There are still few elements have not changed, and one of which is "Budh Bazar of Panchgani". It is a local market which normally open on every Wednesday of the week. The local formars, and producers come here and sell their products and produce. It is cheap, fresh, and direct from the farmer to the customer.
I'd nice experience going to this bazar, and captured few images from the same.
This is the first lady who volunteered for the photo :-) As soos as she looked at my camera, she wanted me to take her picture. Local farmer, was selling some fresh green vegetables. Most of these people here who sell the goods, and locals from Panchgani, very simple and hard working people.
Spices have very important place in Indian cusine :-) We love spicy food. And getting spices so fresh to buy is a treat for any Indian woman. You'll find almost all spices with such local dealer, and at very reasonable cost.
You'll find cloths, fresh vegetables, almost every thing a small village needs for their daily life. If you are expecting electronic gadgets like cell phone, pagers etc...sorry, not available in such local market. People are simple here with less needs.
I love fish, so as my sister. It is very hard to get the Indian fish here in US. My main intention to go to Budh Bazar was to get fresh fish...Pomfret fish. This is very delicious fish. All the fish in the market are fresh and come from Harne Harbour. Yes, those small ones are the one I bought:-) If you get a chance to go to India, are are seafood lover, make sure to try this fish. I'm sure, you'll love it.
Being a cooler weather, the red raddish and small carrots are grown here in ample. The raddish are sweet, and the carrots are small (normally called as rabbit carrots) and sweet. You'll find these sold every where in Pachgani and Mahabaleshwar. and people love eating them with salt.
Another famous thing from Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar are Strawberry, Mulberry. One can go and pick these fruits from the farm nearby, or buy them in local market. Unfortunately due to the unpredictable weather at this place, lot of strawberry faremers have stopped growing them, and opted to grow potatoes. This is very sad. and most sad thing is all the unpredictable weather is aggrevated by too much commercialization of this place by cutting the trees. I think it is supposed to be a green zone, and seems no one is really paying any attention the damage is causing due to the enormours construction growth in this area.
After wandering for alamost 4 hours in Budh Bazar, I ended with two different craft dealers. One of which is local women, and second from north of India.
These women make baskets to store your vegetables, or chickens, as well as brooms made from coconut leaves.
Being a tourist attraction, one will find the small dealers selling the teracota articles like this. They are beautiful, cheap...but for me was not sure how to get this transported without breaking.
Here I finish my Budh Bazar trip, and next week will start my small trip to Mahabaleshwar.