Hello Hivers, Namaste 🙏, My weekend walk was all about finding the wild Himalayan fruit called Melu in Uttarakhand, to eat. It’s also known as Himalayan wild pear.
This Saturday, I walked a total of 10 kilometres - 5 kilometres forward and 5 kilometres back. The last time I went to watch the sunset, I saw a wild fruit tree that had fruit, but they were raw. In childhood, we used to eat from it while going to and coming back from school. We know it by the name of Melu (local name).
I started walking around 1 p.m., and it took us 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the Melu tree. Last month, when I saw the tree, I had estimated that these wild Himalayan pears would ripen in a month, depending on the cold. But even now, they hadn't ripened that well. And the ones that had ripened in the lower region had probably been plucked and eaten by other people.
I found some ripe pears, and I plucked a few that were almost ripe. They ripen after plucking if we keep them for a day or two. I was very happy because this fruit connected me to my childhood.
The way from home to school used to pass through a forest of about 4 to 5 kilometers. And we used to stop in between while returning home and eat wild fruits. In different seasons, we used to get to eat some fruit or the other. Mostly, we used to get to eat mango, jamun (Black plum), karonda, amla (Indian gooseberry), ber (Indian jujube) and melu on the way to school. Sometimes we used to ask for oranges from the village situated near the school and eat them.
While returning home, I passed by a temple. When I went near it, I saw a huge area where beautiful yellow flowers were blooming. I went a little closer to the flowers, but it was not easy because there were thorns and such seeds in between that could cause itching if they touched the skin.
On the way, I found one more thing that is eaten by animals. But sometimes when we used to go into the jungle with cows and goats, and there was no water, we used to satisfy the shortage of water and hunger by eating this.
I still love walking these trails and eating wild fruits because they're the source of my childhood taste for them. They always connect me to the mountains and take me back to my golden, wild childhood.
The wildflowers we see in the wild are very rare, unique, and captivating.