Tea pilgrimage: Avongrove inspection
Lewis Perin
of a peekaboo affair, as the mist of the previous evening hadn't
dispersed. The fog wouldn't completely vanish until well into the
morning, but as soon as there was some light, the beauty of our
surroundings became clear. Stepping out of the Avongrove manager's
bungalow is like walking into a Chinese landscape painting. The
Chinese tea phrase "clouds and mist" kept occurring to me. As far as
the eye could see - to the extent that the mist allowed - nothing was
flat, and virtually everything was some shade of green.
There was a lot to do that day, and my wife and I were glad to tag
along. SMC hadn't visited Avongrove in some time, so most of the day
was essentially an inspection tour with the manager Mr. Subba and
SMC.
Avongrove's bungalow and factory, and some of the fields, are high up
a ridge, but the fields extend all the way down to a river (if I took
a wild guess, I'd say there's a difference of altitude of 1,500 feet.)
Going from place to place within the garden, our basic mode of
transportation was a four-wheel-drive vehicle. We'd get out and walk
when we reached a place of interest, of course. But some parts of the
garden can be reached only by narrow, precipitous trails, so we'd
leave the jeep far behind. Many of the roads in the garden, to use a
term I learned that day, aren't "jeepable". Some of the heavy
hauling, in fact, gets done by horses.
In fact, one of the main topics for the inspection was to see the
progress of road-building projects toward raising the jeepability
quotient.
Just as at Dooars, there were lots of things SMC wanted to see for
himself. How were the leaves coming out in various fields? How were
the leguminous crops, like an imposing grass they called "Guatemala",
coming along where superannuated bushes had been ripped out? How were
replantings doing where the soil had had enough time to rest? How
were the huge compost piles - Avongrove is organic - progressing?
What was the internal temperature of the compost, and what plant
matter was going into it? Was the pruning up to snuff? How were the
seedlings coming along in the nursery? How was that field doing that
was replanted with one clonal variety a couple of years ago?
In the middle of this, there was a delicious lunch at the bungalow
featuring vegetables from Mrs. Subba's kitchen garden. We had the
first broccoli I'd seen since we arrived in India. I'd been wondering
about broccoli's absence in a country where cauliflower seemed to be
the national vegetable, so I asked. The answer: broccoli withers fast
in a climate as hot as lowland Bengal, so hardly anyone tries to grow
it at low altitudes.
/Lew
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Lew Perin / pe...@acm.org
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
BRO wisdom: IT IS NOT RALLY ENJOY THE VALLEY
Aloke Prasad
Have you considered putting these travelogues on a web site? You write very
well.
Have you told us who SMC is? An Indian manager?
I'm from Calcutta originally, and have visited Darjeeling a number of times
(using Darjeeling Mail). Travel overnight was always preferred in
non-air-conditioned trains in the Indian heat.
Those Wisdoms are great.. I saw some good ones on roadside signs and painted
on the rear of trucks.
Of course, everyone ignores all these pithy sayings...
--
Aloke
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"Lewis Perin" <pe...@panix.com> wrote in message
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Aloke Prasad
used to create the Lipton's Green Label Darjeeling teas? That used to be
(and still is) a staple in my household.
Actually, Liptons Green label is pretty good for it's price...
Eric Jorgensen
"Aloke Prasad" <apras...@columbus.rr.invalid> wrote:
> Those Wisdoms are great.. I saw some good ones on roadside signs and
> painted on the rear of trucks.
>
> Of course, everyone ignores all these pithy sayings...
My oldest brother was married in India, and he said the most memorable
was "Lane Driving is Sane Driving" - particularly as he was in the back
seat of a car being driven at about 90mph on a narrow, winding road, when
he saw it.