Guest User
February 27, 2023
On a Sunday morning in the month of January, 2023, I woke up early and got dressed to go on an exciting expedition ***** with my parents and friends to the Strawberry Farm in Verlem in a place called Netravali located in South Goa. We boarded the bus from Aquem Circle in Margao city and en route we had some of our friends who were singing in a frenzied excitement aloud and then there were others who were chatting amongst themselves to while away the time until we reached the much-awaited Strawberry Farm. As for me, I blissfully watched the greenery outside the bus window which kept me engrossed for a while! Mom and Dad too enjoyed listening to the music played in the music system and for sometime even dozed off before we reached the farm. In another hour or so, we reached a spot where there were only tall coconut palm trees and everybody got off the bus to have breakfast! Breakfast was a delicious plate of Potato Poha and a hot cuppa of tea! Some, of us clicked snaps too and fascinated by the green flora I was thrilled indeed to capture some of dad’s pics too over there! Then we boarded the bus back again and resumed our journey to the farm. It almost took more than 3 hours by bus before we reached the Strawberry Farm in Verlem, a small Village in Goa! Once, we reached the spot all of us were overjoyed to watch rows of strawberry bushes grown in a large patch of land and everybody was captivated to see how they were grown and if any of the bushes still had strawberries in them! To our amusement we found small pinkish orange berries that were emerging from those bushes and that too enabled us to click some of our snaps! Besides, the strawberries were sold in plastic packs for around 80/- rupees or so! A gardener conveyed to us that the strawberry bushes are grown here until the end of winter season once every year, then these pink strawberries are plucked for sale and once again the next year new bushes are grown again to reap strawberries! So, the afternoon was spent just roaming around these farms with our group of friends and then, it was time for lunch! Next, we headed to a Fish Restaurant besides a garden and all of us could have lunch seated in the open on few tables and chairs! We were served Goan special Fish Thali with sweet and salt Lemonade! We stuffed ourselves with King Fish Fry while we were even enjoying an engaging conversation with our companions! We relaxed in the garden area until 4:30PM and then proceeded towards our next spot that is the Organic Spice Plantation near the river Kushavati in Netravali, Sanguem Taluka itself! On reaching the Spice Plantation we at first sipped some fresh and cool tender Coconut water and gulped some coconut flesh too! There was a small bamboo bridge over a small section of the River Kushavati where everybody stood by and posed to click pics! All of us were elated to watch the greenery around and we realized that the spice farm grew Cinnamon, Green Cardamom, Cloves and pepper too besides,