we kind of pick up what are the other things that you think, you know, we can still do, which are also tasty and beneficial to us that you can recommend, okay, ramen basically means, you know, stocking up and keeping you what you said earlier is very, you know, is is forms like a traditional aspect of golden life. It does, you're, you're just and you started it from the month of March actually. So there are different things that got stored and different things that got collected as the days of summer went by a spring went into summer. So we started off with normally, of course, the soul fishes one, but how many know that even jackfruit seeds were preserved and kept? Because we had no potatoes in cocoa? There was no done in Guam. So how would you add a filler to a vegetable? How would you make your your vegetable dish more tasty? And of course, you know, the collocation vegetable, the greens, the rainy season greens that we get because guar gets loaded with green seasonal, seasonal vegetable in the rains. How do you integrate into the jaccuzzi that is the edible form that is also there that is also eaten with the jackfruit seed. So the jackfruit seek finds its place in a lot of going, you know the GSB cuisine, the gounder search but Brahman cuisine, yeah, it is still a part of their cuisine, because they have kept to their traditions. But a lot of the others like the tribal community that exists still in the hinterland. They do
28:45
use jackfruit seeds. And I just happen to have an aunt who though she lived in Bombay, and came back to her roots taught me the little medicine that I also know from the age of three, she told me how to preserve the jackfruit seed. So you took the mud from an unused anthill, which was soft and it was wrapped around like a paste to the jackfruit seed and she would dig a hole under the Cowden flow in the kitchen and preserve the jackfruit seeds. Now another way now that you can preserve jackfruit seeds is bedding the seeds in an earthen pot understand so you don't need the fridge.
29:29
Amazing
29:31
that might be a fun thing.
29:34
If you in case you forgotten
29:40
right. So what what other things can one preserve right now and you know use as a as a superfood
29:48
is also kept preserved. And yet there is another thing which is also called as purport then why is normally gathered and kept naturally some bit of it jargony
30:00
At this time jaggery is also preserved and kept Teflon bearings which are used to give the flavor to the fish curry is also gathered the bottom
30:12
yeah there really is a nice kind of sore bitterness setting more bitterness to the to the courier right? So they took this nice no they give the pungent aroma is one and they get this pungent flavor to the food so that's why it gets its name called as numbing spice because when you eat it, it just takes numbs the part the front of your tongue. Yes, right yeah, now that you mentioned that yes, I remember I'm gonna have to
30:44
all of these things.
30:46
So then the kokum the consolas get also ready during this time. So Scala yeah COCOM is used in combination when you're cooking the collocations or the
30:59
collocation now it's become like a chef's delight in there now in a lot of chefs menus.
31:07
What's the one or the or the Indian word for it?
31:11
We call it our authentic Tapana The links are color theory chi panna
31:17
Wow, okay, my mouth is already salivating Amina like I can just imagine that vegetable with some nice Salah sounds great and then of course, the tango Salah as I kept reading you have the
31:30
right yes the bins made and kept ready when the salah also get another fruit which you get in the hinterlands of Goa and which is available tan India only the color is a bit different. It's called as autumn Okay, what does that
31:48
Autumn is a very sour fruit.
31:51
So, when it is fresh, it is quite sad. In fact, if you eat just once part of that you will literally close your eyes will grind your teeth and you will have the typical reaction when you have an extremely sad Tamron
32:07
Oh okay.
32:09
So, Autobahn is used for fish carry and it is also used for normal carry and when it is used more in the hinterland of gua so in the coastal area, you will not find it being used so much. Right now, I'm just I'm just thinking because all of these things that you've told me there's so much of a time I think I'm myself I'm gonna have to listen to this podcast three four times. And just tell me no where can work? If I want to go and get these Where would I get these would I most likely get it at the maps or market with with these ladies sitting down over there? Because I've never come across this.
32:40
So sometimes you will get it very rarely at the maps or market. But I have this thing like I I do a lot of so I love different market shopping that is I love going to village markets. So that's okay, we'll get this in the Interland, agua. Any suggestions on which market? Maybe we can you know, kind of look for them at Machelle market is one place that you will definitely get it.
