Strawberry Picking at Panchgani

The sight of the red berry peeping out of green leaves is delightful! 

I grew up on a staple diet of Enid Blyton’s books, where the children roam free and play in the countryside, go on picnics and eat crunchy apples (that inspired me to go for apple harvesting), bars of chocolates, and sandwiches and pluck basketfuls of wild berries in the forest. :-)

The flowers of the strawberry. 

Little did I know that that fantasy would become reality many years later. I mean the berry picking part of it. And that too strawberry picking! I have an intense love affair with strawberries. There was a time, not long ago, when everything I used, the lip balm, shampoo, face cream, perfume, body spray, body lotion, body wash, had to smell of strawberries. This obsession with strawberries backfired with my husband putting that fragrance in the black list! So when The Western Routes announced their trip to Panchgani for strawberry picking, that was the culmination of my obsession with strawberries.

Rows of strawberry plants. 

We started from Pune at around 6.30 in the morning and after a brief halt for breakfast enroute, reached Panchgani at around 10.30 am. We arrived at Sunil Bhilare’s strawberry farm which is spread around 3 acres. Sunil had started cultivation of strawberries around 20 years ago. The British had started strawberry cultivation in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, due to the climate and soil being very conducive to the crop.  Sunil said that it’s been almost over 80 years since strawberries were introduced in the region and it accounts for almost 85% of the fruit produced in India.

Sunil Bhilare, the owner of the Bhilare strawberry farm in Panchgani. 

He gave us a few instructions on how to pluck strawberries. That we must pluck only ripe fruits and not trample on the saplings. Off we headed for picking, armed with a small cardboard box to collect strawberries in, instead of a basket which would have fit right into my fantasy.

The plants were more like saplings, very short and on the ground and were planted in rows. In another area of the farm, Sunil has tried vertical farming, by placing 3 pots on top of each other with some gap between them. This saves on space and also optimizes the use of water since the water dripping from the top most pot drips on to the ones below, and finally on the ground levels, where he has planted broccoli which get watered on its own. That was a brilliant idea, I thought.

The vertical farm.

We tread carefully between rows of plants, on the lookout for red berries peeping out from behind green leaves. In some cases the ripe berries lay concealed under leaves, so we had to gently move the leaves to check for berries. I plucked some berries, stopped to admire the surroundings, put some freshly plucked fruit into my mouth, contemplating about various things and again resumed plucking till my box was almost full. The flowers of the strawberries are white and doesn’t have the fragrance of strawberries.

My box of strawberries. 

Bhilare has many varieties of strawberries on his farm like the Winter Dawn, which is what we picked and Nabilla and Camarosa and Sweet Charlie, which are sourced from different places like California and Italy.

The farm overlooking the hills. 

I chatted up with Bhilare about strawberries and he said bees are the main pollinators for the fruit and that the season is between October and April. They import the mother sapling from countries like Italy and the US and from the mother plant, they get around 10 rootstocks which is planted in the farms. Each plant yields approximately 700 grams of the berry. It takes around 21 days for the flower to turn into a ripe, red berry. In the peak season, the Bhilare farm sends around 200 kgs of the berry to different places like Bangalore and Hyderabad each day.

Packing strawberries to be dispatched to various places 

Having plucked and gotten to know the fruit better, it was time to indulge in strawberries dipped in chocolate and condensed milk and some strawberry cream. At the farm, the strawberries were priced at Rs 120 a kg, and in Pune it is being sold at Rs 320 a kg. That’s because, it’s a very fragile and perishable product and great care has to be taken while transporting it.

Strawberry dipped in condensed milk. 

After having enjoyed ourselves at the Bhilare farm, we headed out to the Mahabaleshwar market, where I shopped a few things unique to the place and then we had some lip smacking lunch at Bagicha. We also stopped at Menawali at the 16^th century Peshwa minister, Nana Phanavis’ home. But the details of that would be in another post. For this is a post dedicated to strawberries and my love for it!

Scrumptious lunch at Bagicha. 

The Western Routes conducts the strawberry picking tours every year during the season and it’s always fun with Jayesh, the founder, whose passion for travel and food is contagious. If this post has got you interested, do go there next year.

And what did I do with the one kg of strawberries I had picked. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to share my culinary experiments on this travel blog! It was two weeks full of strawberries. Strawberry smoothie, strawberry parfaits, two jars of strawberry jam and a baked yogurt tart with some jam topping. I'm having withdrawal symptoms already!!

