Season of Mellow Fruitfulness and Mists

We are now at the tail end of the fruit season here in Buribana. Our house is in an orchard. To the east are long rows of young apple trees. These trees started bearing fruit this year and we kept a close watch and saw the dozen or so apples on each tree slowly grow and change colour over the weeks. Below our house is the more mature orchard of our neighbour Ram Singhji. In this orchard there are apples, and peaches and plums and apricots and a few Kaphal trees as well.

The season started with the bright orange juicy apricots, locally known as khomani, in late May. Early in the season we were shown around the orchard by Basantididi. The trees were laden with fruits. The apricots were either gola or chapta. There were a few trees of the smaller local variety, which is tarter, called the chuaru. This year the plums somehow were not so abundant, but the peaches were in plenty. Most peaches had furry skins, but some were smooth. Basantididi also showed us red peaches which looked more like plums. And then there were apple trees. Apples are the most abundantly grown fruit in our village. The early variety is called Fanny, and then is the Delicious and now people grow a new variety which they say is more popular with consumers. Its either called the Bhura or the Himachal ka sev. When we worked in this region thirty years ago I recall there were some varieties 103, 12, 22, Golden, and Hara Pichola, but I am told those varieties are no longer grown.

As we longingly watched the pears ripen on our solitary pear tree we were plied with fruits from our neighbours. The variety of pear that we have, locally called Jagnel is among the last fruits to ripen. It’s the size of a big apple, green and firm, and crisp as you bite into it and very juicy and sweet. Both Jashodhara and I consider it the best among all the fruits that grow here, but then we are very biased.

With fruits piled high in our fruit-basket I quickly got down to the serious business of fruit preservation. I have been busy making apricot preserve, frozen peach puree, pear and apple preserve, apple preserve, pear preserve and some non-alcoholic apple cider. There are still more pears and apples waiting to be dealt with. Making some apple cider vinegar is on the cards.

Starting with the fruits, the agri-horticultural season moves into top gear. Its time not only to send the fruits to the mandi or wholesale market, but the vegetables as well. The Nainital hill potato is considered very special and it is sent down packed in gunny sacks. In between some peas and beans are also sent. Now that the fruits are nearly over, it’s time for the cabbages. The marketing is complex. In the evening, the farmers bring their produce to the roadside. Each box, crate or sack is marked by some initials and numbers. It is a combination of the farmers name, the name of wholesaler he sends his produce to and the number of the items he is sending down that day. A paper record is also made. Every evening trucks pick up the produce and take it over to the mandi in Haldwani. The farmers send their produce down with a familiar trucker. Each truck carries many consignments, from many farmers, for many wholesalers or agents. The produce is loaded, the paper record or challan is handed over to the driver and unerringly the produce is delivered to the right agent in the mandi. This year we sent 7 cartons of pears to the mandi. While the cartage was ten rupees a carton, the agent a 20% commission was deducted by the agent. Clearly the arrangement is tilted towards the agent.

The monsoons started in earnest a week ago. Dark clouds cover the sky and mists are rolling down the valley. Locally this time is known as the ‘chowmas’, it’s the busy agricultural season. Two weeks ago it was ‘harela’ or the local sowing festival and each family sprouted five or seven crops in a small cane basket and offered the saplings at the Bhumiya temple. Among the many crops grown at this time rajma or kidney beans are very popular in our valley as is maize. In other villages soyabean or bhatt and other legumes are grown. Madua or finger millet is slowly losing favour because it needs hard work and the produce is low. Women are the primary agricultural workers, and most of the produce of this season is for the home.

While the hills are green and the fields are lush with crops, agriculture does not remain a very satisfying livelihood option for the families in our village. Farmsteads and family sizes have become smaller. In most families some members have migrated out. In two of our neighbouring homes there aren’t enough hands for picking and packing the fruits. In another neighbour’s family the two girls are either working or attending college and do not stay in the village. The two younger boys help in the field and in managing the animals but will soon leave as they too are completing school. Most young women and men leave their homes for higher education even though there is a college and a polytechnic in the area. The college doesn’t offer either science or commerce courses and the polytechnic doesn’t have the more popular courses.

In the last few months through a series of conversation with young men I learnt that many of the youth who were working elsewhere and had migrated out returned because of Covid and even now they are still at home because work is hard to come by. This year the Buribana cricket team had a very good run in the local tournament because of this. But the young men are desperate for more fruitful livelihood options. Farming or horticulture does not seem to be the way they can or want to make their future.