Yaaaaaaaaaaay ! Our first harvest !

I was out of town on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th July. So I was very eager to visit Aanandi on Saturday 24th. As it happened, nobody else could make it to Aanandi that day. However Maami was coming over from Mumbai to tidy up the house a bit after the painting etc. So I decided that I would go anyway. Also, Prajakta, Smita and Amruta had informed me that the ambadi might need to be picked. So I was excited on that count as well.

Come Saturday morning, it was raining so heavily that I was up and ready to go but couldn’t leave the house till 9:30 a.m. Then, as the rain subsided a little, I went to Aanandi.

As I entered the garden, I was pleased to see that more bhendi plants had sprouted and the ghevda (beans) had sprouted well. Also there was some growth where the tomato, waanga and gawar are supposed to be. Then I progressed to the leafy-vegetables patch and saw the methi and palak plants resting on the ground due to the heavy rain. But I was not too worried about it since I know that with a little bit of sunshine they will be up again.

Then I saw the ambadi… knee-high plants with gloriously thick growth. I saw that it needed to be picked. I so missed everybody ! They should have been there for the first harvest ! I started to pick the ambadi. You just have to pluck off the tops of the ambadi or even palak. The plant grows more leaves that you can pick again. We had planted seven 2-feet long rows of ambadi. After I was done picking in one and a half rows, I realised that there was going to be much more than I anticipated. I was wearing the poncho-raincoat and raincoat trousers and helmet. I lifted up the poncho-raincoat and started collecting the ambadi in it ! I must have looked quite funny, I’m sure :) Ultimately as I finished picking all seven rows, there was so much of the leafy vegetable that I was delirious with joy. And we shall enjoy more such ambadi every fifteen-twenty days ! :)

Then I went upstairs showed it all to Maami who quickly gave me one large plate and one big tray to keep it in. I clicked a photograph…its not too nice as far as photograph-quality goes, but I’m glad that to see the two mounds of ambadi seen in it :) Here it is:

Later I made seven (market-sized) bunches of it and distributed them among Maami, Aai and the Aanandi team. Yesterday Amruta gave me the report that her mother had made the bhaaji and it was delicious :)

What an incredible motivation this ambadi has been. I can now patiently wait for the bhendi, wanga, tomato, gawar and ghevda :)

The feeling of being involved in the process of ‘making’ your own food from seed-to-plate is incredible !

Veggie update :)

This weekend there was some work and much enjoyment at the garden.

On our way to Aanandi, we saw these huge Vitthal-Rakhumai idols on the road. I liked the expressions on their faces and stopped to click a couple of photographs.

On Saturday we removed the weeds, that, incidentally grow so well and so fast that it seems as if we planted them, and not the leafy vegetables ! We also demarcated all the sub-plots with bricks. We watered the plants a bit. Its a little tricky watering the plants right now. It isn't raining consistently in Pune but when it does it pours. So we use a little judgement according to that day's weather, predictions, and some Indian lunar calendar indicators and give the plants, what we think is, just enough water. Can't have them dry up or drown !

I was so feeling like a true-blue farmer while removing the weeds, discussing and speculating about the weather and worrying for the tiny plants :)

The leafy vegetables are growing well and in about three weeks time we might be able to harvest the ambadi ! The other veggies that we planted last weekend, on the other hand, gave us mixed results. The chawli is up and bright. Looking at the mirchi and waanga plots you'd wonder if we'd actually planted anything. After planting nine rows of bhendi seeds last weekend, I had remarked to Amruta that we would see a record production of bhendi. Spoken too soon ! There are just six to seven bhendi plants in the entire plot of nine rows :( I expressed my disappointment to somebody and they assured me that bhendi and waanga are sturdy plants and also take their time to sprout. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed ! (I'm wondering about the mirchi, though).

On Sunday we did some more cleaning work, removed some Ashok branches laden with seeds, that would have, no doubt claimed all plots and registered their presence in a couple of weeks. So, we literally nipped it in the bud :)