Baked Yogurt Tart with strawberry jam. 

I made two jars of strawberry jam. and couldn't stop myself from devouring it. 

Strawberry Parfait. 

A Visit to a Jaggery Making Unit.

Fresh jaggery straight from the molds.

I use a lot of jaggery in my cooking. We use it as a sugar substitute wherever possible, use it in sweets in place of sugar and even eat it with jowar bhakri (flat bread made of sorghum flour). But I did not know how the jaggery that I eat every day is made or comes from, until yesterday.

Stacks of sugarcane waiting to be crushed. 

We had been to a village called Phulgaon, near Pune, and as we were exiting the village, we spotted a small jaggery making unit. I had luckily carried my camera and could take pictures and also enquire with the person there about the whole process of making jaggery.

The motorized crusher and the outlet for the juice. 

The juice is filtered through a strainer. 

Jaggery making workshops are usually located next to sugarcane fields. The sugarcane is washed and put into a motorized crusher, and the juice is collected in a cauldron through a strainer to remove floating impurities. 

The juice is pumped through a pipe into a cauldron.

In earlier days, crushers were driven by oxen. The juice is pumped into a giant cauldron with a capacity of 1000 litres. 

The capacity of the cauldron is 1000 litres. 

I asked this man if I could stir the juice for sometime. He refused saying that the ladle would be too heavy for me. He does this for 2.5 hours at a stretch!! 

The juice boiling away and the foam on top. 

A man with a long slotted ladle keeps stirring the juice for about 2 and half hours till the juice evaporates and becomes 1/3 of its original volume. He also keeps removing the scum and other impurities that gathers on top while the liquid is boiling. Some lime is also added to the liquid to separate impurities which gather and float on the top, which is removed.

The scum. 

The fibrous matter that remains after crushing the sugarcane (called bagasse) is used to fuel the furnace used for boiling the juice.

Jaggery being set in molds. 

Once the juice evaporates and has thickened satisfactorily, it is poured into shallow vats where it is allowed to cool and solidify. After it solidifies into a soft substance, it is pressed into desired molds into various shapes and sizes.

Jaggery ready to be sold. 

The bagasse being fed into the furnace. 

I chatted up with the supervisor of this unit for a few minutes. He said they process around 1000 kgs of sugarcane per day and that 1000 kgs of sugarcane yields around 1000 litres of juice. 

Fresh sugarcane juice in a jaggery making unit. 

He generously offered us some fresh sugarcane juice and some fresh jaggery straight from the mould. We thanked him and returned to the city on a sugar high.

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10 Things to Buy from Mahabaleshwar.

Luscious strawberries at the Mahabaleshwar market

I had been to Mahabaleshwar for the first time in December 2009 but I had not started travel blogging then. My second trip to the charming hill-station in Maharashtra brought back fond memories and also an opportunity to explore and shoot many pictures keeping in mind my travel blog.

Last Sunday, I had been for a refreshing strawberry picking trip organized by The Western Routes, after which we headed out to the Mahabaleshwar market. While I’ll be writing a post about my strawberry picking experience, here’s a must-buy list in the Mahabaleshwar market.

The market runs for over a kilometer on both sides of a narrow lane and was bursting with colours. While I walked almost the entire stretch of the market, I identified a few things that one should or could pick up which are unique to the region.

Strawberries and black raspberries. 

Strawberries: Well, that’s the obvious 1^st on the list. If you are going to the farm to pick strawberries, you could buy some from the market. The strawberry season is from October to April and strawberries were pretty cheap at Rs 120 per kg compared to Pune, where it is sold for Rs 320 a kilo. I also bought some black raspberries, which are not available in Pune.

Crunchy, bright and fresh carrots and red radishes. 

Farm fresh carrots and radish: If you look at the picture of these carrots and radishes, you will know how irresistible they are and how hard it is not to buy them. I used them in cooking and salads, and they were absolutely delicious.

Imtiaz bhai, the wood crafter with his wares. 

Some of his creations. 

Wooden items: I saw an old man carving something on wood, so I walked upto him and had a chat. Imtiaz, the artisan told me that the wood is sourced locally and is called Bhurkhadi and Lokhadi (these are the phonetic spellings of the local names as I couldn’t get the English ones). His entire family is involved in making these wooden items, different members involved in different activities like cutting the wood, polishing it, carving on it, etc. They are also invited to participate in exhibitions and fairs by the government. In the market you will see many such craftsmen selling their wares ranging from trays, toys, combs, ladles, etc.

