A Visit To the farm 🌴🌽

Today, I had a very good visit to the farm in my hometown, and it was the time of the Aani month (ஆணி) of the Tamil calendar, which is the july month in the Gregorian Calendar, when the corn in the fields had grown a little taller than me and is supposed to be harvested during August. Groundnuts (நிலக்கடலை) were planted along with cassava (மரவள்ளிக்கிழங்கு), which is also called tapioca. It was a pretty sunny day, but the weather inside the farm was windy and pleasant. The purpose of our visit was to get some coconuts, and we also expected to drink some tender coconut water (இளநீர்), but in the end, they were all mature coconuts (தேங்காய்), which could only be used in the kitchen for cooking. They can be drunk as well, but they are mostly used for cooking.

*A sesame plant growing unexpectedly in the field.

*The entire Corn field view 🌽✨

*The corns which will be harvested next month which is August.

It had been a long time since I visited the farm, approximately 6 to 7 years, so this visit was very nostalgic. I looked at the small tank where we once used to bathe. Back then, I thought the tank was very big, but now it seems to be about the same height as me. Since nobody uses it anymore, it has now become a home for algae. The well there is absolutely huge, and there was a tortoise and some fishes swimming around inside. While a person was climbing the coconut tree to harvest the coconuts, I took a lot of pictures of the cornfield, reminisced about that place, and looked at other trees like the jackfruit tree and the wild citrus tree, which is referred to as நார்த்தங்காய் in Tamil. It is valued in South India and Ayurveda for its vitamin C, and pickles and pachadi, which is a kind of side dish, are made from it as well.

*The cassava plants growing amidst the groundnut crop.

*Drip irrigation used to irrigate the fields during the non-rainy season, helping conserve water by reducing wastage during the summer.

As we were eating the jamuns we had brought earlier, we sat on a stone platform that had been made for a hut that was never built. My granny asked me to pluck a ripe yellowish leaf from the jackfruit tree to make a spoon-like holder. After we cut the jackfruit from the tree, we placed the leaf underneath so that the gum that oozed out would collect in it. My granny said that we could use it as a natural adhesive for our bindis. As expected, we tried using it for our bindis, and it worked really well. That also made me wonder: when nature gives us things like these, why buy artificial gums sold in stores specifically for bindis? I remember buying gum for bindis from a shop a long time ago because I never knew we could use jackfruit gum like this.

The jackfruit tree was quite tall, and it had a lot of fruits. We can make quite a variety of dishes using it, including chips. It can be eaten just as it is when it's ripe, and even the raw form is used to make biryani, which tastes exactly like chicken and looks like mutton. It is also used to make "chakka curry," a popular dish in parts of Nagercoil and Kerala. My granny is an expert at making it, so we took one unripe jackfruit with us as well.

One more interesting thing is that I used a slingshot, which is called உண்டிகோள் in Tamil, to collect some wild citrus from the huge tree. As expected from a beginner, my shots were pretty sloppy, but I still managed to get six fruits in the end, which I see as a great accomplishment for a beginner.

Overall, today was a really good experience for me. After such a long time, I was able to roam around in nature and breathe fresh air, unlike in the city, where it is bustling and hot throughout the day. Both my body and my mind felt at peace.