33:10
Okay. Okay, Marcel? And what about the Pellerin market or the Salgo? Market? And other I mean, I'm sure they're probably smaller markets, but maybe at one of these places as well. Being as Muslim. Again, because it's the coastal area. The people many people even don't know what's our town?
33:27
Right, exactly, because I've never come across it. So maybe more into the central part of Goa, the more hinterland part. Yes.
33:34
Yes, yes. And again, finds its place in a lot of cuisines. In Northern India to in northern India, it's so nice to color when you cut a cross section of it, because they sell normally the cross section slices. It looks like the cross section of a mouth. Like there are there in your mouth. That's how it looks. Okay. Okay, well, when, as you were mentioning earlier, maybe that's good for your teeth because it looks like teeth. I don't know.
34:05
It's good. Good blood purifier. It's good blood purifier. So yeah, yeah. Now most of us most of us forage for food in our fridges, or on apps. Right, which is which is which is
34:21
an air conditioned supermarket right? But now I wouldn't know because I like trying to grow plants and I'm like unsuccessfully trying to grow to the plant plant. I'm on my third plant right now. So I don't know I'm probably giving up on Tuesday, but can you tell me some other plants that maybe I can grow at home other than let's say Tulsi and curry PATA or something? What do you think I can grow on what do you suggest I can grow without killing it?
34:45
Normally I just finished I think to on my Instagram page, I've yet to complete the three. So the five plants that I say that almost every household should have. The first one is the tool see? Because the tool see the
35:00
He helps you with a lot of you know ailments right from cough cold, it brings back of flavor sometimes to your you know the taste the sense of taste to your tablet. So, you can use to see for that the second one is what we call this ortho now in our local language country or what is called as Indian borage, which is mistakenly called as the ajwain plant. It's very easy to it's Hardy. You can even if you forget to water it for the next two days, it's not going to die. What's the Indian word for it? The Hindi word let's say the Hindu mode is a German plant a giant computer I normally say yes that's what they'll call it. The thick leaf right? That one yes. And that can be used to flavor your doll to flavor your sample it's good for it. So what I do when I have a cold iced tea party that is I do in hot water I put off the the heat and then I keep it for 10 minutes in hot water and then I consume that tea
36:04
right and what are the other plants so this is this is to see and let's say the joint Indian boy yes the third one is ginger so not only the root of ginger you can even use the leaves of ginger to flavor your food that's something many people don't know that you can use the leaves of yeah and it's ginger easy to grow
36:25
to this very easy to grow you can forget watering it for five days in yet yet it will be very forgiving towards you.
36:33
Great so unlike the Tutsi I don't have to serenade it to it and you know crack jokes with
36:38
no ginger and I would suggest having a small ginger plant because during the lockdown I just grew three teacher plants and that was enough for me just for the flavor part of you know flavoring my rice or adding sometimes flavor to the dial to the vegetables. Even you know to chicken you can use
37:00
so, so I'm gonna go shopping tomorrow. Yeah, third one. Yeah, what Yeah.
37:08
And turmeric again is very useful. Turmeric Tea leaves are again used to flavor food. You can use a turmeric to flavor G the next time you may be tried out at justifying getting Oh, you're making E and you're taking g off the fire. Just use it start to be my my teacher who has a part. She told me that she would flavor huggy with turmeric leaves and then use that to gain in Korean cooking. Yes, you can use beginning cooking. And also you can try if you're used to eating fried, or you know eating smoked fish. Instead of using banana leaves. You can try smoking them in somebody keeps for the flavor. Yes, of course.
37:51
Especially macro. Right? Yeah. Okay, great. And that brings me to the fifth one. And that's the aloe vera. Aloe vera. Yes. Okay, so aloe vera have aloe vera is very hardy. And it's it's it's brilliant. It doesn't need too much care. At least mine does not. Right. Yes. Yes. Aloe vera even is once in seven days. If you water it, it is still thrive. Right? I didn't I never watered mine for three months and it was surviving.
