An elderly Indian vaidyar in ochre robes patiently grinds Mucuna pruriens (Kapikachhu / Poonaikkali) seeds in a stone mortar under a banyan tree at golden sunrise, with velvet bean pods hanging on the vine beside him.

A Story of the Velvet Bean There’s an old story they tell in the villages of Tamil Nadu, in the quiet hours after the evening lamp is lit. Long ago, in a kingdom whose name has been forgotten by time, there lived a king who had everything a man couldContinue Reading