Molasses: A Unique Farm-to-Table Dining Experience in Pondicherry

Akhila Vijayaraghavan finds that Molasses by Home Grown Produce in Pondicherry offers a unique farm-to-table dining experience. Rooted in the philosophy of re-wilding, it offers a deeper sense of the ecological impact of growing food, and what it takes to offset that, with an introduction to the ideas of foraging, integrative agriculture, and permaculture and more.

On the Pondicherry-Tindivanam highway, there is a blink-and-you-miss-it turn that takes you through the Molasur village. A stately banyan tree besides a well acts as gatekeeper to a dirt track that forces you to slow down and breathe it all in. If you keep your eyes peeled to the branches above, you will spot kingfishers, drongos, rufous tree-pies, and maybe even blue rollers. If you look down, you will see quails, egrets, and other birds. Drive on through a grove of casuarina trees, and come to a halt in front of the slatted bamboo gate. Open to enter the home of Molasses India.

Molasses is a labour of love from Home Grown Produce (HGP). HGP is perhaps the only company making small-batch, millet-based miso in South India. Their miso is imbibed with flavours like chilli and black garlic, all fermented in-house. They make their miso paste with locally sourced millets which gives it a unique flavour. Apart from miso, they also have recently introduced a line of flavoured salts capitalising on their access to fresh sea salt from the salt flats of Marakkanam, just an hour away.

The products of HGP showcase what happens when you put a quietly creative person like Rachna Rao in the middle 25 acres of decimated land. HGP is founded on land that had been ravaged from over-grazing and wood cutting. The simple act of putting up a protective fence has allowed the land to flourish again. Re-wilding of land with native species is a process that typically takes years, and HGP is still at the start of its journey. Spearheaded by Rao, originally from Chennai, who currently splits her time between the farm and Chennai, slowly saw the return of several native species like jamun, palmyra, banyans, bananas, ixora, and several species of cactus.

With a background in sustainable tourism, Rao is deeply committed to turning the farm into a space where people can eat good food, understand integrative agriculture, and unwind for a few hours away from the hustle of the city. Well-tended vegetable gardens coax out pumpkins, herbs, spinaches from rocky soil, painstakingly restored with copious amounts of compost, under the punishing Tamil Nadu sun. There is a cow shed, some chickens, five dogs of varying sizes and personalities, a compost heap, a water catchment pond, several bee hives — just regular farm things. And yet, it does not look like your typical farm.

Molasses, however, the brand under which HGP runs its pop-up events is truly where the magic of the farm is showcased. Rao makes use of the space to introduce people to the idea of farm-to-table and using local ingredients. So far they have hosted three pop ups last year, cooked by chefs from Pondicherry and Auroville.

Sisters Daphimanroi and Dakiwanri. showcasing Khasi food at Molasses

The concept of farm-to-table is not new. It is certainly gaining ground in India with several restaurants curating tasting menus around produce grown on farms, sometimes hosted on the farm itself. But a farm-to-table experience based not just around cultivation but also re-wilding is a unique experience. Re-wilding is very simply defined as giving Nature the chance to reclaim her rightful space on the earth.

The eloquence of farm-to-table isn’t merely stories behind the meal or the appreciation for the hard work that farmers put into growing quality ingredients. In this case, it is a deeper sense of the ecological impact of growing food, and what it takes to offset that. Concepts like re-wilding, foraging, local eating, free-range , integrative agriculture, jostle alongside organic cultivation, hydroponics, and permaculture. The experience of eating should connect you to where your food comes from, and how it is prepared, with respect for ingredients. The growing and preparing of food is the highest expression of human civilisation and culture, but also something that we are losing touch with. Traditional ingredients have a diminishing place in the modern kitchen and eating seasonally and locally has become nearly impossible.

The keystone species in this area is the Palmyra tree. This tree is the state tree of Tamil Nadu and is called ‘katpaha tharu’ or celestial tree, because every part of the tree is used. From the 5th century BCE to around the 19th century, palmyra leaves were used as writing material all over the subcontinent. Not only were some of the most important scriptures transcribed on them, but they were also used to keep records. An ancient Tamil deity linked to fertility called Panaiveriyamman is named after the palm tree or panai maram. Apart from being an economically viable crop, it is also culturally significant and holds a special place in the landscape of the state. So naturally, it made its way into the menu of the very first pop-up held on the farm.

Entitled Katha, story, Chef Anuj Kumar designed the first pop-up menu as a tribute to flavours across different geographies in India. The meal highlighted foods grown on the farm — the palm fruit or nungu, as palate cleanser paired with spicy passionfruit hot sauce, the spice from long pepper. Long pepper, different from black pepper, is an indigenous ingredient with several medicinal properties, growing specifically in the shade. Dahi kebabs featured a sauce made from cactus fruit. The garnish on several dishes was the signature medicinal avarampoo, also found on the farm.

The second pop-up featured food from the Khasi tribe of Meghalaya, curated by sister chefs from Shillong, Daphimanroi and Dakiwanri. The menu featuring some of Meghalaya’s most famous ingredients: sticky rice, and fruits like soh liang, soh shang, and sohiong along with wild herbs like jamyrdoh as well as more familiar ingredients like banana flower, smoked pork, and pumpkin.

The third pop-up by Chef Hanna Sarangan from Goa highlighted local, seasonal ingredients in a freestyle format by utilizing backyard ingredients foraged from the premises.s. Think prickly-pear ceviche and yam crostini; Greek orange pie and Molasur honey. Main course featured wild mushrooms and grilled fish with avarampoo salt, cape-gooseberry and chicken.

The space is open to regular dining experiences three times a week featuring a menu by the farm’s own kitchen team. This allows guests a glimpse into the range of flavours available, as well as their unique methods of preparation. Guests are welcomed with a guided farm walk by Rao herself, or they are encouraged to jump straight into the rainwater catchment pond to cool off before dinner. Under twinkling fairy lights and lanterns on the pavilion, a gentle breeze even on the hottest summer night keeps things comfortable.

Dinner typically features locally raised county chicken, seasonally available seafood, and free-range mutton and pork from a local piggery, paired with ingredients from the farm: spinaches, passionfruit, cactus flower, long pepper, cactus fruit to create an experience that brings people closer to understanding where their food comes from. To offer a glimpse of what it takes to produce a meal that is not just healthy but artful and sustainable.

Experiences like these offer guests a chance to consider the wider implications of what is on their plate. It doesn’t matter whether it comes from your grandmother or a chef speaking in a language that is sensory — the resonance is the identical. Food is cultural history and somewhere inside our collective bones, it thrums until we are able to find chords of commensality, when we all join to experience it under a katha.

Akhila Vijayaraghavan is a trained molecular biologist and environmental consultant.

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