Leather footwear of Mahabaleshwar.

Leather footwear: There are numerous shops in in the market selling leather footwear. It differs from the Kolhapuri leather chappals, in the way the leather is treated and processed before the final product is made.

Juices and syrups in a hundred varieties. 

Syrups, juice concentrates, fruit crushes: Since the hill station is a berry bowl, many factories such as Mapro, Mala’s and Manama have set shop, producing and selling fruit crushes and concentrates of almost any and all flavours under the sky.

Varieties of homey. Image taken from Madhusagar

Honey: Many agriculturists are into bee keeping in Mahabaleshwar and so there are many outlets selling pure honey in different varieties too, having varying health benefits.

Packets of fresh turmeric powder for sale. 

Turmeric: Bet, you didn’t see this coming! Even on the way to the farm where we picked strawberries, I saw the roads dotted with stalls selling bright yellow packets of something. Only when we stopped later to have some sugarcane juice, I realized that the shop nearby was selling the same; pure unadulterated turmeric powder as well as fresh turmeric root. The aroma was beautiful and so was the colour much brighter than the powder one buys at supermarkets.

Strawberry cream to make your day! 

Strawberry cream: After all this shopping you may refresh with a tall glass of strawberry cream, which is ubiquitous, with almost every second shop in the market selling the same. Another variation is strawberries with ice cream. Both taste equally good.   

Cane items of different shapes and sizes. 

Cane baskets and items: There were quite a few of these shops as well in the market, selling baskets, holders and cases in different shapes and beautiful designs.  

Pappads of different colours and flavours. 

Pappads: There are many shops set up by families who sell home made items like pappads, pickles, noodles, etc. I bought a packet of multi-coloured pappads which colours such as green, orange, white, and brown lent by ingredients such spinach, dal, rice and finger millet, respectively. 

I guess all this shopping will leave your bags stuffed and your wallets empty, but what’s a trip without shopping, isn’t it?

Amantran Agri-tourism and one of the Cleanest Public loos!

The entrance at Amantran. 

After our heads and hearts were appeased by the visit to the 2000 years old cave clusters, Amba-Ambika and Bhutlinga, organized by Heritage Insights, it was now time to refuel with some good food. We headed to Amantran agri-tourism and were truly impressed by the lunch spread and more by the clean toilets, so far the cleanest public loo I've used in India.

The walls are covered with Warli paintings. 

....And plastic bottles recycled as planters....

The décor of the restaurant which part of this set up is simple yet interesting keeping up with the rural setting with warli motifs. The owner Shashikant Jadhav himself goes around serving and attending to people who come to eat.

The owner Mr. Shashikant Jadhav.

Let me allow you to drool at the picture of the lunch- thaali. 

One of the best meals I've had! 

There was bajri chi bhakri (flat bread made out of pearl millet flour). I was intimidated by the size of the bhakri which was almost 12 inches in diameter. Then there was a chutney made of garlic and chilies, a delectable spicy bhaji or subji made of broad beans and peanut powder, a very special Maharashtrian dish called maasvadi served with peanut gravy. Maasvadi, the name is a misnomer since ‘maas’ usually means meat, but this dish is made from cooked chickpea flour with a stuffing of spices and coconut and then rolled on to a cloth, opened and then sliced. Do eat this dish whenever there is an opportunity. In November last year when I had visited the Bhimthadi Yatra (will post about that soon), I ate it there too. The dessert was some lip smacking, scrumptious sheera, kesari or sooji ka halva with banana in it. There was rice too, but my stomach was full with the 12 inch bhakri, so I did not take that.

The kitchen where the women make bhakris. 

Bhakris are made on the coal stove which enhances its taste manifold. 

We had a peep into the kitchen where Mr Jadhav's wife oversees the cooking and herself cooks for the guests. We were told they women together make around 350 bhakris or flatbreads each day with around 30-40 kgs of pearl millet flour. 

The menu on the board. 

After our plates were served, Mr Jadhav, himself went to each and every person asking them to eat well, in the spirit of true Indian hospitality.

There are nests made for the birds.....how nice! 

