They were so natural, as if in familiar surroundings. Caressing the leaves to catch the morning dew drops. Craning their necks to see the tall papaya tree. Munching on tulsi and lemon grass.

Reminds me of Shakespeare: And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

Both kids dug up the earth, filled the pit with organic manure and transplanted the Zucchini and pumpkin saplings grow on coca peat, on a patch close to the papaya trees. Seeing the thread-thin roots spread on the brown coloured cocapeat, Sanskriti, the younger one exclaimed, “How lovely? “ and asked “How long will it take to give fruits?”

“Ninety days from now,” I said.

“We will come to pick the fruits,” she said.

“Sure,” I said

They watered the plants, pulled out the weeds, collected dry leaves to deposit them into the vermicompost pit and interestingly moved about as if visiting the Garden of Eden.

She was really angry. Rather than confront her I kept quiet. As they say, for marital harmony.

I agree that my farm has become my second love. Why will my first love concede to my latest muse?

Even my kids too feel that I’m too obsessed and have become selfish. Always blabbering about my farm. In fact, I have had dreams about my farm. My man Friday abandoning the farm for a daily wager job at a construction site. My two-year-old Mango trees wilting because Mangal forgot to water them. Many a night I have got up with nightmares like cattle entering my farm, a pest attack, rains washing away everything standing etc.

I have become obsessive about my farm. My TRP at home is lowest. But I continue to suffer in silence.

At times, I feel they are right. Yes, I’m a taciturn type of person and hardly interact with others. But lately, it has been over two years now, that people around me are forced to listen to all that “rubbish” I talk about farming technique, medicinal plants, vermicomposting, biocide, the benefit of cow urine to farm, organic farming etc.

Lately even my reading is related to plants, insects, organic farming etc. I happen to discover  Michael Pollan, author  of books like The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring, Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education and A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams. Though I’ve not been able to lay my hands on any of his books but I hope I soon will.

Image via Wikipedia

Last Sunday I spent around eight hours in the farm, the longest so far.  Having reached the farm at around 9am we started with digging a patch of land, removing the stones (of which there is so much that I can build a Red Fort!) and preparing it with cow dung etc. The patch ready, we transplanted two-week old saplings of water melon and pumpkins. While the water melons were the hybrid variety which should fruit in the next 90 days, the pumpkins were not the ordinary ones you see at mall or with the bhajiwalla. These were pumpkin seeds from Cappadocia, Turkey.

During my trip to Turkey and visiting the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul I came across heaps of pumpkin seeds being sold along with other nuts. People bought them and merrily munched. It reminded me of childhood days when we munched pumpkin and musk melon seeds. Later while visiting Cappadocia, famous for its rock formations and volcanic eruptions which happened millennia’s back I unknowingly was at the home of the locally grown pumpkins.

Cappadocia pumpkin seeds are a delicacy in Turkey. I’m told the seeds are first cooked in milk and then sun dried. Grown on ash coloured soil with hardly any care, the flesh of the fruit is discarded for its seeds. As luck would have it I came across freshly harvested seeds being sold in a weekly bazaar in polythene bags and bought a kilo. Ever since my return I have been trying hard to grow them but have failed. The seeds were being gobbled up by rats.

This time I planted them on cocoa pith and was happy to see them germinate within couple of days. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and taking utmost care.  Hope the plant yield fruits. And if it does I would too happy to share it with you.

Pumpkin seeds provide a wide range of traditional nutrients. According to WHO, it’s a very good source of the minerals magnesium, manganese and phosphorus, and a good source of iron, copper, protein and zinc. Snack on a quarter-cup of pumpkin seeds and you will receive 46.1% of the daily value for magnesium, 28.7% of the DV for iron, 52.0% of the DV for manganese, 24.0% of the DV for copper, 16.9% of the DV for protein, and 17.1% of the DV for zinc.   Besides maintaining prostate health, another reason for older men to make zinc-rich foods, such as pumpkin seeds, a regular part of their healthy way of eating is bone mineral density.

http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_doiron_my_subversive_garden_plot.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-12-21&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Known as Chayote or Sayote (Chie-oh-tee). Kannadigas call it Seeme Badanekaye (Desi Brinjal). A vegetable, now available in Mumbai marts, it belongs to the Cucurbitaceae familly, as do melons, cucumbers and squash. It is also referred to as a “vegetable pear” or chcocho. The flesh is quite crisp reminds you of water chestnut. The chayote is seen in two forms, smooth and prickly.

