The fresh and crisp vegetables harvested from my own kitchen garden make all my senses come alive with their vibrant colours and lingering scents. From carrots, cauliflower and peas to mint leaves, coriander and thyme, all the varieties are hand-picked and enjoyed. Come harvest season and these add to the sweet charm of the season. In addition, the numerous health benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables are common knowledge and to add to this, these vegetables are grown organically, free from chemicals.
In the tea gardens, we are lucky to have the benefits of the “maali-baari” aka the kitchen garden and along with it the “maali”. So with minimal supervision, one can enjoy delectable fruits and vegetables. However, a decade back these exotic varieties were not easily available. It was only when Jitendra Ladkat of Pune brought the first few seeds of broccoli all the way from Kenya, the cultivation of exotic vegetables like Avacado, baby corn, red and yellow bell peppers began and its supply was limited to few privileged members of the society who could afford it. It was a stark contrast from what we see today - every neighbourhood “sabziwala” with stocked up exotic vegetables.
Today, while enjoying my broccoli soup, I’m reminded of this story from a couple of decades back when these exotic veggies were making their debut in our country. In order to enjoy this luxury at an affordable price, we decided to try planting some of these seeds in the kitchen garden. After a lot of asking around and after a far and wide search, we acquired some imported seeds in a shop as small as a single refrigerator compartment, in one of the busiest markets of the biggest town in the vicinity. Having held those packets, I could almost imagine myself enjoying these delicacies. Soon, the maalis were summoned and land tilled and prepared and thus the first few steps were completed successfully.
A few months passed by. It was a pleasant winter day and as my husband and I sat under the garden umbrella, sipping a cup of tea after breakfast the “maali” carried a tray full of harvested vegetables and was happy with the harvest. We applauded his hard work and he was beaming with joy. However, soon his joy changed to concern. He went on to say that the “gobhi phool” has not been good like last year as they are flowering but have got fungus on top. With his green thumb and many years of experience, he thought it’d be a good idea to have some treatment on it and hence asked if he should spray some medicine on it.
We decided to have a look at the “maali-baari” and so we followed the gardener into the kitchen garden. Sure enough, we saw a green spread. Though the maali was dismayed as he could not understand how such a thing could have happened despite his utmost care, our joy knew no bounds when we found that we had been successful in growing this exotic vegetable and the cauliflower gone bad was nothing but BROCCOLI.
The gobhi too has gone green so let us all also GO GREEN!