Farming year 2023

February has come roaring in like an inferno, as usual. We spend our days putting out fires, watering our plants diligently, and processing our crops.

Not a volcano!

2023 was a severe drought year in our region, so our farming has not been very productive. If El Nino doesn’t withdraw as predicted in April this year, we’re dead! It started off well. The bumper rains of 2022 stood us in good stead. Paddy and a mixed crop of millets (jowar, bajra, foxtail), corn, radish and the old reliable avare all looked promising. But that’s a sweet and distant memory – between the drought and the cute-but-ravenous weaver birds that live in the field we ended up with a very poor harvest.

Paddy field with new coconut saplings

Millet field…

…before the weaver birds got it

On the other hand, we got tons of mangoes and chikoos, many kilos of cashew (very difficult to process, still trying to get it right), and small quantities of coffee, cacao and cardamom. To be honest, one cacao pod (the first) and five cardamoms. Still, very thrilling!

Cashew – with skin and without

The first cacao pod

Coffee berries ripening

We’re doing reasonably well on the fruit front even after the elephants decimated the bananas and papayas. Even the reluctant citruses are beginning to deliver. The veggies are not so satisfactory. Less beanses and more brassicas, please! Oh, and we’ve added two new tubers this year which taste great – jicama and air potato.

Though it’s been a tough year, life is still good because we love what we do. You can tell by Govindamma’s beautiful smile as she hand-mills the avare beans into dal. She’s a master of these arts; and I’m her eager but inept student still.