Sep – early Oct
Apple harvest in Kotgarh
Three nights in an orchard cottage — pick, sort and pack alongside the farmers who supplied the country's first commercial apple crop in 1916.
Kotgarh is where Samuel Stokes planted American apple stock in the 1910s and permanently changed the economy of Himachal. The orchards on these slopes are the descendants of that one experiment.
Harvest is a working few weeks rather than a demonstration — picking, grading and packing against a deadline set by the trucks waiting below. Joining it is the difference between visiting an orchard and understanding one.
The shape of it
Day 1
Into the orchard
Arrive at the cottage among trees descended from the American stock Samuel Stokes planted here in the 1910s.
Day 2
Picking
Out with the farmers. Harvest is a working few weeks against a deadline set by the trucks, not a demonstration.
Day 3
Sorting and packing
The part that decides what the season was worth: grading, packing, loading.
Day 4
Down valley
Out through the orchards.
Reserve dates
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