Braving all odds, Kalap Trust worked with the district administration to set up a five-bed oxygen-support #COVID-care facility in Mori in the upper Tons Valley and organised langars in the villages, in all of 96 hours. Historywali en.gaonconnection.com/covid-uttarakh…

Our 2021 COVID RELIEF story so far, documented by Historywali for GaonConnection 🤗

सभी मुश्किलों को पार करते हुए Kalap Trust ने जिला प्रशासन के साथ मिलकर काम किया और टोंस घाटी के मोरी में पांच बेड का कोविड केयर सेंटर बनाया। साथ ही गांवों के लिए लंगर भी लगाया। और ये सब काम सिर्फ 96 घंटों में किया गया। Historywali @kalapian_ #Uttarakhand gaonconnection.com/desh/covid19-k…

That is so awesome Mayur! We can't wait to have you come up to us again!

Say hello to fresh & crisp pears from the upper Tons Valley in Uttarakhand! Did you know they can be home with you in less than 4 days? tonsvalleyapples.com

This freshly harvested pear can be nestling in your palm. It has been nurtured by winter snow, spring sun and now cool summer rain to give you the perfect crunch! tonsvalleyapples.com

In case you have never tried pears from our own Himalayas, farmer Devender Singh Negi tells you why you must buy! tonsvalleyapples.com

This is famer Negi's son, who is already climbing trees to pluck pears for customers who have been ordering boxes from all over India since today morning. tonsvalleyapples.com

These bucket full of pears are heading into our processing centre to be packed into small boxes to be sent to all corners of India. tonsvalleyapples.com

This is a box with 25 handpicked pears sleeping cosy for their journey ahead. You have one such box delivered to you if you order immediately from, tonsvalleyapples.com We have only some 160 boxes still left in stock, if you hurry you can snap one up!

It is fruit season in our upper Tons Valley! There are fresh and crisp pears grown by local farmers available for sale through Tons Valley Shop , a social enterprise working in our region. Head over to tonsvalleyapples.com and snag a box of fresh fruit direct from the orchard!

If you’ve been around for a while, you know Buda and Budi - our mountain parents - they make an appearance often on mine & @kalapian_’s feeds. This image too will be familiar.

This first image is from right after we got engaged when @kalapian_ took me up to Karba to meet Buda & Budi. Others are from early days when he’d camp in their tiny but cozy and welcoming home (yeah that’s the door to their home in pic 3, Anand has to crawl in and out obvs). 🤍

Now some years ago Buda & Budi planted 200 Apple Trees around their home in the 13-hut settlement that Karba is - a tiny offshoot of Kalap village. Karba is at an easy 8,500 - 9,000 ft. It gets completely snowed in, in the winter months. Icy cold. -8C to -10C is regular.

Everyone moves downhill to Kalap for the winter. Everyone except Buda & Budi. They stay back, snowed in with no way to communicate with the rest of the world (no phones don’t work, and the path to Karba is snowed in) to tend to their Apple trees and guard them from Langurs.

More context. There is no motorable road to Kalap/Karba. So when the Apple harvest does happen, the apples must be carried 6 hours down one mountain, across a stream with a pulley, and up another mountain to the closest road, on mules.

The Apples though are legendary in the Valley. That deep red. And now what’s truly special is that this Apple Harvest is up for sale for the VERY FIRST TIME, yup.

Buda and Budi have never sold their apples before, they’d keep their harvest for family, for the villagers, send a sack over to us, but this year, there’s been a sweet little bumper harvest that we’re helping them send out to all corners of the country.

Buda and Budi’s - that’s Ujjwal Singh & Bajuri Devi’s Harvest of Organic, Crisp, Cherry Red Apples is up for takes on tonsvalleyapples.com (hit the organic apples link) over the next 3-4 days or till stock lasts. Get yourself a box? These are my favourite Apples. 🍎

There is something small and special available from our Tons Valley through our partner social enterprise Tons Valley Shop Read on to find out... 🥰