Head west out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s elegant capital, in the general direction of the Horn of Africa and the region’s trading-partners, and you’ll come to the salt-flats of the Little Rann of Kutchch, where most of India’s salt is produced.
Gujaratis are prodiminately Hindu. The state, birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Narendra Modi, is officially dry (no alcohol permitted, at least in public). Vegetarian comes with the territory, particularly in the countryside, which makes the judicious use of the mineral-laden salt from the salt flats of the Little Rann an essential part of the cook’s culinary vocabulary.
A valuable by-blow of the salt-pan industry is the cumin-harvest, the most important spice in Gujerati cooking. The crop is gathered and winnowed by hand by the salt-pan workers’ wives and daughters who use long winnowing forks to separate the seed from the chaff in the salt-laden breeze.
The salt allows the seeds to dry out rapidly without losing flavour and acts as a preservative and insect-repellent when stored. As a result, Gujerati cumin fetches high prices in the marketplace and is sought-after by those in the know throughout India.
The Little Rann of Kutchch is also home to the last wild herds of Asiatic asses, hardy little beasts so well-camouflaged they’re scarcely visible in the heat- haze of the dry season. The area was once a vast inland sea, which explains region’s ability to sustain life under seemingly desert conditions.
Although monsoon-season converts part of the desert to wetlands - breeding grounds for water-birds, including vast flocks of flamingo - Government-funded drinking pools have been drilled down into the water-table to provide the ancestors of the universal beast of burden with a vanishing resource.
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Beautifully expressed the Indian Gujarati food, geographical importance with great ILLUSTRATION 👌