The loos were the cleanest, as I’ve mentioned, so it is highly recommended for people travelling on the Nagar - Kalyan Highway No. 222 (7 Kms from there), Pune - Nashik Highway No. 50 (18 Kms from there), to take a pit stop, and refresh.

Other activities at Amantran. 

They also have rooms where one can stay overnight, although I did not have a chance to check them out. Amantran provides agri-tourism activities like bullock cart ride, farm visits and rural games for weary urban people longing for a getaway close to nature. They also have a counter where there sell fresh farm produce like black raisins, kakvi or liquid jaggery and other things. 

You may check their website: http://aamantranagritourism.com/

Exploring the 2000 years old Buddhist Cave clusters at Junnar.

Entrance to the Bhutlinga caves. Photo by Saili Palande Datar.

When the shout-out in one of the dailies mentioned, “exotic Buddhist caves”, I knew I had to go! And I was delighted to know that the tour was organized by a team of an Archaeologist and Indologist, which meant that there would be a rich wealth of information and stories, to satiate the history buff in me.

Copy of the Brahmi script. 

Somehow I couldn’t transfer the fees for the tour in time, and pleaded fervently (lol) with Saili Palande Datar , the co-founder of Heritage Insights, with whom I travelled, to include me, on the eve of departure. The pleading did work, and I found myself, the next day, with an equally eager and enthusiastic bunch of people ready to explore the lesser known, 2000 years old cave clusters in Junnar, in Maharashtra. I was surprised to know that there are around 185 such caves in the Junnar region alone and many of them yet to be discovered.

Map with the locations of Buddhist caves in Maharashtra. 

Map of the Indo-Roman trade routes. 

It was extremely fascinating to know how these caves came to be developed. After the Samadhi of Gautama Buddha, his disciples took upon the task of spreading Buddhism all over the world, starting with India. Often they travelled with traders on well-known trade routes. But during the Monsoon, they stayed put in one place for shelter. This was called Varshavaasya, ‘varsha’ meaning rains and ‘vaasya’ meaning residence. Initially, probably they must have sought out natural caves, but when monks starting extending their stay beyond the four months of Varshavaasya, they started building permanent monasteries and cave dwellings. The funding for building the monasteries came mainly from the traders who would seek shelter and food in exchange for funds. The type of funds varied from wood, vessels, grains, cloth, etc.

Entrance to the Chaitya griha of Amba-Ambika caves. 

The sculpture of Amba-Ambika from which the caves derive their name. 

The whole Amba Ambika cave cluster. 

Several inscriptions on the stone also revealed that projects within the cave complex too were sponsored, like water reservoirs, or specific pillars, as an action of ‘punya’, or benevolent actions done specifically for atonement of sins or to appease the Gods that be. This is similar to what we see in parks or buildings, stating that the seats or certain amenities have been donated by a certain person. Several parts of the monastery like meditation cells, or the ceiling or relief work were left unfinished due to the unsuitable nature of the rock and seepage, although in some other caves, elsewhere, work has been left incomplete due to shortage of funds, much like some construction projects of today. Some things don’t change even in 2000 years, I thought to myself!

Entrance to the Bhutlinga caves. Notice the intricate carving on the facade. 

The Chaitya griha with a domed ceiling.

And who were these traders and where did they come from? These were Roman traders who carried out trade via sea, through Egypt, Alexandria and Arabia. The ports where the ships were anchored were Bhrugukachh (Bharuch in Gujarat), Shurparak (now known as Nalasopara in Mumbai) and Calliena (Kalyan near Mumbai). The Romans carried cotton, ivory, spices, silk, pearls, and exotic fauna like tigers, cheetah, peacock, and rhinos to Europe and in return brought gold, silver, wine and slave women to India. The goods brought would be loaded onto bullocks which passed via different ghats to reach important cities in the Deccan region like, Junnar, Pratishthan (Paithan), Nasik and Tagar (Ter).

Carving of a Bodhi tree.

The sculptures of Naga and Garuda. Notice the wings on the figure to the left and the multi-hooded snake behind the figure on the right. 

The then major dynasties of India, the Satvahana and Kshatrapa fought amongst themselves to control the trade routes, as that would mean a lot of wealth as the passes or ‘ghats’ on the Western Ghats were used as collection points for taxes, equivalent to the toll that we have today. It was interesting to know that for traders who used the pass often, they even had discounts similar to the discount on monthly toll passes of today.

