Farm Visit...

Last weekend a coworker of Pat's, Neelmegh, invited us out to see his family owned organic farm. The day proved to be quite informative. We had a 2 hour car ride, during which I asked him a dizzying amount of questions. It is nice to hear the point of view of a guy who was born and raised here in India!!

So it turns out his family owned a 6 acre parcel of land just on the outskirts of Bangalore. As the city grows, more and more of these privately owned lands are being "bought up" by the government. When their land was purchased, they decided to reinvest some of the money in an organic vegetable farm. India law only allows a person to buy farm land if he is a "farmer," proven by ownership of other farm land. This is meant to prevent businesses from buying up farm land to build commercial property upon. Since the land they sold to the government was farm land which had been in their family for generations, they qualified. They purchased 6 acres of land about a 2 hour drive from the city of Bangalore nearly 5 years ago. Since then, it's value has increased 5 fold!!

On the ride to the farm we saw a strange sight. A half mile long section of village road needed to be widened to support the growing traffic flow in the area. Apparently it only needed to be widened enough to take down half of the shops and stalls along the road. Now you can picture half in many ways, but you likely would not expect to see this... it's one of the most bizarre things I have seen this year (and trust me, that's saying a whole lot)!

These places were just chopped off to where the government needed to and then left that way!
Once we reached the farm, we met Neel's farm hand. They hired this farm hand, a guy who lives on the land and tends to the daily chores... planting, watering, harvesting. He is paid a small salary and also gets to eat from the land. He greeted us and then promptly climbed up a coconut tree to get us a welcome drink.

High in the canopy are the young green coconuts. It is a long climb for a drink though. These are sold anywhere and everywhere on the street in India, cut up on the spot for you, for Rs 10 (about a quarter). The coconut water is full of natural electrolytes and totally hygienic, unlike much local water; they say it's the best drink for the heat!

After a quick drink, we strolled around the farm. First stop... the cows. They have 2 cows, neither of which is kept for it's milk production. The cows' real value is in it's manure. These cows produce enough waste to fertilize the entire farm.

Next, we checked out the ragi crops. Ragi is a hugely popular grain grown primarily in the arid areas of southern India as well as in Africa. It is also known as finger millet. Similar to rice, it is eaten by people in Bangalore in some form nearly every day.

We picked some Ragi, which can even be eaten raw. Lauren loved it!The mango trees were ready for picking, too. When you pick a mango, there is a good amount of clear sap that drips out of the fruit. This sap contains the same chemical found in poison oak and poison ivy. You must immediately wash off any sap that contacts your skin, or the rash is... YIKES, bad!

One mature tree like this one can produce more than 1500 mangoes in a year.

After our stroll through the tomato, eggplant, pumpkin and pomegranate, it was out to the bananas... Bananas in India are much smaller than those we are used to back home. They are very sweet though, and are plentiful in southern India. In addition to the fruit itself, the banana leaf is a valued commodity. Especially in southern India, the leaf is used as a plate! It is brilliant, really. The leaf of the banana plant is thick and wide. It has a naturally waxy coat and is full of nutrients which are absorbed into the food (especially hot food). Best of all, it is 100% biodegradable! So when it was time for us to have lunch, which Neelmegh's Mom had graciously prepared for us... the farm hand went out and retrieved a "plate" for each of us. I watched as he trimmed each leaf with his trusty curved knife... this is the same type of knife all the coconut vendors use...

We ate lunch from our banana leaves, said our thank yous and goodbyes, piled back into the car and headed back to the fairy tale that is Palm Meadows. It was a refreshing break to spend the day in the country!!!