Regions: East India

The big white-waxed gourd of the south, stored for months after harvest.

Sprawls generously and stores well; the leaves and flowers are food too.

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

Cut-and-come-again greens ready in six weeks from a shallow trough.

The monsoon green that grows itself — heat-proof, rain-proof, ready in a month.

Peppery leaves in five weeks, and yellow flowers for the bees after.

A thick-leaved climbing spinach that thrives in the worst of the monsoon heat.

A deep trough and forty days is all it asks. Thin ruthlessly for straight roots.

One good plant in a 40 cm pot out-yields four crowded ones. Stake it early.

One plant on a sill supplies a household, and crops for two years.