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So it's a very healthy plants I've got Yeah, so aloe vera and curry PATA are like tough and hardy. To see I have to sing two or maybe sing some better songs or get some other singer to sing to it. But I'm definitely going to try ginger and to see. And also a ginger. And you mentioned what was the other one that you mentioned? The
38:40
joint plant? Yeah, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try that and see how it works out. And I'll get back to you and tell you how it's working out. Great. So okay, so now lots of great insight into all the plants that you just told me about. Now we'll come back a little bit to the forest part. Now when I was writing my books to say God, I came across this very fancy Japanese tradition. At least the term is very fancy. It's called Shinrin. Yoku. I'm sure you've heard of it. And it means forest bathing, right. Yeah. And it's of course its benefit ranges from lowering blood pressure boosting immunity, improving our memory is something that we all need, thanks to Google. Right. Now, what are some of the other benefits, you know that you think there are, you know, with with walking into the forest touching leaves and you know, hugging a tree and all of that. So by itself, that is such an intense communication network, between the plants in nature by themselves.
39:36
You just need to tap into that frequency to pick up from that and to you know, get
39:44
that frequency of healing into our body. And I think for us beading is really wonderful. It is also done very much in India. It's just that nobody gave it a fancy term.
40:00
Nobody used, like, fought forest bathing. And that's how the Chipko movement also happened.
40:08
Because they went in, they have the trees. And here people have been doing it invariably through the centuries down, where they would just go and spend time in nature just sit down in nature, people would be walking through the forest, tired, lying down in nature enjoying themselves. And I do take some of my patients for a consultation in the forest. For the simple reason I just sometimes want some of them to unwind and not feel so claustrophobic in the clinic setup. And it does. I mean, I have seen them respond faster to treatment than you know, the more rigid clinical setup that a clinic normally presents itself.
40:55
Right? Yeah, no. Well, so what what would be the core concrete term for forest bathing if we had to come up with it? What would we what would we say? Can we come up with it right now?
41:07
Very funny because it the words that come to Jan Jana narrow, general and Anna, but it doesn't.
41:17
Right, exactly. Yeah, but let's see, maybe we can give it a try and try it out a few times. And maybe you can try it and tell your patients that this is our Shinrin Yoku. It's, you know, whatever. Yeah.
41:30
Even go to the waterfalls go has so many waterfalls in the rain. Yeah, waterfalls, and even well, water baths are something that I've really I always enjoy. I mean, I know that not too many people need to do it now. But whenever I can, and whenever I again go to come only to my uncle's ancestral place. We always try and have a well water bath. And there's something really, really cooling and you know, soothing about it. Yes, yes. And also the springs each spring, many times had different medicinal uses in the different villages of Guam. Right.
42:02
Good for skin. Oh, okay. Is that so? Okay, that's interesting. sharanam is good for the eyes and blood pressure.
42:10
Oh, the water you're talking about the water the springs, right. Dismiss the water the springs? And what about Palmer PA? Because permit also is very famous for its springs, right. So that also was good to know, help lower blood pressure and for the skin. But now it is, you know, so commercialized at the moment. Of course, they are very well taken care of. It's not very well taken care of. So, you know, sometimes it's quite a disaster when you reach there and what you see.
42:40
But correct, you can still go and have a bath at least you can drink water at the pool past spring anymore, but you can definitely drink water the Cambodian spring. Yeah, right. I think yeah, that's true. Anyway, I still prefer the well water bath compared to the springs. But yeah, maybe I'll try out the community spring the next time I'm there. That's a good idea. Okay, now on to a slightly more controversial question, because, like gua like has like about 1400 Odd kilometers of forest cover, which is about 50% of its total area and all of that it has the UNESCO recognized Western gods which has maximum biodiversity. And it has of course, more land national park right. But there's also a lot of development, a lot of rash development maybe. So what's your take on all you know, development versus the conservation of forests? So, a lot of forests are dwindling, whether we accept it or not, yes, with development also does come a deep price that one pays where forest cover does get reduced?
