Weekend Release... (drumstick vegetable)

This is not about Software Release over the weekend. :)... It is all about, how we release drumstick or moringa from our farm, over the weekend.  

I wish farm products reach consumers on the same day, like CI/CD with zero-down-time. :) Unfortunately, farm products take around few days to reach end consumers.

Please read further, if you are interested. :)

Hello -

Hope you, family and friends are doing well. In this blog, I will discuss about, how we pack, release fresh and quality drumstick or moringa from farm, to either local dealers or local market.  Dealers take care of distributing to retail shops or small shops, and consumers buy this vegetable from shops.

Below image shows, a quality and ready to be plucked drumstick from tree.  If the tree is small, it can be easily hand-picked up. Or, we need a stick to knock it from a tree. We usually have 3 or 4 people to do this on a fine-day.

We usually assemble all the plucked drumsticks in one place, like below.  We keep this in a shadow place, so that the quality and freshness is there. Sometimes, traders come and check the quality from here.

As it comes to a common place, we start packing this immediately, so that freshness is maintained. We get sack bags and cardboards from the vendor.  We arrange drumsticks inside the box, keep some leaves inside the box, to keep the freshness and smell. Every bag should weigh 52 kg. We weigh the same, do all the corrections and tie the same. Though it weighs 52 kg, 2 kg is deducted for box and sack weight.   We get paid for 50 kgs per bag. Below packs are ready for shipping from farm. It is kept under thick shadow place.

The above packs, reach local dealers and then get transferred to some market hub. From the hub, it is given to retailers and they take care of selling to customers. But, no matter what, it takes around 2 to 3 days, for getting this out to consumers. This is for sure.

This season was good, and I over-saw closely than ever before, due to covid.  We produced more than 5 tons in last few months. Season is coming to an end, as we are preparing ourselves for welcoming north-east monsoon.

Below image shows, how we apply natural manure to the trees. We procure this from local places, and apply to each tree in every 3 months.  This makes sure that, tree is healthy, vegetable is greener with vitamins and fresh.

We check the quality of flowers, which is important to yield. Sometimes flowers just fell without any yielding. Also, we check the quality of trees, check for any bugs, flies around the tree. It is important, to make sure that the leaves are in green and healthy.

Summary: A good season this year. Initial days, the price per kg was around 3 INR, but in last few weeks, it is consistently around 25-30 INR, which is a good price for a farmer.  Please note that, this is not a price to become rich, yet, this is a price just to be happy. If a farmer is happy, healthy products are produced to the market. :)

I wish every farmer to be happy, their farm products are consistently paid good price to keep them happy.

I also wish farm products reach consumers with good freshness and quality, on the same day, with zero-delays. :)  We will be there one-day....