Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Our Harvest for this Harvest Festival...
.... is this... it always tastes sweeter and special when it is from your own backyard... and it ripened just in time for Pongal! Needless to say, MIL who toils in the garden everyday had a very very happy Pongal!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Fresh and Green
We live in a neighborhood where all residents have a small green patch around the house. Most of us happen to be interested in a kitchen garden as well. We sometimes share our produce with neighbors and friends like olden days. We've already got some raw bananas, banana flower, white raddish, a bagful of tomatoes from couple of our neighbors - both the ripe and the green variety. I particularly love the green tomatoes which are rare to come by in the market. We've got some papayas as well - again the raw and ripe variety. Raw papaya is also not found commonly in the market and we love making subzi out of it. Our own chillies and tomatoes have just started bearing fruit and the papayas are becoming fatter. We harvested Methi leaves, pudina, the red keerai, manathakkali, some avarakkai (flat bean variety) and brinjal.
While on this, if you are interested in organic fruits and vegetables, do visit this site. We've been ordering one box a month from here which typically lasts us a week or so.
I owe our garden to my MIL and her green thumb (touch wood!) who single handedly plants, waters, tends, cares and toils, out there, come sun or rain. She's going to be away for a month - the plants will miss her immensely I'm sure! But I'm going to make a sincere attempt to care for them... atleast enough to maintain it the way it is right now - I hope that’s not too ambitious...
While on this, if you are interested in organic fruits and vegetables, do visit this site. We've been ordering one box a month from here which typically lasts us a week or so.
I owe our garden to my MIL and her green thumb (touch wood!) who single handedly plants, waters, tends, cares and toils, out there, come sun or rain. She's going to be away for a month - the plants will miss her immensely I'm sure! But I'm going to make a sincere attempt to care for them... atleast enough to maintain it the way it is right now - I hope that’s not too ambitious...
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Rants of the Middle Class Madras Maami
It is an age old tradition of (some) Chennai Maamis (and some Mamas as well) to go around the neighborhood and sneakily and shamelessly gather flowers from others' gardens for their Gods. Chandran's parents (of R K Narayan's Bachelor of Arts fame) were once victims to this and to this day these Maamis continue to harass innocent, friendly neighbors. Here are some 'Flower Thief Maamis' archetypes:
1. Smooth Saroja: She walks in for a friendly chat, 'Ungathula enna samayal...' and drifts into, '...Enge Brahmanan la Cho sonnar paathela...' and all the while she walks around and gathers flowers that she neatly tucks into her saree pallu... once this is done, she leaves with, '... neenga busy-ya irukkael, naan apparam varen..' and sometimes manages to borrow some coffee powder or sugar along the way.
2. Mystery Meenakshi: She wakes up before the world and does a round of the neighborhood gathering all the flowers she wants. No one has ever spotted her till date. No matter how early you set your alarm, she always beats you! We don't know how!
3. Sneaky Sundari: She has chalked out her plan across different neighborhoods for each day of the week. She typically sneaks behind the compound wall and quietly picks all the flowers that happen to hang outside the wall while the household is busy with the morning routine. If someone happens to pass by, she quickly bends down to examine the grass and weeds on the pavement with a zest unknown even to a Botanist. She doesn't meet your eye.
There are many more I am sure.
One such Sneaky Sundari was caught red handed recently when my MIL happened to be watering the plants. It was embarrassing since it was a neighbor - she must have felt guilty since she said (and had the temerity to say), 'I'm only taking what is outside the compound wall'. My MIL being the nice lady that she is said, 'It all goes to God, please take, its ok..' but I was totally annoyed! My MIL toils in the garden every day for 2 hours - anyone who has spent even 30 mins digging in the garden would understand how physically demanding it is. At 65+ she still works hard in the garden (touch wood) and she is so passionate about it. I just can't bear to see the fruits ..err flowers of her labour being stolen this way. I am seriously considering Chandran's idea of building a moat around the house and putting few crocodiles in it!
Btw, last night I saw Sneaky Sundari's car parked outside the compound wall, and I was so tempted!
1. Smooth Saroja: She walks in for a friendly chat, 'Ungathula enna samayal...' and drifts into, '...Enge Brahmanan la Cho sonnar paathela...' and all the while she walks around and gathers flowers that she neatly tucks into her saree pallu... once this is done, she leaves with, '... neenga busy-ya irukkael, naan apparam varen..' and sometimes manages to borrow some coffee powder or sugar along the way.
2. Mystery Meenakshi: She wakes up before the world and does a round of the neighborhood gathering all the flowers she wants. No one has ever spotted her till date. No matter how early you set your alarm, she always beats you! We don't know how!
3. Sneaky Sundari: She has chalked out her plan across different neighborhoods for each day of the week. She typically sneaks behind the compound wall and quietly picks all the flowers that happen to hang outside the wall while the household is busy with the morning routine. If someone happens to pass by, she quickly bends down to examine the grass and weeds on the pavement with a zest unknown even to a Botanist. She doesn't meet your eye.
There are many more I am sure.
One such Sneaky Sundari was caught red handed recently when my MIL happened to be watering the plants. It was embarrassing since it was a neighbor - she must have felt guilty since she said (and had the temerity to say), 'I'm only taking what is outside the compound wall'. My MIL being the nice lady that she is said, 'It all goes to God, please take, its ok..' but I was totally annoyed! My MIL toils in the garden every day for 2 hours - anyone who has spent even 30 mins digging in the garden would understand how physically demanding it is. At 65+ she still works hard in the garden (touch wood) and she is so passionate about it. I just can't bear to see the fruits ..err flowers of her labour being stolen this way. I am seriously considering Chandran's idea of building a moat around the house and putting few crocodiles in it!
Btw, last night I saw Sneaky Sundari's car parked outside the compound wall, and I was so tempted!
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