cherry picking

15th July,2013

My Dear Kush,

The other important event is cherry picking or alike events . Here , some Agriculture Farms offer picking of their produce on a cost. This is not a phenomenon of picking the produce, rather it is a fun  with lot of information about agriculture to our children which is difficult to learn from the books . As you know there is a season when the fruits will be ripe and ready for picking from the plants. As this is mid-July, straw berry picking is finished and no farm is offering this event ; so appears the case for cherry picking. As we were interested to witness this event , the internet showed one nearby farm was continuing blue berry picking season. Though blue berry is not liked by your mausi , but she agreed with enthusiasm to show as the farm and do blue berry picking. We will go in September for Apple picking as presently these are raw and start ripening in the month of September and onwards.

 

This farm is on the outskirts of Sharon and we visited it in the Saturday ,afternoon. There was ample space for car parking . At the start, we could see a lawn where some families were enjoying eateries. On the surroundings , there were flower plants ,just as you have seen in some nurseries at Jabalpur. Beside, some agriculture instruments were seen with tractor ,where seats were cushioned with hay ; this was for children's visit to the farm. To the adjacent area, we could see a children park , equipped with children's play media-particularly different types of 'jhula' ,many children were enjoying at this place. 

 

For learning  of the children, the farm house was also keeping some animals in different animal houses ,so that kids may watch their activities. Thus we observed  two horses, some big sized hen of brown or red color ,kept in a deep litter system and a surrounded fence where some sheep were kept. Many children were enjoying these animals or in the park.

 

As we were not interested to collect large quantity of blue berry, your mausi took only one small wooden basket for four dollars and we went further inside of the farm .

 

I was seeing first time these bushes ,carrying blue berry. As you may see in the pictures, these are about 3-5 feet high plants loaded with fruits .The fruits are small in size ( like junglee ber of our site) ,first whitish, then reddish and finally turning to dark blue or violet in color when they are ripe. It is  sour when raw but becomes sweet when becomes violet and ripe. Actually, it appeared to me like our "Phalsa"-which is seen in June, July in UP. Thus , you can pick up and eat as much as you like and may remain in the place for pretty long time ,ultimately coming back with the basket ,full of blue berry.

 

On the near site I could see  rows of straw-berry bushes- the time for straw-berry picking is over . As I have not seen these too, I preferred to photograph the same . There were few straw berry also on these plants while others have turned rotten. These bushes were also like blue berry in size , though leaves are of different kind as you may appreciate from the pictures. Unlike to ber, there is no thorn in any of these plants. .

 

Can you imagine the same activity may be started in India in our different farms- there are farms for orange, guava , ber , mango, jamun, apple in different parts of our country. But its difficult to start this event in India due to wide cultural difference.

 

 You might have heard the name of "Mirza Galib" ( a legendry figure of nineteenth century) who was very fond of mango ; and they arranged a farm visit ( it is called "Ghosti") in the mango season in a mango farmhouse where they enjoyed different  varieties of mangoes with exchanging their couplets. Unlike to this cherry picking phenomenon, we ,in our childhood, have enjoyed this farm activity. It is not exactly an agriculture farm but a small one , we call it "Bageechi" where a "gooat" is arranged among the friends; there  dall, batti, churma, kheer ,aalu bhajee are prepared  and enjoyed. We have also celebrated  "outings" at Jabalpur where three -four families went to a scenario place like bheraghat, gwarighat and prepared either pulao or dall batti and enjoyed the picnic. Such activities are absent in this place. This gives us one lesson-every country or geography has developed their own way of enjoying the life.

 

With lot of love and affection, .