Food · Kalpa, Himachal
Apple harvest in a Kinnauri orchard home
Spend a morning with a Kinnauri orchard family at harvest time: picking, sorting and packing apples, then a lunch of local food. Learn how apples, chilgoza and peas sustain households at nearly 3,000 m.
Photo: UnpetitproleX · CC BY-SA 4.0 · CommonsKinnaur's apples are grown higher than almost anywhere else in India, mostly between 2,000 and 3,000 m, and the cold nights and bright days give firm, sweet fruit that ripens later than in Shimla district. Around Kalpa most families have orchards, and from September to October the whole village is busy. If you stay in an orchard homestay at harvest time, ask your hosts whether you can join them for a morning.
Picking is done by hand, with ladders and cloth bags, and the apples are then sorted by size and quality and packed into cardboard boxes for trucks to markets in the plains. It is hard, skilled work, and you will mostly watch and help with sorting. Hosts often explain varieties, the cost of boxes and transport, and how hail and early snow can damage a year's crop.
Lunch might include rajma, local greens, rice and, in season, roasted chilgoza nuts from the pines on the dry slopes. Kinnauri food is simple and filling. Please do not pick fruit yourself without asking, as each apple is income. In April, the same orchards are in blossom and make a beautiful, quieter time to visit.
Good for
Also in Kalpa
More days here
Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Sunrise over the Kinnaur Kailash range
Wake before dawn and watch first light reach the Kinnaur Kailash range across the Sutlej, its summit around 6,050 m. Fi…
Photo: Amitabha Gupta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Walk the cliff road to Roghi village
An easy 3 km walk from Kalpa along a road blasted into the cliff, with sheer drops to the Sutlej and the Kinnaur Kailas…
Trips through Kalpa
Do this on a trip
Each of these trips stops in Kalpa. Tell us and we keep a slot for this day.
Photo: Navneet Sharma · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Saver
Kinnaur by HRTC bus: Sangla, Chitkul, Kalpa
HRTC buses and local shared taxis
Photo: Navneet Sharma · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Signature
Shimla and Kinnaur with Oberoi stays
Private SUV with driver and guide; toy train from Kalka
Questions
Before you book
When is apple harvest in Kinnaur?
Mainly September and October, a few weeks later than in Shimla district because of the altitude. The exact timing varies with the year's weather and the height of each orchard. April brings blossom.
Can I buy apples directly from farmers in Kalpa?
Yes. Many families sell a few kilos or a box to visitors at harvest time. Ask your homestay host or at orchards along the road. Prices vary with the season's crop and grade.
What is chilgoza and when is it harvested?
Chilgoza is the edible seed of the chilgoza pine, which grows on dry slopes in Kinnaur. Cones are harvested in autumn and the nuts sold from October onward in Reckong Peo and beyond. They are expensive because harvesting is slow and the crop varies.