My Garden Bathtub

Alison in her garden bathtub, heated by the summer sun

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Plantation Pundit

Our last “foodie” stop on our trip was in another mountain area, north west of Coonoor and back in Karnataka state but right on the Kerela border, referred to as “Coorg” although that seems to be a colonial era term and is not found on any maps. Significantly we would be entering a dense chunk of the Tata Empire as guests of their hospitality division surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of their agricultural division which they proudly announced that they sold most of their coffee production to Starbucks.

Acres Wild

The view from the upper bungalow at Acres Wild Farmstay, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu

Our journey after Melkote began with being picked up by a driver and his car as we said our goodbyes to the Kouragi family and thanked them for hosting us. We had arranged through a travel agent that specialized in culinary focused travel to visit a cheese maker, and to visit a coffee plantation before we had to leave India. We had four nights left, and two of them would be spent at Acres Wild, a “22 acre, family-run organic cheesemaking farm and farmstay” according to their website. First we had to get there.

Teaching art in the Middle East, your tax dollars at work

The US State Department selected me to serve as an Art Envoy to Doha in Qatar on the Persian Gulf.

Your tax dollars are paying for cultural exchange which I think is important particularly at this moment in American political life.

Jackfruit

We had seen Jackfruit, the largest tree-grown fruit on Earth, occasionally in asian grocery stores, at asian market stalls, and on Wild And Crazy Food shows on TV, but we had NO IDEA what we would do with it if we ever wanted to eat one, so we had never tried.

Dear Guest

Sign on the dining room wall in our resort “bungalow” amid the coffee and pepper plantations of Coorg in Karnataka, India.

Mountain Man