Chayote can be stored in a fridge for several days but it is best to use fresh. The fruits are pear shaped with thin green wrinkly skin and white flesh. The root, stem, seeds, and leaves of the plant are all edible. The fruit is bland and can be eaten raw, cooked, mashed, baked, boiled, fried, or even pickled. Chayote is rich in amino acids and vitamin C.
Tea made of the leaves is reported to dissolve kidney stones as well as a treatment for arteriosclerosis and hypertension. The leaves and fruit have diuretic, cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory properties.
Grown mostly in high lands it needs a lot of water to survive, hence absorbs more iodine from soil than any other plants. It is not only nutritious but it also serves as a survival food.

Having come across Bangalore Baingan, I asked my wife whether she was aware of it.

“Yes, why not? I have had it many time…my azzi has prepared it for me,” said my Kannada speaking wife, picking up a kilo of Chayote.

How does it taste?

I shall keep you posted once I have them today for lunch.

While the traditional variety costs Rs 36 for 100gms., the hybrid variety is upwards of Rs 500.  The hybrid varieties have sexy names like Suharita, Sky Scape(grows skyward), Sigma, Shakira, Magma, Korea-Long, Big Mama, Anamika and Angarika. While the traditional one is plainly called Pusa Jwala. Jwala not misleading like the hybrid ones. Its likely burn your palate. Reminds me of Jyoti Bane Jwala, Jitu’s movie.

suharita

Now I realize that why poor farmers keep away from hybrids.

I was told that I could transplant them after a month and harvest the yield in another two months. I’m just counting the days and hoping to get a good yield and make some money. If that happens I’m going to reward my caretaker. Since last two years I haven’t made anything from the plot and tolerated my wife calling my farm a “white elephant.”

I pray I prove her wrong this time with my chilies.  Keep checking the blog I will keep you posted whether I have been able to money with my chilies.

GG, a lecturer in a Engg. College in Mumbai, is planning to “go back and settle in a village.” A city bred and a diehard urbanite, he plans to become a kisan.  No. he’s serious. And of sound mind.

He‘s preparing for his new soon-to-be-taken-livelihood for over two years now. Whenever he gets times, that means come vacation he leaves the city along with his wife and 10-year-old son visiting farms spread all over the country, meeting individuals who are doing pioneering work in agriculture or plainly those who follow organic farming and are making a respectable living while caring for the Earth.

“I need to learn as much as I can,” says mid thirties GG.

I ask him whether there are people he knows who have similar dreams of choosing to become a farmer. And he provides me examples of several of them.

This winter vacation he was at Deepak Suchde’s farm in Harad in Madhya Pradesh. Suchde is originator of Amrut Krishi, a farming system which while incorporating certain good aspects of organic farming, goes much beyond organic farming both in terms of philosophy and science.

If all goes according to his plans GG will leave Mumbai and relocate to a village in Bijnor, UP to become a part of a community farming group made of people from different walks of life. But with one purpose: becoming a farmer.

Is becoming a farmer easy? What does one need to be a farmer?

I came across this interesting post in the blog Barrows Farmer. wordpress.com.

Let’s just take a look at all the things you need to know to operate a farm.

You need to be a:
Meteorologist – knowing your climate is very important for crops
Agronomist –  in areas such as crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, plant physiology, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, insect and pest control.
Chemist – chemical compositions of soils and forages
Veterinarian – for animal health and welfare
Geography – to understand the land, the soil and soil compositions, and water movements
Ecologist – to know and understand impacts of the environment and wildlife. This also includes pest management
Biologist – to understand what makes plants grow and how they grow, to understand the evolution of life
Geneticist – to understand breeding and reproductive qualities
Engineer – for waste management, flow through patterns of livestock, water irrigation

Having being a weekend farmer for over two years now I also believe being a farmer is not that sexy as it looks.

