Food · Chatakpur
Terrace farm and homestay kitchen
Walk the village's organic terraces with your host, pick greens or potatoes for dinner, then cook alongside the family. Simple hill food: dal, rice, local greens, squash, a pickle or two, and tea at any hour.
Chatakpur's families farm small terraces cut into the slope around their houses, without chemical fertiliser, as part of the eco-village rules. What grows depends on the season: potatoes, maize, cabbage, radish and mustard greens, squash and its tender shoots, and beds of herbs, some grown for their medicinal use. Ask your host in the afternoon if you can walk the terraces with them. The work is done by hand, terrace by terrace, so watch rather than help unless you are invited.
Dinner in a homestay here is usually rice, dal, a vegetable or two, a fresh green, a sharp pickle and, if you ask in advance, a chicken or egg curry. In winter, look for gundruk, fermented dried greens, in a sour soup, and in season for squash shoots or fiddlehead ferns. Breakfast might be puri or bread with potato curry and eggs, and tea comes at any hour. Portions are generous and the food is mild unless you ask for the chilli pickle, which is anything but.
Cooking happens on gas or a wood stove in the family kitchen, which is also the warmest room in the house. Offer to help; most hosts are happy to show you how they make a pickle or roast maize. Tell them early about any dietary needs, because supplies have to come up the forest track from Sonada. Ask about the herbs too; some families can tell you how their elders used them, though treat that as lore rather than medicine.
Cost: Included in the homestay stay
Questions people ask
Good to know
What food is served in Chatakpur homestays?
Simple home-cooked hill food: rice, dal, seasonal vegetables and greens from the village terraces, pickles, and eggs or chicken if you ask in advance. Breakfast is usually puri or bread with potato curry and tea. There are no restaurants or shops in the village, so all meals come from your homestay kitchen.
Is Chatakpur food organic?
The village farms its terraces without chemical fertiliser as part of the eco-village scheme, and much of the vegetables on your plate are grown there. Rice, flour, dal, cooking gas and some other supplies come up from Sonada. So meals are largely, not entirely, from local organic produce.
Can vegetarians stay comfortably in Chatakpur?
Yes. Most everyday homestay meals are vegetarian anyway: rice, dal, vegetables, greens and pickles. Tell your host when you book if you do not eat eggs, onion or garlic, because supplies have to come up the forest track from Sonada and the kitchen needs to plan ahead.
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