Green gram (mung bean)

Green gram is a 60–75-day crop that likes warmth and hates wet feet. In Telangana it is sown twice: with the first monsoon rains in June–July (kharif) on well-drained red or black soil, and again in February–March as a summer crop on residual moisture after rice. It fixes its own nitrogen through root nodules, which is why farmers rotate it with cereals — the field is richer after a pulse crop. It needs two or three rains or light irrigations; waterlogging kills it. Pods ripen unevenly, so a field is picked two or three times over ten days.

1. Pick a sunny spot or a pot at least 25 cm deep with drainage holes.
2. Sow whole pesalu from the kitchen (unsplit, unpolished) 3 cm deep, 10 cm apart, after the last cold nights.
3. Water lightly every third day; the plant sulks in soggy soil.
4. Flowers appear in about five weeks; pods two weeks later.
5. Pick pods when they turn brown and dry and rattle when shaken. Leave the roots in the soil — they feed the next plant.

Pick pods as they turn from green to dark brown and dry — the pods on one plant ripen over a week, so pick every two or three days. Sun-dry the picked pods for a day, then thresh by beating in a sack. Winnow, sun-dry the seed for two more days until a seed cracks rather than dents under a tooth, and store in a dry tin with a few dried neem leaves or a dried red chilli against weevils.

In the Charaka Samhita (Sutrasthana 27), mudga is named the best of the pulses — light, cooling and easy on digestion — which is why Telugu households give pesara pappu kichidi to someone recovering from fever, and why pesarattu is a breakfast rather than a heavy dinner. Green gram sprouts (molakalu) are the first solid food offered at some fasts. At Aranyani farm the plan is to grow it between the arecanut rows as a soil-building cover crop; its harvest is a bonus.