These black little berries are a beautiful part of my childhood memories
Solanum
nigrum or Black nightshade, Kakke soppu in Kannada and Manathakkali
soppu in Tamil. I have beautiful memories of popping these sweet-salty
little berries in my mouth as we played in Granny's backyard as kids.
Solanum nigrum grows wild around Dharwad and I luckily have loads of it
growing in my backyard.
I
know , it is pretty popular as an edible greens with my Tamil
and Telugu friends. But unfortunately, we haven't been adventurous
enough with this plant. O ut here in Dharwad
(North Karnataka in general), it is only the berries that are popular.
That too with kids. I did try using the leaves in dal once and couldn't
really take to the flavour. If I could get hold of some authentic
recipes, I wouldn't mind trying it out once again...
Recipes
and culinary adventures apart, I love the plant ! The attractive
leaves, the wispy little white flowers and the pretty bunches of those
teeny-weeny green-black berries, lend a beautiful charm to their
surroundings. And right now, I am enjoying the charming aesthetic appeal
and having fun eating a few of these burst-in-your-mouth
flavoursome berries every morning, while I walk around my backyard...
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