Bread & Chocolate

Auroville’s grocery outlets have begun to be stocked with an all-new collection of hemp-based products. Hempseed oil, hemp flour, and hemp hearts have hit the shelves thanks to Hemplanet, an Auroville unit that aims to promote the use of a wide array of hemp derivatives and eventually begin hemp cultivation in Auroville.

Like the name, India, it was with some surprise that I learnt that the common south Indian fruit, tamarind, has a Persian etymology. The Persians gave the fruit the melodious name of Tamar-i-hind or the “date of India”, which was subsequently Anglicized to tamarind.

“When I moved here there wasn’t any chocolate I could eat. All the bars were non-organic, full vegetable fats, sugar, and milk, and with only a minimum of cacao,” says Jane Mason, who joined Auroville four years ago.