Seed courier

Small plots with tiny advantages – Can haul an emergency supply of seeds on a cycle.

Sowing Season 2023- Soybean

26/06/2023

Soybean is in the ground. Soil condition seemed just about right. To have things aligned for a good sowing is an achievement. Tractor had a flat tyre late last evening. Driver was out until afternoon. Seeds might have ran short by a sliver. An additional shower could have turned the plot slushy.

Despite all of these, there was a window. It needed spotting. Farming is a never ending lesson in observation, resilience and endurance. Above all, perhaps, it is also about being satisfied with what is. And yet, continue sowing for tomorrow.

Harvest, Kharif 2022

Harvest, Summer ,2022

7 October 2022

The little plot of soybean that remains from this summer’s unsually prolonged and heavy rains is ready for harvest. Need to find workers to get this in. The rows of soybean plants have been overtaken by weeds. The season left no window to remove weeds.

For the losses incurred from washed away crops, the state government has begun crediting compensation money to affected farmers’ bank accounts. Received mine today.

The usual volume of work continues. Winter cropping, fencing, mending… the list goes on.

Of labour and yields

05/10/2020

Labour and yields and productivity, all the conversations and thoughts seem to revolve around these lately. The pile this evening is work of more than three months and several hands. The pace and ways of this place is striking in its bare bones state.

Marigolds for diwali

21/07/2020

She is planting marigold saplings. By November and on diwali, hopefully, the saplings will be radiant bushes with plenty of flowers. They would make the garlands for the doors on the festival day.

Soybean plants are five weeks old. In another week the plants should begin flowering.

It was a lovely day on the farm. Easy. Quiet. These full days on the farm fill up mind and body. By the time we drive back home there is a gently aching body, fatigued with the elements of the day and a content heart with the time spent with plants, soil, water and working all of them into a whole.

Along the perimeter wall a lovely hedge is growing. It is seasonal. I am struck by the spacing and symmetry of the row. It may not stand the summer. This season is all that it will last. In nature’s subtle way, I learn non-permanance every day.