06 Feb 2023  |   05:07am IST

Green fingers that have produced a wealth of food

As more and more people are choosing to eat what they grow, Parra’s Kalindi Salgaokar shows how it is done

Asmita Polji

 [email protected]

  

PARRA: From farming to terrace gardening, Kalindi Salgaokar has done it all. This 60-year-old from Parra is of the opinion that people should re-adopt the practice of eating home-grown produce, and is doing her bit to lead the way.

Salgaokar has won many an accolade from the state agriculture department for her unrelenting dedication to producing her own food. She and her husband have together grown a variety of seasonal crops such as ladies’ fingers, raddish, gourds, chillies, and beans.

She then branched out into cultivating gladiolus, starting with 2,000 plants and gradually increasing this to 20,000 with 18 different shades of flowers. The enterprising woman would then sell these through references from friends and family.

Her efforts didn’t go unnoticed. In the year 1999, 

Salgaokar bagged second place for growing marigolds across 1,500 square 

metres of land.

The senior citizen, who says gardening keeps her soul happy, has developed an interest for terrace gardening over the past four years and has managed to grow several vegetables, fruits and flowers. Take a brief walk through her garden and one will spot a wealth of strawberries, apples, guavas, grapes, kiwis, capsicums, brinjals, coriander, ginger, broccoli, litchi, as well as flowers like chrysanthemums, dahlias and abolim.

How does she do what she does? With a little help from YouTube tutorials and workshops at the zonal agriculture office, and a whole lot of passion, 

Salgaokar says.

“Instead 

of buying 

food from the market, grow your own at home even if you have a small area. Dedicate an hour a day to this and you will certainly be happy with the result,” she advises. “Only if we educate our children about this, will they value the land and protect it. Consuming home-grown food is also the most sure-fire way to stay fit.”

Salgaokar also makes her own manure from kitchen waste and upcycles plastic waste for use as tools or props in her terrace garden. She strongly believes that there should be a compulsory course in school offering theoretical and practical knowledge of gardening and growing one’s own food.

“Agriculture is the most important sector, and if we don’t protect the land and go back to what our ancestors preserved for us, 

the world will soon be concretised,” she says.