Every Grain a Story: Mapping Self and Culture Through Rice Appreciation

India has over a lakh rice varieties – each with its own story. A grain that can ease certain illnesses. Another that grows tall enough to hide elephants. One that needs no cooking. A variety so flavourful it’s eaten plain. A Goan rice that thrives during floods. Yet, most of these never reach markets or our kitchens, slipping out of everyday memory and conversation. This workshop, led by Anumitra from Edible Archives, invites participants to explore the edible archive within themselves – the foods and tastes we carry in our bodies and memories. Through a guided rice appreciation session featuring indigenous rice varieties, we’ll learn to observe differences in texture, aroma, and flavour while uncovering the stories behind each grain.

The workshop is a space to reflect on the connections between food, place, and identity. It will also open up conversations about what gets lost when agricultural biodiversity disappears, and why bringing these grains back to our plates matters.

In collaboration with Edible Archives: Edible Archives, an award-winning restaurant and art /research project based in Anjuna, Goa, works with indigenous ingredients at the intersection of art, culture and food. Edible Archives was one of the Infra Projects at the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2018-19, where it showcased 30 varieties of indigenous rice in 3 months. Since then, Edible Archives has been at the forefront of the ingredient-driven movement in India. With its focus on indigenous varieties, local and seasonal ingredients, and innovative cuisine-agnostic menus that change with the seasons, it has been introducing visitors to an intriguing world of local foods as never imagined before. Most recently, Edible Archives was the winner of the national Outlook Responsible Tourism Awards 2025, both in the Sustainable Food category and as the Overall Winner.

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This workshop is part of BIC’s programmes for Environment Day 2025 titled The Earth Remembers: Stories of Justice and Resilience. This year’s Environment Day gathering centres on the people at the frontlines of ecological change, communities whose lives are entangled with the land, the waters, and the skies, and who carry not only the weight of loss but also the seeds of resilience. Rather than viewing the environment as separate from society, we listen to stories where the two are inseparable.