43:45
Right and
43:48
yes, there has been a lot of effect of it not just on the evergreen forests. So, the Western Ghats is known because it was it is an evergreen forest, from different species of canes and palms, palms Which flower once in 60 years. So, that is the beautiful species of plants that exist deep into the Western Ghats. And a lot of them are dwindling because of development.
44:21
So yes, there exists this you know, very sad side also of the whole picture, but that is also a very fast movement of people happening where now people are getting more conscious about the native and indigenous species of plants. And you know, planting them seem to eat the raccoons in their neighborhood, these plants are not cut, not touched. So that is people's action that is happening. That is the biodiversity groups that are there in each village to grow is one of the rare states where there's a biodiversity
45:00
committee in each women's well the state of Go.
45:04
So nice and do they do they conduct like do they also conduct walks or do they do like workshops and all of that or
45:12
the biodiversity is maintained. So they ensure that the biodiversity is maintained. So they have a register biodiversity register of the village. And of course, the workshop is conducted by the biodiversity board. It has already through active biodiversity member Secretary Dr. Pradeep Sam Akademische is doing a fantastic job at the moment, you know, raising up people
45:38
in each village, and, you know, their their traditional practices that are there, that they have the traditional, you know, like the mall law, the basket, you know, making them the broom, how, if you know, the midrib of the coconut leaf used to sound, which is a kind of a broom that is here. Yeah, and again, that practice is doing very fast. So, nice things now get, you know, a support from the biodiversity Board have, you know, been maintained, and at least, you know, they're mentioned, also, there is a very active
46:22
competition that happens at Chaturthi time, where there is a competition in the maximum number of species of plant that you have gathered on your mattoni during Chaturthi. Wow, okay, awesome. So that's, that's very heartening to know that in spite of, of course, all the development, which none of us can do much about, it has to go, it has to happen. But it's really heartening to know that there is this bright side of it with villagers and villages, you know, doing all of these things at their level. So and of course, people like us were trying to, you know, grow plants in our homes. Right. And of course, then there is you, you know, doing plants, walk, plant walking and all of that. So I know that right now it's really hot and sticky in Goa. But are you still doing the plant work? So during the summer and where is the next one. So the next one is in Moira this Saturday. And again, I start very early seven o'clock in the morning till nine o'clock. And soon enough, there will be a heritage walk that is happening. The Heritage Festival the go ahead to action group, they are having another walk next month. So I will be there for one of the walks. So I will be doing the pendulum altin walk and again chosen a place artiness much cooler than the other part of Pangea. So yeah, there's a lot of nice leaf cover in beautiful homes and all of that. So I guess it should be cooler than other places. Yes, so lovely. Then we'll move on to our next segment. It's called the ouzo round, which means of course fire. So it's like a rapid fire round.
47:58
And one of my guests itself came up with the name. So yeah, so it's called the user round. So you ready for it? Yes.
48:06
Okay, great. Let's go. So question number one, your favorite village to go plant working as a GM still is Yeah. And and why is that? So too many childhood memories with my father going foraging with my granddad? My mother taking me to the field work and learning that there are medicine plants in the field, too. So there is a lot of and of course, the respect the deep respect that they taught me for the forest. So yeah, I forgotten still holds. Very well. This great. Your best going superfood. Naturally, Ravi.
48:46
No. Okay. When why is that? So?
48:50
You know, many people think that now because minutes have got introduced.
48:55
A lot of things have come to go on. Now. I know a lot of people, you know, especially new golems, as I call it, they think that God didn't know anything about millets. And much, much to everyone's surprise, my gran aren't always had this rhaggy learn that she would get ready 10 days before Christmas for the Christmas crib. And when I asked her why she said that. I'm Jenny. That means blogging is a part of our diet for generations. It is not something that was introduced from other states or something like that. It was part of the gold staple that yeah, very interesting. Okay, now what's your all time favorite gun comfort food? Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Can you tell us what more gotcha gotcha is, I mean to our listeners. So MOOC, which is boiling the frog green MOOC, that is green frog, soaked and kept overnight and then you know the next time on you throw the water out a week.
