Today at noon, I went to my patio to dig out the haldi saplings that i had sown in June last. It is a practice in tamil homes to tie haldi saplings around the pongal pot( i have already blogged about its significance).
It was a overwhelming feeling when i dug out the soil to uproot the tubers of the haldi saplings.
It was a feast to my senses, when i felt and smelt the earthy soil combined with the fresh fragrance of the tender haldi tubers with little earth worms wriggling and adding life to the soil. With each sapling costing around Rs.30 each, i felt proud to have raised 10 saplings with limitations of space , sunlight and pigeon menace, whats more it got its nutrition from kitchen wastes which turned into compost and added soul to the soil. I know its a very small harvest, but i am glad about the little organic harvest:)
I have got to show and share more......my microgreens, lettuce, strawberry saplings, tomato story, twin bean tale, amaranthus, alternanthera, curry leaf, mint, chilli tale and more... all grown in upcycled containers and most from kitchen spice box seeds (except lettuce, SB and curry plant)...let my erratic BSNL get fixed, will share more of my organic mini produce.....with all these i feel like a mini farmer...no....,a macro.....or may be even a nano farmer.....but i am enjoying the little produce and the mixed emotions I go through while the tomato blossoms drop, the chilli flowers form a beautiful red chilli, when that little bean plant gets affected with aphids, when my yellow capsicum plant sprouts from the seed and the seed coat precariously hangs on to the baby plant.....million mixed emotion of loss, gain, pleasure and pain.
If such a small patch of garden with less or no investment can give me such a mixed feeling, i sometimes think of the farmers who take loans and face losses after sweating and toiling against man made and natural odds. And after all these odds, when they do reap a harvest, what they get is a paltry sum that does'nt match their efforts. Being a farmer is a tough job indeed!
Bravo Farmers!
I could have waited for more days to get a better harvest of haldi, but my idea was to grow the saplings and harvest for pongal to tie it around the pongal pot.