Have you ever plucked a cucumber straight from its creeping vine and ate?
Been under the largest green house?
Rode a tractor?
Picked strawberries?
Breathed the purest farm-fresh air?
I did!
All this and much more at GreenTokri, a fully automated, computerized and sophisticated farm in Saswad near Pune.
….and realized how selling salads is serious business!
GreenTokri is a farm spread across 50 acres at foothills of the Sahayadris in the outskirts of Pune. A variety of lettuce, fresh herbs, exotic fruits and vegetables are grown there.
The farm produce is grown in controlled conditions under a green house, drip irrigation, micro controllers – all integrated with an IT back end to handle the front end.
Impressive!
Iceberg, Romana, red and green Oak Leaf, butter head lettuce, basil, parsley, chives, garlic chives, sage, thyme, oregano, rucola, celery, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, six varieties of coloured capsicum, broccoli, leek, fennel, baby spinach, red cabbage, French beans – you name it, they grow it!
Basically anything & everything you can imagine that can go in a salad is harvested at GreenTokri.
The farm also grows custard apples, mangoes, avocados and strawberries as per the season.
This is not all. The fresh produce of the farm is used to make freshest pestos, pickled vegetables, delicious jams and flavourful dressings.
You can order online their salads, dressings, jams and other stuff from GreenTokri webshop, BigBasket and Grofers.
Or you can also visit outlets where their greens are available. Check here for the nearest one to you.
So, recently I was invited by GreenTokri for a review.
Am so glad they did.
It was such a ‘refreshing’ (quite literally) change from our regular weekend outings which mostly end at one of the city malls.
Here are some points you must register before the trip to GreenTokri Farm –
This how a typical farm tour at GreenTokri goes like…
Reach there at 9.45 am
They send you a route map and navigation directions in advance through mail as it can get really tricky to find the place unless you are familiar & fond of ‘treasure hunt’.
Word of caution – DO NOT write Green Tokri or GreenTokri in GPS as that will take you to their office in Wadgaon Sheri. Enter the GPS coordinates they send you in the mail (lat 18.347847° lon 73.967451° – 18°20’52” N – 73°58’02” E). Keep the coordinators’ number handy and give her a call if you are lost anywhere.
Shopping!
Pick and buy the freshest of salad, veggies and fruits before they are loaded in trucks and are sent off to the market.
Know Your Salad – A Small Interactive Session
The Farm Tour Manager and an agriculture expert Mr. Khan or ‘K’, as he likes to be called, is an interesting and scientifically sound man –the most charming farmer I ever came across.
Before starting the trip, he conducts a session on diverse varieties of salad, how they are different, their health quotient and what is the best way to eat them.
He makes it fun by involving children in the whole exercise.
You get to taste and munch on all the greens along with unlimited cool strawberry juice.
The Farm Trip
Under the expert guidance and information on farming and cultivation, we move ahead to the green house. It’s a huge one and 4 degrees warmer than outside.
K told us ALL about it….a lot of technical stuff which I am going to skip covering here and suggest you to listen on your own visit.
There were salads, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and other veggies – a LOT of them around.
Outside the green house, we had a long stroll in other farms and saw rest of the vegetation.
Strawberry Picking
The highlight of the tour, not only for kids but for elders as well was plucking ripe strawberries from plants.
It is not as huge a plantation of this fruit here (how we have seen in Mahabaleshwar) but pretty decent. Mind it, it comes with a price! You are given a small tub; you pluck strawberries, fill that tub and pay Rs. 100.
Worth may be not for the value of fruit but definitely for the whole experience!!
Sapling Plantation
Children were delighted to plant a small sapling of salad leaves which they were allowed to take along.
Tractor Ride
This was fun too. Children and mommies are given a free ride in the tractor to the Lake Plot (another farm land of theirs nearby) where lunch is arranged. Its good 15 minute ride in the most uneven terrain….and that’s why enjoyable!!
Lunch
By the time we reached the lake plot (around 1.30), everyone was famished and starving.
It was a nice and neat arrangement there – spread of pastas, dips, dressings, salad, fruits, bread, juice and dessert. A hearty VEG meal.
Expect to be through with the whole thing by 2.00 pm unless your children get glued to the trampoline and other slides in the play area.
Go Back Refreshed, Go Back Green!
Contact Details
GreenTokri
91-9552507364 / 9763717960
FarmTour@greentokri.com
www.greentokri.com