Monday, July 30, 2012

Seedless Red Lady Papaya!

What began my passion in growing fruits in our garden has become an eye-opener of nature's mysteries.
I had planted red lady papaya seeds in our garden and the yield in all our papaya plants is seedless fruits. I am still unable to believe this. Can you believe from these pictures taken by me??
Also, I have round shaped red lady papaya fruit tree.
Ripened Red lady papaya fruit
                                     Seedless Red Lady papaya cut into two halves!


Round Red Lady Papaya Tree Yield!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

ORGANIC TERRACE GARDEN-PHASE 2

My experiment with Organic Terrace Garden has borne fruit with 90% germination of the seeds and here are the different saplings we have got. With abundant sun and rainfall on the terrace, it is a pleasure to grow organic vegetables and fruits on the terrace.


Friday, July 6, 2012

How does a Vegetable Lion Roar?



A lion created with vegetables is displayed at the 5th Vegetables Show in Kotagiri !


Pic courtesy: DH

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Aam matters in USA


Washington DC: It was quite a sight to see American and Indian businessmen, lobbyists and journalists push, shove and grab their bag of free Indian grown mangoes at the US-India Business Council meet on the sidelines of the 3rd round of the India-US strategic dialogue in Washington DC.
Indian journalists mindful of cultural etiquette picked up just one bag while their ‘Aamerican’ friends snatched as many as they could. There was an ‘aam-bush’ at the table, where a former US ambassador to India was sighted dispersing ‘aamgyan’, to a PYT reporter.
Nostalgic: The two things that Indians in the US miss the most about their country is the smell of wet mud during monsoons and the mango season
Mango diplomacy is no aam matter, as one is well aware, in Washington DC. In 2007 the Bush government eased the way for the import of Indian mangoes to the US.
Irradiated Indian mangoes finally reached American shores but they were so expensive that nobody wanted to buy them. At $40 a box they lie in a corner in most grocery stores waiting for connoisseurs to pick them up. Indian mangoes like Alphonso and Kesar are soft skinned and when they are subjected to irradiation they can only be air freighted, this makes them too expensive.
Indians usually pick up the South American pulpy mangoes at grocery stores which cost half the price. And well, taste like orange coloured cardboard. At Indian restaurants order Mango lassi (or lassey as the Americans call it) and what you get, tastes like shrikhand, with colouring if you know what I mean.
It is no wonder that the two things that Indians in the US miss the most about India are the smell of wet mud during monsoons and the mango season which incidentally coincide, back home.
The Mango months from April to August are what make the Indian summer tolerable. God made it that way. Ask God or Hapoos if you don’t believe me. Over 1000 varieties of mangoes are grown in India but only about 20 varieties are grown commercially, and most Indians know their names by heart.
Having lived in the north but spent summer vacations in the south, I have been lucky enough to have experienced ‘mango cycles’ of both the north and the south. Though products of the north and south are transported fast enough, there is nothing as authentic as eating mangoes fresh off the trees. The Chausa, Daseheri, Langra, Safeda (Benishaan) of the north are fleshy and robust. The Daseheri is a cute and chikni-chameli of a mango.
The south, including the Deccan has the Hapoos or Apoos or Alphonso, Banganapalli, Neelum, Pairi, Kesar. The mangoes of the south are less fibrous and by and large sweeter (barring the Dusseri). But then one can argue till the sun sets which mango is pulpier and which is more fibrous, which is spongy and which has more flavors though less sweet.
Meanwhile besides the Indian mango, what is set to enter the American market is jackfruit. It is this giant fruit of the mulberry family that grows mostly in southern and eastern India, locally called kathal or halsinahannu.
It has a ghastly smell and traditionally is used in idlis, fritters, dried chips and traditional recipes that mostly aunts and grandmothers thrust upon their daughters and daughters-in-law. Now, some Harvard grad student (no less of course) is all set to bring this smelly fruit to the US. And this too shall grace the already crowded Indian grocery shelves. Viva la India! 
 Text Courtesy: Smita Prakash, Mid-Day.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Foreign envoys bowled over by mango magic


Bowled over by the taste of dussehri mangoes, representatives of various foreign missions, who were on a picnic to the orchards of Malihabad, gave a nod for the export of the king of fruits to their countries. 
Ambassadors and consuls of 14 countries who went on the mango-tasting trip were offered a “desi” lunch—besan roti, vegetables cooked over the wood fire, a splash of hot Pudina chatni (mint chatni with extra slices of green chilli) and a glass of cold lassi—not to mention mangoes from the orchards during their trip to Malihabad, 30 km from Lucknow. 

The mangoes are delicious...the possibilities of their export are bright...I have come here to taste them and promote them in my country,” said Rostylslav V Zatsepilin, consular in the embassy of Ukraine. 

“The climate in our country is not conducive for growing mangoes,” he told Deccan Herald as he strained to climb over the bullock cart for a ride around the orchard.Algerian ambassador Mohammed Hacene echoed similar thoughts. “We grow only three varieties of mangoes back in Algeria. We will be interested in growing such delicious mangoes but we will have to see if it could be grown,”  he said.

Spokesman for the Mango Growers’ Association Siraj Mehendi appeared bullish over theprospects of increasing exports. “Dussheri has a unique taste. We have no competition. This is the first time so many foreign envoys have visited the mango orchard and tasted the fruits,” Mehendi said.


He said the envoys would also be given mango saplings. Visitors to the mango-tasting trip included envoys from Algeria, Iran, Tajikistan, Malawi, Ukraine, Eritrea, Fiji, Surinam and Sri Lanka.