Inscriptions stating that a trader has sponsored work for this part of the cave. 

Intricate carvings. 

So the cave monasteries and the Indo-Roman trade had a symbiotic relationship each thriving on the other. But after the 2^nd century BC, the Roman economy collapsed thus impacting the trade which came to a grinding halt towards the 3^rd century CE (Christ Era).

Carvings of Goddess Lakshmi in the centre and elephants, devotees and floral motifs. Photo by Minal Karekar and Swapna Pataskar

A closer shot. Photo by Saili Palande Datar. 

Our first stop was at Manmodi hill, where after a short uphill trek we reached the cave named Amba-Ambika. During the briefing, Yashodhan Joshi, another co-founder of Heritage Insights, showed us the map of the ancient Indo-Roman trade route and also handed copies of the ancient Brahmi script (the language used was Prakrit with a few words of Sanskrit origin) which we used later to understand inscriptions (with a lot of difficulty). All the caves we visited were carved out from the mountain or hill. The cave cluster called Amba-Ambika derives its name from the sculpture of Goddess Ambika which was carved by the Jains in the 9^th and 10^th century CE, after the caves were abandoned by the Buddhist monks. This was a two stories cave cluster with an unfinished Chaitya Griha (prayer hall with a stupa at one end). Two pot based pillars at the entrance were re-constructed by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) and were hence of a different colour. Around 50 inscriptions regarding donations made for the construction of this cave have been found in the Chaitya griha.

Water reservoirs. Rain water harvesting was done even then. 

Further down the Amba-Ambika caves are the Bhutlinga caves, named after the main Chaitya griha with ‘naga’ (snake) and ‘garuda’ (eagle) motifs and the stupa which is considered a ‘Shivlinga’ by locals. The façade of the cave was very well done and was donated by an Indo-Greek trader (locally called yavans) named Chanda, as we learnt from an inscription.

The dents on these stones are for sticking in wooden sticks and watering it, so that when the wood expanded the pressure would break the stones. Here they are left unfinished.

Copper deposits in a rock which render it green. Somewhere on the way...

All these two cave groups were built or rather carved between 1^st to 3^rd centuries CE. Considering that entire caves had to be cut out from the hill, one would think that it would have taken a hundred years for them to have been built. But Saili, the Archaeologist in the team said that one cave cluster would have taken around 15-20 years. This and well as other facts about the life of the monks and ruling dynasties have been gleaned  from years of research by scholars through various sources like coins, inscriptions, references to the names on inscriptions found in the literature of the period, etc.

The Chaitya griha at Tulja caves. 

A distant shot of Tulja caves.

By this time we were satiated by this interesting history and it was time to satiate our hunger. We headed to an eatery in an agro-tourism enterprise called Amantran and after a lip-smacking traditional lunch, headed to the Tulja cave group. The name derives from the deity Goddess Tulja whose shrine was built in a much later period in one of the abandoned caves. This cave group is considered much older than the rest by scholars, which means it wasbuilt in the 1^st century CE or even earlier. There was a circular Chaitya griha here as opposed to the hall like spaces in the previous caves with 12 octagonal pillars around it which indicates that it is from an earlier period.

On the way to Naneghat. Notice the triangular natural formations on the rock. 

Our last stop was a cave in Naneghat. On the way to the cave we were greeted by a giant stone pot which was believed to have been used for tax collection by the then queen of the ruling Satvahana dynasty, called Nayanika or Naganika. This is not a Buddhist cave but was built more as a commemoration of the main political people of the time. In this cave all the three walls of the cave were covered with inscriptions which give a lot of details about the politics of the time. The names of Shri Satkarni and his wife Nayanika, who was a very influential queen feature prominently in the inscriptions. The inscriptions also talks about the Yagnas that Nayanika performed and the donations she made for the Satvahana Empire. At one there were inscriptions serving as labels to the now absent statues of different people like Naganika and her husband.

The giant stone pot used for tax collection by Queen Nayanika.

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Inscriptions on the walls in Naneghat.

We spent some time in Naneghat taking in the panoramic views under the crescent moon before boarding the bus. This trip was surely a heady mix of heritage, history, information, and being transported for a brief moment, to the life that was, 2000 years ago!

The crescent moon for a beautiful end to a very interesting tour. 

Do follow the FB page of Heritage Insights for updates on their Heritage tours! I am certainly awaiting the next one!