Regions: north

Grown from sets or seedlings; needs depth, sun and patience.

A Himalayan ginger relative with scented white flowers and aromatic rhizomes.

The small-flowered jasmine of the monsoon, sweeter at dusk than at noon.

The Spanish jasmine of the perfume trade, grown widely in the north and west.

A winter pulse that also gives the sour green leaf of the north.

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.

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

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

Jowar — drought-hardy grain and fodder in one, on almost no inputs.