For over a month and half my fig, mango, banana, jackfruit, coconut and other fruit trees have not been watered and it’s showing. Though the river is just couple of meters away I have not been able to water my plants ever since the monsoon ended.   My farm is at the mercy of  a common watering facilities which we farm owners share. First the pump motors were not working. They had to be rewired and oiled. It took a fortnight. We were dogged with another problem: the pipelines which brought water to the farm were broken at places because someone had run an earthmover. New pipelines had to be laid. That took another 10 days. I counted each day and prayed that it would be the last day of drought. Worried I could not sleep properly. But my restlessness was not helping.

Today, when Vermaji, my neighbour, informed that at last water had reached our plots I was overjoyed. I instantly thanked someone up there.

“Do ghanta pani aaya aaj(We had water for two hours running),” he said.

I felt like sharing this good tiding with my friends and sent text messages without realising how many of them would share my enthusiasm. But  I just felt like sharing my happiness and joy. And I did what my heart said. Having gone through this I can now empathize with a farmer who shouts out with joy  as the first showers of the rain arrives ending a period of drought.

We were; having arrived by the 11.25am Karjat local.

“Tell the autorickshwallah to take you to the new HP petrol pump …get down there. The first lane on the left leads to Gol Bangla,” he continued.

Dr Sudhir Ghatnekar

Old time residents know the place but youngsters and those who have moved in new are not aware that Gol Bangla exists. Last few years have witnessed several high-rises come up in the vicinity and blanketed the view of the double-dome structure, from the passersby on their way to Ambarnath on MIDC Road, Katrap.

Gol Bangla is the research center of Biotechnology Research Centre, run by the leading biotechnologist and vermiculture pioneer Dr Sudhir Ghatnekar.

Having failed to lay our hands on vermiculture, both in Mumbai and Thane, we were at the Centre. My readers would know that I had built a pit couple of months but was unable to bring in the would be residents. And it was a chance search on Google that brought me in in touch with Dr Ghatnekar. Having met him at his Wadala office where he questioned me on terms like extensive farming, intensive farming etc. And I could only bleat that I’m a learner and a weekend farmer. Which settled the issue and  I got invited to the Centre with promise of  vermiculture for my farm. At last, I thought I will be able to pay my respects to Darwin and do something meaningful for Mother Earth.

Being in media has its privileges and I have enjoyed my stint in this profession despite the measly remuneration. The only solace–you get to meet people from all walks of life. And today I was fortunate to have coffee with a biotechnologist under a cool dome. Though the structure did not have AC, its interior was really cool.

“It’s due to the shape,” Dr Ghatneker said. “The dome brings down the temperature by five degrees. And that’s why we had designed it so.”

Hidden behind a double-storied housing complex recently come up, the Centre with a perennial stream for company, a Ganesha temple, tall coconut palms, mango trees and a sole cherry tree “favourite among the mongoose family” is in a different world. An unlikely place from the hustle and bustle of Badlapur town, 20mins. away.   How long will this last? is anybody’s guess.

For all its three sides has been taken away by the housing complexes which are coming up feverishly. The growth of Badlapur has been around 150% in the last couple of years. For here you can still own two-room flat for Rs 22 lakhs.

Dr Ghatnekar is worried but not in a hurry. “People do approach my workers here inquiring whether this place is on sale,” he says.

If it happens it would be biotechnology’s loss: for the Centre has been a home and workplace for over 50 students pursuing their Phds and still continues to be so.  Besides BRC has a developed a world-class earthworm breeding program and has been maintaining a vermiculture bank since 1983. The starter cultures for some of the earthworm strains were obtained from Colby’s Research Farm, North Carolina, USA and Philippines Earthworm Research Center.

BRC has developed a state-of-the-art vermiculture treatment technology for effluent treatment for various industries. The technology uses the novel three-tier approach inclusive of earthworms, microbes and enzymes for waste treatment. The advantage of this technology is that the treated waste is a high-quality soil conditioner that fetches a decent price in the market. Vigorous research efforts of the BRC scientists on vermiculture technology have helped it to develop a top of the line technology for the production of very high quality solid and liquid biofertilizer products.

After a stay of over three hours we left with three vermiculture tubs and a can of enzyme. “Use only two of them for the pit and the rest is for multiplication. So that you have a seed bank,” advised Dr Ghatnekar. “the enzyme is for hastening up the process. Your compost will be ready within 45 days.”

Now, you know that if you need vermiculture where to look for. brc_suvash@hotmail.com; M:+919821041565, T: +91 22 24150133