at an early stage, we set ourselves a goal (only vegetables and not counting onions, spices) of eating local once-a-week by march and move to full scale eat local by end of summer.
we are glad to report that we are already at 2 days-a-week of eat local as on march 1st week.
here is a pictorial view of our harvest so far.
1. bottle gourd/doodhi/sorakkai
2. cow pea/chouli beans/karamani - this was the pioneer legume crop sowed across most of the mounds and this is used to enrich the soil nitrogen (legume variety).
we allowed a lot of the karamani to ripen and partially dry on the shrub itself. then it is dried in the sun like below so that the seeds can be harvested and/or used to make yummy dals.
3. pumpkin/lal kaddu/parangikai - this is a local variety (i.e., grown by a local farmer). this one is so scrumptious, we are going ballistic over this variety in the coming year.
4. potatoes/aloo/urulai kazhangu - this was the surprise of the lot. it is common only in higher elevations/cooler climes like ooty, but unheard of in lowlands ad especially dry lands. even the local farmers were zapped that we were able to grow potatoes. this is going to be another focus area inn the coming winter.
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5. radish/mooli/mullangi - seed to harvest in 35 days. this is an all year crop. so we plan to plant around 4 seeds every week/10days so as to get enough for our weekly needs.
6. tomatoes aplenty - we are now picking juicy tender tomatoes at the rate of 1kg/week.
7. greens/palak/keerai variteies - seed to plate in less than 25 days. totally awesome.
8. this is the veg bed (raised format a la emilia hazelip) when we started it and after 20 days of radish and okra/bhendi/vedakkai growing.
we are loving it :-)
10 comments:
inspiring! you will laugh when you see my soil. before the food is poisoned, the soil is. concrete, gravel, chips packets, syringes, and we are not in some super congested place either. we have dug up the whole place now and trying to calm it down and get it going once again.
kenny - you will have to do the raised bed for veggies.
a simple dig one foot deep and a 2'x2' cross section and raise the resultant soil as a bed. will work.
you will be able to get compost from local somewhere. these guys come on bullock carts. and you will need a lot of dry bios mass to mulch.
will take 2-3 hours of work max.
wow! hats off and all that.
commenting first time i think.
yes chox - welcome and all that.
Its good to see see your Mehnat ka fal. And those veggies look mouth watering!!!
Super harvest..Pongalo! Pongal! By the way, skd..what do you have to say about Sorakaiku Uppuillai?
this is to respond to eklavya.
the original saying for sorakkaikku uppillai is actually 'sorakkaikku oppillai'. meaning no comparison for sorakkai because it has protiens, corbs, vitamins and calciums all at one go.
@anon - thats very likely explanation. very useful to place sorakkai in its right place.
I had read your blog few weeks ago, and I am going to admit that your pages encouraged me to start a organic garden( well as far as possible), in my terrace.
Hope my plants will grow and bear fruit , so that I can share them with masters like you.:-)
Bu here in faraway Hdyerabad, it is difficult to get guidance or products which are chemical free.
I would like to ask for your opinions when I encounter problems?
Thanks.
Pattu
pattu - you can mail me at sriramskd AT gmail DOT com
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