All four of us were outside this evening, preparing seedling bags and putting in some tree seeds. We punched holes in old milk sachets (Vangal Dairy!), then packed them with a mix of mud and compost, pressed the seed in and watered the bags.

Whatever seeds pop, will be nursed in the nursery for a year, and we will hopefully plant out most of the seedlings next year.

Some of these were jackfruit seeds. We received the jackfruit as a gift, yesterday from Swaminathan's family; the tree from which it came is an old one, planted by Swaminathan's grandfather.(The jackfruit is as much his gift as his grandson's). If all goes well, today's bagging will yield fruit in 20 years' time.

We were struck by the wonder of it all: One small seed given time and space, can give rise miraculously to a stately jackfruit tree, producing fruit, each of which is a meal (or two) for a family!

I went and saw our one surviving jackfruit tree which was one of those we planted from seed when we came here.It has survived the depredations of goats and three consecutive drought years, and has grown into a lovely-looking young tree.

With that one we are eight years "ahead of the game", so if any of you are in the vicinity in June 2020, you may be the lucky ones to share in our first homegrown jackfruit harvest.