Kozhikulayan (കോഴിക്കുളയൻ) is a traditional variety mango found in some parts of Trichur (Thirur,Kolazhi etc). Its basic taste is of Komanga/Vattamanga which is a famous variety found throughout Kerala. It weighs around 200-300gms and seed is polyembrionic and no worm attack, hence seed would give the characterestics of mother tree.
Bought this from a shop in Puthissery, which is a place in Muthuvara-Adat road. They sell it at 60 rupees per Kg.
Last year's ginger was harvested and some are being used at home and some are kept in a pit for use for next season.
Some taro also is kept in the pit.
Some beds are being prepared with leaves spread on it, beds are not raised. Also dumping kitchen waste directly on them, in situ composting.
I use Scythe very heavily for cutting weeds and cover crops. At tight spaces Scythe can not be used since it needs more space for swinging. Also when the grass is very thin, especially in walk ways, Scythe is not a good option. Either I should use brush cutter or some sickle. With small handled sickle cutting is very tedious since we have to bend a lot. So thought of making a long handled sickle with a bend so that it remains horizontal to the ground, similar to Scythe. Even though I have to bend, but it should not be much.
Feb-2023
After harvesting Patch2, cut grasses were used for mulching. Also road side grass also was cut and leaves gathered from road also used for mulching.
Turmeric Patch 1 was harvested, this time it was very minimal yield, mainly because last year sowing was done along with harvest and in many places, seeds didn't come up. Also after some time, weeds took over and no manuring was done.
This year, after harvest decided to keep the area heavily mulched and one round of fodder grass was used for this purpose. Also wanted to see how the deep mulched area becomes at the start of the seeding.
Also had bought some Mucuna Puriens (Black velvet beans) seeds from amazon and sown this in the channel between the beds, had watered this area using the irrigation water from dams.
Few months back there was a talk that a JCB operator had seen a python while doing the excavation work in the nearby farm. It disappeared after that, and no one had seen it afterwards. I was cutting the Pureria vine in one part of the farm and after cutting the top portion, one part of the snake was seen. It was a huge one, it was not viper from the markings. Only one part was visible.
I could see that it was a python, but it was not moving at all.Also it was hiding below the vines of the Pureria, normally I never saw snake in that position. It was not moving since it had eaten some thing, its belly was bulging. Called the neighbour person and 3-4 people came with him. I also called Kollengode forest office and they said, it will go and won't do any harm. One neighbor was telling, we will just kill it, I was very sure that it should not be killed. Sometimes you have to be very firm with these kinds of people. I was bit hesitant to leave it there, since we will be working in the grass. They agreed that, they will leave it in forest if handed over to them. One person Babu was called and he said he can catch it.
Finally we cleared the grass and could see the tail, and Babu was holding the tail and two persons held the jute sack at its neck side. With some difficulty it started crawling into the sack and we tied and took it to the forest station in my car. I had to pay 500/ to Babu and overall expense was around 1200/, but felt happy that its life was saved and relocated it. Yet another neighbour was telling, it's meat is very tasty and next time, he should be informed while seeing one. I am not going to do that, I like to give shelter to such creatures, even though some people think that they are insignificant creatures.
