Because my wellness boot camps in India are at a 1600-acre tea plantation, my guests and I have the good fortune of seeing how tea is manufactured from the initial picking of the “two leaves and a bud” until the tea is packaged for the open markets, so I thought I would share with you how this process works.
It starts with the harvesting of the tea leaves where as I had mentioned above, only the bud and the two youngest leaves are plucked. My boot camp guests and I are so fortunate to have the pleasure of hiking amongst the many trails and tea bushes of the vast estate and frequently come across the workers who manually do this harvesting, a pretty labor intensive process.
And did you know that an experienced worker can pick up to 60 pounds of tea a day which produces about 15 pounds of the final product.
These freshly picked leaves are spread out on trays and hot air is blown over them for up to twenty four hours to drive out the moisture. This is known as the withering process and during this phase the leaves lose about 40% of their weight. During the drying process the leaves turn a dark shade of green. Leaves that are to be made into black tea are then rolled and broken up with machines to release their enzymes and essential oils, preparing them for the oxidation process.
In my next post (part 2 of 3), I will discuss the oxidation and fermentation process. Part 3 will be the final section on tea where you will find out how manufacturing is done to create black, green, oolong, and white teas and what makes these teas different from each other.
Every month or so for many years now, a group of my friends and I get together for an evening of laughter, fun and feasting that has included my friend Tiffany’s Vietnamese Spring Rolls (absolutely divine!), Nima’s Turkey Meatball Curry (out of this world delicious!) or most recently Vani’s Sprouted Moong Bean Salad, which was not only refreshing and super healthy, but tasted amazing.
Today I am sharing with you the Sprouted Moong Bean Salad recipe, compliments of Vani. Enjoy!
Ingredients
2 cups sprouted moong beans
1 medium size pickle style cucumber, cut into cubes
2 medium tomatoes cut into cubes
½ yellow pepper cut into pieces
½ cup shredded carrot
½ cup shredded cabbage
Dressing
1 table spoon lime juice
1 tea spoon ginger juice
1 table spoon yogurt
¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp roasted grounded cumin seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro to garnish
Whisk all ingredients for dressing together, pour over the beans and let it sit together for about 10 minutes. Add all the vegetables in a bowl and layer the beans on top and gently toss it all together.. Garnish with cilantro.
If you are in the New Delhi area of India and would like to participate in an unusual experience – you may want to take an inner city walk with the Salaam Baalak Trust.
This organization works with street children in Delhi, providing them with a caring, secure environment which includes five 24-hour full care shelters for children, while providing them with a means to an education, and ultimately the opportunity to live full, enriched, meaningful lives.
Some of these children such as Shamsul, due to poverty and family problems, boarded a train from his home state at the age of 11 to New Delhi where he spent one a and half years picking rags in and around the railway station before being picked up by one of the trust staff. Shamsul received an education and is now a young man earning a good salary at a media company.
This is not a slum tour, this is a walk through the backstreets of New Delhi led by your young, fully trained guide who was once living and working on the streets, where you will view the world through their eyes as they share with you their life journeys. This tour is also one of the services that we offer as part of our Himalayan Boot Camp vacations.
The Goji berry is another fruit rich in antioxidants, specifically carotenoids such as beta carotene and zeaxanthin. It is found in China and the Himalayas and is a dark red fruit related to the cranberry and blueberry. Goji berries have a tangy sweet taste and are considered nutrient dense, rich in phytonutrients and containing essential vitamins and minerals.
I grew up eating Goji berries in the Himalayan foothills. My aunt had huge bushes on her property that grew these little berries abundantly by the hundreds. I would gather the large, ripe soft ones and eat them by the dozens. They were juicy and delicious!
And guess what! I found a website that actually sells seeds so I will be ordering some and growing my own. They are known to be very hardy plants so I am hoping to enjoy some fresh fruit in a couple of seasons. Can’t wait.
Do you have any experience with Goji Berries? I would love to hear about them.
I would like to provide my guests the opportunity to interact and give back to the local communities in India they visit during their Himalayan Boot Camp journeys. I truly believe that it can be a rewarding experience if one has brightened the life of someone less fortunate in the community one left behind after the vacation is over.
I am thinking of providing this interaction at a couple of the local schools that cater to the more impoverished children. Here are just a couple of my ideas for my guests:
Take 3-4 books and have a storybook session with the children. The local children will love this!
An afternoon of crafts with the children using supplies we take from here that those children have never seen and can take home with them (paper dolls, painting etc – the possibilities are endless)
Distribute some clothes (T-Shirts?) and have some afternoon refreshments and snacks.
These are just small things but they are a start. I grew up in this area of Meghalaya, India and know exactly how much brightness this will bring to the children. I am not sure where this idea will take me but I just have this gut feeling that both the givers and receivers of this kindness will be so blessed and the memories will be amazing.
Please provide feedback – tell me what you think. I also welcome any additional ideas you may have.
On my last journey to India, I was incredibly moved by some of the local children we met there. Friendly and quick to say hello, these children seemed happy, though they have little by our standards. Perhaps because I myself come from India, I found them to be endearing and felt a distinct connection to them.