50:00
Still afternoon so that it gets a little bit of a sprout a small, tiny little bit of a sprout, and then decide who will cook it with in the pressure cooker because that's the easiest way now, with a little bit of jaggery. And then to that you add grated coconut milk, the milk extracted from a grated coconut, you cook that a little bit for three minutes, and that's your Moga Ceccacci ready for you. Wow, lovely. Okay, what's a good phrase or term that you love using? It can be Portuguese as well. It's up to you.
50:34
So Ruth, the company that is something that I always heard my grandmother say, and the maternal grandmother say, distribution, I stumbled on Jack first. These are the two things that always is super complicated means Oh, that's too complicated. So when ever she was asked something, and there was a lot of paraphernalia attached to it, all she would do was to complete.
50:59
Okay, like, Oh, forget it. I can't do it. It's too complicated.
51:04
And then when was the was the second second phrase, some distractions damned and Jack first. That means it's not as it looks like that's why the woman gets fooled.
51:17
Right, right, right. Yeah, double basically someone who's like double faced or whatever.
51:25
Yes, yes, I've heard or I've also heard the phrase being used.
51:29
All right. Now my fifth and final question on the user round is what brings you so sick God, just being in the forest. And every time I have been upset, angry, depressed, I've always just left everything, just gone. And by myself, and just spending time in the forest, I think, lying down under the shade of trees, which is sitting down with my head rested on the back of a tree is the best cigar that I can say that it's wow, I think that's one of the best answers I've got. And I'm really happy that you're able to, you know, experience to see God in what you're doing. And also helping others experience to see God through the, you know, through plant walks. So wow, that's amazing. And I think I've just, you know, like, learned so much more than I expected. And you've not only taken me through a virtual plant walk, but it's been like a fruit walk and a medicinal work and of food work. So I got a lot more than I expected. Now I'm waiting to do this physically. So thank you, Marianne, for introducing and keeping the love of nature plants and forests alive among a population right now that is obsessed with screens and apps. And I know, I mean, screens and apps are not going anywhere. But I think maybe you know, all of us kind of doing this more often going on a plan to work with you sometime will just help us bring us back to our roots. So yeah. Now thank you again. And you know, before I let you go, can you just tell our listeners so where can they follow you on Instagram or your social handles if they want to go on a plant walk with you. So plant walks grow official, is our Instagram ID. And you can just follow us there and get all the information about whenever next plant walks and more about plant information, more about what you can grow what is the seasonal local and regional food of the place because we doing a lot of work in preserving seasonal foods, local foods, and also about you know the pharmacy that exists in your backyard and the biodiversity of the Western Gatso plant box go out official is our official page. And in case you want any more medicinal plant information Dr. Dot Maryann Lobo is our is my other page. Facebook also is plant walks go up
53:55
the Facebook page that exists so you can follow that too. And thank you so much Clyde for having me. I mean, I was excited and very happy to share this information. And thank you to the entire cigar team. So it was really lovely. I didn't really like an interview.
54:14
Yeah, they're just supposed to be these nice fun conversations. And you know, yeah, that's that's what they are. So
54:23
yeah, thank you. So yeah, thanks. And thanks for coming on to cigars stories from go and Maga. Sue.
54:30
Bye bye. And welcome.
54:33
Welcome to the next plan walk. Yes, we will all be there. Okay, guys, thank you again for listening to cigar stories from GWA season two, we've really had some amazing guests. Marianne has been one of the most fun and great informative guests that we've got. I really enjoyed the podcast with her. So please do keep listening and do share leave your feedback and review this podcast so more and more people can start listening to it. And thank you for listening again and manga
55:00
So
55:02
hope you enjoyed this episode of say God stories from go out don't forget to rate review and follow this podcast. This is quite saying bye for now follow me on Instagram at Clyde D'Souza, author or buy my books who say God the going out of contentment. For more go and stories, recipes and a whole lot more. This podcast is brought to you by bound a company that helps you grow through stories follow them at bound India on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other awesome podcast nagasu and see you soon