The Ashok trees have grown to about 40 feet tall and now, lean into the terrace. Some branches hang in the terrace, but others hang way outside the terrace. We would have to go to the terrace, pull them in and chop them off. So Ashish and I went up to the terrace with the famous machete, a huge pair of scissors and a long bamboo with a hook affixed to one end. The terrace has a boundary wall that is only one foot tall. There was this huge pile of dried leaves, full of cockroaches by the way, in the corner from where we had to pull in and chop off the Ashok branches. Initially I simply refused to enter that area. Ashish had to work alone at pulling the branches in and chopping them off. However, about three easy branches later, we realised that I would have to enter that cocroach infested pile of leaves and help Ashish. Mercifully, these cockroaches weren't the house-cockroach variety and I discovered that they would scamper off, and not climb up my legs, when I entered the pile of leaves. So I was able to help Ashish without much stress. I would use the long bamboo with the hook to pull in a branch that would be far off. Then Ashish would catch hold of it and hand it to me. Then I would keep it pulled while Ashish chopped it off. All was going well in the beginning. However a few branches later, my arms started aching with all the pulling. So Ashish and I decided to switch places. The next time I pulled in this really huge branch and Ashish caught hold of it. The branch was pulling out so much that Ashish had to sit on the cockroachy-leaf-pile and firmly push the boundary wall with his legs to be able to hold on to it. As I started chopping the branch off, the vibrations were such that at one point Ashish's grip got loose and he got up to adjust his grip and footing. In that very instant, unknown to what he was doing, I struck the machete powerfully at the branch. Ashish swayed and actually yelped. That made me turn around and I saw him nearly go over the terrace wall, hanging to the Ashok branch. I started laughing and so did he...and to top this nonsense, between fits of laughter, I started shouting, "Help" "Help" :) And just 30 feet below, blissfully unaware to this whole drama were Smita and Amruta peacefully lining the plots with bricks. Under a minute Ashish got his grip and footing back but, oh, we laughed so hard !

We also planted tomato seeds in one small corner of the behndi plot and four small corners of the mirchi plot. Tomato plants, apparently, grow quickly. Let's see.

In the rest-of-the-garden news, the pomegranate tree has a big burst of blossoms. The orange flowers look so pretty ! There are many butterflies flying about and its great to watch their different colours. Also, there is this huge jungle of gulbakshi plants with ... er... gulbakshi coloured flowers ! When you crush a gulbakshi flower on your palm, it leaves a rich magenta colour. Prajakta reminded me and I too remembered that as children we used to play 'mehendi-mehendi' with these flowers :)

I leave you with some photographs.

Vitthal-Rakhumai

Brown butterfly...the colour could fool you into thinking it is a stone !

Pretty pomegranate blossom

Rich magenta (gulbakshi) coloured Gulbakshi flowers

Neatly demarcated plots

Chawli

Methi

Ambadi

The garden is growing…

Severe illness that began last Saturday night prevented me from visiting Aanandi garden on last Sunday. In fact I was on leave from office for the entire week. On Friday evening we had a performance and thus on Saturday I was not inclined to wake up early and do any work at all !

So finally, come Sunday, Amruta and I went to Aanandi and were so happy to see teeny-tiny sprouts of coriander, dill, spinach and fenugreek and neat rows of very good-looking ambadi plants in the long patch :)

This is how it looks:

The Z is marked for the part of the plot where the branches of the zaadu plant are covering the ground. In sub-plots 7 and 8 we have planted kothimbir. In 6 and 4 there is paalak. In 3 and 5 there is methi. In 2 there is shepu and in 1 there is ambadi.

Seeing those plants growing gave us an even bigger boost for that day’s work. First we cleaned up the square plot next to the banana plot. There were a lot of weeds there. Ashish and Niranjan had plowed it last Saturday but due to the rains it was all set in an uneven pattern. So we flattened it out. Then we demarcated smaller plots in it for different vegetables. We lined the smaller plots by bricks so that till the plants grow, we can make out which are the paths and which are the plots :) Then we dug shallow - about 6 inch deep – rows and planted different seeds in different plots.

Here is how we have planted:

The pie-shaped areas which have lines marked across them are A) the part of the plot where the branches of the zaadu plant are covering the ground and B) the jaswand (hibiscus) plant.

So, in the remaining portion, we planted in sub-plot numbers:

1) Just a single row of gavar (cluster beans) seeds

2) A couple of rows of mirchi (chilli) seeds where there are already four mirchi plants.

3) Two vertical rows of gavar (cluster beans) seeds

4) Two vertical rows of waanga (brinjal) seeds

5) Several horizontal rows of chawli beans seeds

6) Many horizontal rows on bhendi (okra/ladyfinger) seeds

Actually, even after planting gavar in 1 and 3 we still had some seeds left over and after planting waanga in 4 there were some seeds left over too. So in 5 after using up all the chawli seeds, we could make two more rows, one of waanga and one of gavar ! In 6 we planted bhendi (okra)…and there is going to be so much of it ! The first two rows near the jaswanda plant are seeds given by Dhadphale kaku and the remaining are store-bought and what a difference in the appearance !! The ones given by Dhadphale kaku were dark green and natural looking and the store-bought ones were looking like tiny plastic balls painted with a silver-tinted blue-green smooth colour. Those seeds were really eerie…Amruta and I felt that these must be fake. Amruta even suggested we plant them a little more closely to ensure that something would grow ! After three solid hours of physical labour, finally it was all done.

Now we are eagerly waiting for next Saturday when we will see new saplings in this plot and taller saplings in the previous one. The good news is that after the planting on Sunday, on Monday it didn’t rain too heavily and yesterday it rained a bit more. So, cheers rain ! Here’s to growth ! :)