The millet fudge is prepared fresh (as ordered). It is made of ragi, peanuts, gud, and a tea spoon of ghee on a wood fire, thus carrying a smoky flavour. It makes a nutrient-dense snack. Ragi is high in dietary fibre, protein, and minerals, especially iron (87% of daliy value). It also contains (approx 20% of) magnesium, calcium, phorphorous, and zinc.
Storage: The fudge must be refrigerated. It has a shelf life of about 5 days.
Earnings: All receipts from the fudge go to Sonu (who is Sonu? Read the story below).
Waste: Please only compost or feed to cattle any wastage of this fudge. (Read the story for details.)
Story:
We started making ragi (locally called 'nagli') ladoos for a fun and nutrient-dense snack for the ladies on our farms. Our early ladoos were from purchased ragi. At just about this time, Sonu came back into our lives.
Sonu, in her youth, was one of the core workers at Vrindavan Farm. Now married, she tends to her own fields and her kids. Sonu grows ragi using heirloom seed nurtured by her forefathers over generations, handed over to her to carry forward. Like all tribals, she grows it along hill slopes in the monsoon. This ragi cannot be boxed into a term organic, it is a food grown in complete harmony with the forest, natural cycle, the soils, the people.
Culturally, the farmers do not sell their ragi. So deep their relationship with this seed, it is believed if the food produced from it be wasted, the farmer will take to illhealth. Farmers prefered to serve ragi to visitors in their home so they could manage the waste either by giving it to their cattle or composting it back to the earth. Sonu shares her ragi trusting you would revere these aboriginal sentiments.
The texture, consistency, and taste of her nagli is one I hadn't before experienced. So pure, once pounded, it's shelf life is rather short. Her family hand pounds small quantities of this millet for consumption as bhakri.
We wanted to share this beautiful millet and experience with you. Our first attempt was a ragi ladoo. Chef of Ground Up, Pune, Gayatri Desai, improved our recipe, to today, the Millet Fudge. It is a smoky fudge that feels chocolaty but carries all things millet.