Earlier, the Gholvad and Dahanu chikoo farmers had three crops of the fruit every year. Every evening during the season, trainloads of their chikoos depart from the station for Bombay, from where it enters the fruit and vegetable markets and goes up for sale. They live in a huge and rambling planter’s house a short distance away from the Gholvad Railway Station and zip about their vast chikoo wadi on an old 350cc Matchless motorcycle. ROHINTON and Ruby Batliwala are Gholvad’s popular Parsi-Irani chikoo farmers. UpperCrust halts at the sleepy and quaint railway station here and explores the chikoo orchards of these farmers. Gholvad is where the Irani agriculturists of Maharashtra grow chikoos. Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.Upper Crust ::: India's food, wine and style magazine Sohliya, in Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district, also hosts a strawberry festival in mid-February, where you can pick farm fresh berries, sample some strawberry wine, relish homemade berry ice cream, and take home large bottles of fruit preserves.Īlso Read: 15 Fabulous Food Festivals in India That You Just Can’t Afford To Miss Jam brand Mapro organises strawberry festivals at both these places in March/April, where you can taste innovative creations like strawberry-flecked bhel. Picking strawberries, sparkling like rubies in the sunlight, amidst the scenic vistas of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani is an experience not to be missed for all strawberry aficionados. Visitors can also learn organic composting techniques, local harvesting methods and pickle-making (yes, from chikoos!) before picking sapodilla fresh off the boughs. With the aim of encouraging sustainable agri-growth in the region, MTDC has been organising a unique Chikoo Festival in the village of Bordi for the past few years,Ī proverbial bucket-list experience, this festival is the place where visitors can run a ‘chikoo marathon’, participate in treasure hunts, savour traditional meals and try their hand at Warli pottery and painting. In fact, nearly 66% of the local population are tribal Warlis who depend on chikoo cultivation for their income. The Maharashtrian belt of Gholvad and Dahanu districts has a history of growing the best chikoos in the state. Hosted by the Botanical Society of Goa, the festival displays a range of local fruits such as bakul, anvadde, rozanvadde, karmal, bimblim, velvet apple, white sapota, jujube, chafera berries, chirputtam, nakli badam and adao.īesides fruit-eating competitions, gardening workshops and stalls selling culinary creations made from fresh fruit, the peppy three-day festival is also livened up by folk music and cultural performances. Special discourses on organic farming, horticulture, wineries, and food/ fruit processing are also conducted. There are also carts selling chana (fried gram), puffed rice, bathas (hard candy) and other traditional snacks.īringing to the forefront lesser-known fruits of the Konkan belt, the annual Konkan Fruit Festival is held in April at Panaji, the capital city of Goa. Variety of groundnuts - raw, dried, roasted and boiled - are heaped on either side of Bull Temple Road and sold at prices ranging from anywhere between Rs 20-45 per kg. Organized on the last Monday of ‘ Karthika Masa‘, the Parishe hosts groundnut farmers and sellers from all over the state and even from neighbouring states. Today, this hillock is known as Basavangudi and its streets are virtually synonymous with this ancient festival. One of Bengaluru’s oldest festivals, Kadalekai Parishe is an annual groundnut fair that is believed to date back to the year 1537 CE when Kempegowda (the founder of the city) built a temple dedicated to Basava or Nandi atop a small hillock. Held at multiple venues across the city, the three-day fest included trips to orange orchards, recipe contests, orange-themed installations by art students, cultural parade and lots more. Moreover, orange farmers and experts from across 10 other states of India and foreign countries participated in the festival, which is expected to be held every year from now onwards. It was with the idea of celebrating this heritage and supporting the local farming community that Nagpur hosted the World Orange Festival for the first time in December 2017. In fact, the Maharashtrian city bagged the geographical indication (GI) tag in 2014 for its orange growers. Nagpur is known as the ‘Orange City of India’ and with good reason - the juicy and exquisite flavour of its oranges is world famous.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |