Goals: Grow food

A north-eastern hill fruit, sour and used for pickle and jam.

The Himalayan butter tree, giving cooking fat and an enormous honey flow.

The north-eastern shoot bamboo — fermented shoots are a regional staple.

The tea of the Brahmaputra valley — one bush on a balcony is enough for a pot.

Black cardamom of Sikkim — deep shade under alder, at hill altitudes.

Malabar tamarind — the sour rind of Konkan and Kerala cooking.

Sweet basil — indigenous cultivation across India long before its pizza career.

Grown for the seed that swells in falooda and summer sherbets.

A wild desert melon of Rajasthan, dried and powdered as a souring agent.

The pod of the khejri — the vegetable that carries the Thar through summer.