Goals: Grow food

Pale crisp fruit that smells of rose water, on a small spreading evergreen.

Big lobed leaves and starchy fruit; a coastal tree of Kerala and the islands.

The slender betel-nut palm of the wet coasts, grown in dense shaded gardens.

A climbing orchid that must be hand-pollinated flower by flower, at dawn.

The vine that made the Malabar coast; needs a tree to climb and constant humidity.

The smoked black cardamom of Sikkim, grown under alder shade.

Small upright fruit on a woody perennial that crops for years in the hills.

The tree bean of Manipur — long flat pods with a pungent unmistakable smell.

The thick-rooted chive of Manipur, eaten root and leaf together.

Half the country’s calories — and a bucket of it on a terrace teaches more than any book.