In peak summer, Tamil terraces turn into open-air kitchens: mats of sundakkai, manathakkali, vendhaya keerai and rice-flour vadagams drying under the fierce, free preservative called the sun.
Waste-nothing wisdom
Sun-drying was how households banked seasonal abundance — surplus vegetables, buttermilk, batters — into shelf-stable treasures. Deep-fried in a moment, a vathal turns plain curd rice or kuzhambu into an event.
The craft of it
Vegetables are typically soaked in salted buttermilk or brine before drying, both for flavour and preservation. Days of turning, covering at dusk, and guarding from opportunistic crows follow — a rhythm many of us remember from grandmothers' terraces.
Why it deserves revival
Sun-dried foods are the original zero-waste, zero-preservative convenience food. They also make a lovely artisanal product — homemade vathal and vadagam command devoted customers who remember exactly this taste.
Summer, saved in a jar for a rainy day — literally.
One terrace, one hot week, one tradition kept alive.
