Part 3 of the 3 part series on the Mango Mulch home stay, covering the overview, activities and food.

It is always exciting for me to write about the cuisine of the place and I usually leave it for the end because it infuses in me fresh enthusiasm, following the fatigue that sets in after churning out pages and pages about the place and activities.

Speaking of fresh, the food that is served at Mango Mulch is just that !!! Vegetarian, wholesome, flavorful and to every possible extent, prepared from ‘straight off the farm’  organic ingredients that they harvest.

AshSudhi treat the visitors to the farm like their own personal guests and also serve them whatever they cook for themselves.

Ash is an excellent cook and the cooking is done mainly by her, with  the staff assisting only in the prepping. She likes to try out new recipes and is also fond of using local ingredients and grains like millets. Sugar is replaced by jaggery and the cold pressed coconut oil from their farm, is used as the cooking medium wherever suitable.

A solar cooker is used for making rice, dal and other items that would require longer cooking times.

Breakfast is usually traditional South Indian style, lunch is again similar but with the addition of a couple of millet based dishes. Dinner tends towards North Indian, with rotis, basmathi rice and accompaniments.

The meals are served in the thatched gazebo that serves as a dining area, laid out with large wooden tables and sturdy wooden benches. The food is carried out here from the kitchen and one dines in the midst of nature, an ambience that adds extra flavor to the food that is already cooked with a whole lot of love.

The kitchen is spacious and well set up and I was quite taken up to see that even this space had an antique wooden door.

Being a millet enthusiast myself (which sounds better than millet maniac 😀 ) I was extremely delighted to be served ragi rotti (finger millet flatbread) and Saame rice (Little millet) at my first meal there.

Going clockwise from the top, the meal consisted of Beans sabji (south Indian style stir fry), beetroot chutney, coconut chutney, ragi rotti, sambhar (lentils), Little millet rice and salad. The Mung dal payasam (dessert) sweetened with jaggery, is outside the plate on the left.

The refreshing glass of buttermilk was just the right drink for the warm March noon.

At teatime, sipped on some fresh lime juice, since I do not drink tea or coffee. I should probably call it Lime Time 😀

Dinner is also usually served in the same place, but being the lone guest at the farm, I opted to eat at the house with AshSudhi. Any excuse to hang out at that beautiful mansion, right ? 😀

My first dinner there began with a delicious carrot soup.

This was followed by a dish made of home grown palak, melt in the mouth brinjal sabji, dal, basmathi rice pulao and the softest phulkas that I have ever eaten.

In addition, Ash had baked whole wheat banana muffins (truly a girl after my own heart). In the excitement I forgot to click pictures of it 😀

Breakfast the next morning, was Millet sevai (millet string hoppers) with fresh coconut chutney. Their home grown coconuts are of very high quality that lends an amazing flavor to the chutney.

There was also rice sevai with sweet coconut chutney and a home grown bright orange papaya. A fruit juice completed my meal but there would be tea or coffee for those who wish.

Lunch on the second day was this pretty plate that you see, starting from the top and going clockwise, a dry vegetable dish, mixed vegetable sambhar where the drumsticks were home grown, sandige and home dried papad (fried crisps) in the center, red rice, rasam,  salad and parupu urundai (steamed lentil rolls). Buttermilk and payasam outside the plate, on the right.

Dinner again at the house, was mint pulao, gobi (cauliflower) masala, baby potato masala and those dreamy phulkas.

Vegetarian caramel custard completed the repast.

On the third and last day of my stay, Ash surprised me yet again with an innovative breakfast consisting of idlis made out of red rice rava (grits) and grated red pumpkin. Served with that famed coconut chuteny and accompanying plump papaya, I must say that at the end of it, I felt quite plump myself 😀

As mentioned earlier, the food is purely vegetarian and egg free.

There are hardly any options to eat out, in the vicinity of the farm and it would make sense to dine at the farm during one’s stay there.

Booking and contact – 

To book a stay at Mango Mulch, contact the owners at

email – ashsudhi@gmail.com, Ph – 8277126558

For more pictures, see My Facebook – Mango Mulch-Part 3-Food and Drink

Mar 12th-14th, 2018

Pl Note – This assignment has been carried out by me, in collaboration with Mango Mulch. The information in my narrative is based on the inputs that I received from the client and also from my personal experience.