Regions: Central India

A short monsoon pulse, sown between crops as much as for the dal.

Sixty days from sowing to dal, and sproutable on a kitchen shelf.

The hardiest pulse of the dry deccan, grown where rain is unreliable.

Upright, bell-flowered and ancient; the oilseed of the dry season.

The grain that carries the western desert through a bad monsoon.

A tough small-grained millet of the southern and Himalayan hills.

A monsoon climber that will roof a terrace in eight weeks given a frame.

Palmarosa — a scented grass of the central hills, distilled for its rose-like oil.

Ridged monsoon gourd, quick to climb and quicker to over-mature.

A sedge most people fight as a weed, though its tuber is an old perfume material.