As founder of Himalayan Boot Camp, I envision my company as one that gives back to the community. Being that Himalayan Boot Camp is rooted in India – in its culture, food, and the adventures India offers – I believe some of the local villages which we traverse on our Boot Camp adventures should benefit from our business endeavors and success. Himalayan Boot Camp, by itself and through its guests, can be the vehicle for contributing, even in a small way, to the quality of life for some local children.
One way in which I propose to do this is to provide my guests with an opportunity to give something small yet meaningful. After making inquiries, I have learned that school supplies are in great demand. English reading books for children ages three to twelve are especially in short supply.
Willing Himalayan Boot Camp guests could bring a book or two for this age group, along with a few pencils and erasers. At a small get-together, my guests can visit and interact with some of the local children, and give them each a gift of a book and some school supplies. I know it would be an unforgettable moment for the child and personally rewarding for any guest who chooses to participate.
Another project which I will soon be implementing is what I call my “Socks For Children” project (I am working on a more formal name for the project). As you might imagine, the Himalayan foothills are extremely cold during the winter, and many children could use good quality, warm, and well-insulated socks. In light of that, each October when I travel to India for our boot camps, I will take with me a large suitcase full of 500 pairs of socks. 250 needy children will get 2 pairs of socks each. I am certain that these socks will mean so much and will help prevent the recipients from suffering from cold during the harsh days of winter. Contributors to this project may be, but need not be, Himalayan Boot Camp guests.
If you are interested in being part of the socks project, send me an email to connie@himalayanbootcamp.com and I will provide more details as I get this project up and running.
I have another story about two little village boys I met while traveling through one of the beautiful remote areas of Meghalaya,India after my Oct 08 Himalayan Boot Camp. My husband and I, with my sister and some friends were driving back one late afternoon after spending the day doing some fabulous sightseeing when we came across this little village. The setting sun on this village was so beautiful that we stopped the car for a moment to take some pictures.
While we were taking pictures, I noticed two little boys standing near the side of the road, by a stone quarry, looking at us. They just looked so cute I asked them if I could take a picture. The older brother (who was about four years old), as soon as he realized we were going to take their picture, shouted to us to wait and ran to his little hut nearby and brought out this little pair of shoes that he put on his younger two year old brother so his little brother can have his picture taken with his shoes on. It was just done with so much dignity for such a small child. This just really tugged at my heart as I took some pictures of them.
This experience has really been on my mind since then, and I have been thinking that I have been so blessed and take so much for granted, I really would like to do more. Perhaps there is a way for me to help some of the children in the region. I am still investigating one of my ideas and will update you on a future blog post. Please stay tuned!
I have come up with what I consider a fabulous idea for you to go for FREE to one of my Himalayan Boot Camps. Here is my idea. If you are a yoga instructor and would like to take eight of your students to one of my Himalayan Boot Camps in India, YOU get to go for FREE. That’s correct! All you need to bring is your pocket money!
I feel this is a WIN-WIN situation as it provides me with another avenue to advertise my boot camps and it provides you with a fantastic opportunity to see a beautiful part of the world without having to pay for it.
If you are NOT a yoga instructor but can bring your own group and take advantage of this free offer for yourself, Himalayan Boot Camp is interested in hearing from you as well.
To obtain this FREE trip, guests must attend the same boot camp and pay the regular double room rate (share a room). Himalayan Boot Camp will pay the following for the yoga instructor or individual who brings eight guests: his/her international air fare to India, domestic airfare within India to final destination, food, lodging and all transportation in India for seven days and eight nights.
You might ask why would you want to go with Himalayan Boot Camp if you can take your own 8 students and do your own planning? Because I have done this before and have an established, proven process in plac, therefore I can offer the ultimate experience for my guests – ALL transportation in India, ALL food, ALL luxury accommodations, and ALL cultural excursions that are part of the itinerary– you do not have to worry about anything. Additionally, I have specially arranged fitness hikes, nutritious, healthy cuisine, and I will be there personally to make sure everyone has a fabulous, delightful and unforgettable experience,
Imagine yourself and your students doing sunrise yoga on a balcony (actual picture above) overlooking beautiful Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world (Everest and K2 being #1 and 2 respectively). Believe me it is quite the AWESOME experience. If you are lucky (perfect weather conditions), you will see the mountains above you in the horizon and clouds below you while you are doing your sun salutations! Or you may practice at dusk as evening settles in while the forests around you come alive with the vibrating melody of the cicadas. I can go on and on about this because the experience is so wonderful it is hard to describe.
Would you like to go on this amazing journey? Call (866-928-9911) or email me (connie@himalayanbootcamp.com) if you are interested. I have only two boot camps scheduled for Oct 2009 and I have a feeling they will fill up fast.
The information in this blog is for educational purposes only. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical problem, please consult your licensed health care practitioner.
nufactured from the initial picking of the “two leaves and a bud” until the tea is packaged for the open markets, so I thought I would share with you how this process works.
