There are four grains that grew on these hillsides for as long as anyone can remember and are now grown by almost nobody. No policy killed them and no disease wiped them out. They just stopped being worth the trouble, one family at a time, until they were nearly gone.
What the four are
They get grouped together because they occupy the same place in hill agriculture: hardy crops for high, poor terraces where wheat and rice will not do well.
- Ogla (ओगला) — buckwheat. Dark, earthy, ground into flour for roti. Not related to wheat and contains no gluten.
- Fafra (फाफरा) — a second buckwheat variety, milder than ogla, used more or less interchangeably.
- Chalai (चलाई) — amaranth. Tiny seeds that pop like miniature popcorn in a dry pan. Unusually for a grain, a source of complete protein.
- Kodra (कोदरा) — kodo millet. Drought-tolerant, grows on poor soil, cooks like a coarse rice.
Why they disappeared
The honest answer is that apples happened.
Over two generations, terraces across Upper Shimla were converted to apple orchards, because apples paid better than grain ever did. That was a rational decision and it made the valley wealthier.
At the same time, subsidised rice and wheat became widely available through the public distribution system, so the reason to grow your own hardy grain weakened. And these grains are more work — harder to thresh, less familiar to city buyers, worth less per kilo.
No single decision. Just a slow accumulation of easier options, until the seed itself became difficult to find.
Why it matters beyond nostalgia
A valley that grows only apples is a valley with a single point of failure. The last few seasons have made that concrete — warmer winters, less reliable snow, blossom caught by late frost, smaller and less certain crops.
These grains were the hedge. They grow where apples cannot, need little water, and tolerate poor soil. Losing them narrows what the hills can fall back on.
There is also a plain seed-availability problem: once nobody sows a variety for a few seasons, the seed stops circulating and getting it back is genuinely hard.
How to cook each one
- Ogla / Fafra. As flour, make roti or cheela — bind with hot water, and press out by hand rather than rolling, because there is no gluten to stretch. As whole grain, cook like rice with double water for about 20 minutes.
- Chalai. Dry-roast in a hot pan until the seeds pop, then eat plain or bind with jaggery into ladoo. Or cook as porridge, 1 part grain to 3 parts water.
- Kodra. Rinse well, then 1 part kodra to 2.5 parts water for about 20 minutes. Use it anywhere you would use rice — khichdi, pulao, upma.
The blunt version
If nobody buys these, nobody grows them. That is not a marketing line, it is just the mechanism. A family decides what to sow based on what sold last year.
We put them on the shelf because there is no other way to create a reason to plant them. They are not our best sellers and they never will be.
The four grains
Grown by the few families who kept sowing them after the rest of the valley stopped.
See the product
