Tandathi Payar!

An amazing pulse resembling the mung bean (green gram), grown by the ancient settlers in Wayanad, now so rare that most people have not even heard about it. Said to be the tastiest of pulses to make a mouthwatering stir-fry, I was lucky to come by a few seeds. Unlike mung beans, the plant is a strong vine that grows quickly and is 10 feet long by the end of the second month. Now, it produces beautiful yellow blooms in clusters followed by the bean pods. I do not know what it is called in English or whether it has a botanical name. The hermit who gave me the seeds says it is called Tandathi Payar in Malayalam. Definitely, a candidate for conservation, if not as a food crop, then as an ornamental vine on your trellis!