Close to nature

I am in India these days and I am fascinated by how close to nature and cycles of nature life is here, even in heavily populated cities. "Being close to nature" doesn't imply taking a walk in the woods and hearing birds - that is much more easily and pleasantly accomplished in the US. What I mean is that here relatively small natural phenomenon affect daily life much more than in the US, where only something big like a hurricane affects daily life. Here is an example.

It is almost mango season here and when I got here trees were loaded with green mangoes, on the verge of ripening - tart and sweet. Then we had a week of flash storms - strong wind and rain lasting only for couple of hours or so every other day. Lots and lots of green mangoes fell from trees. The very next day after the storms the vegetable markets were full of many varieties of green mangoes being sold at throwaway prices and within a few days my mother, my aunts and our neighbors were busily preserving green mangoes in a variety of forms for rest of the year. Tarter varieties were sliced and dried in the sun to be used in dishes that need tartness. The chunkier tart mangoes were pickled in oils and spices. The sweeter varieties were made into chutneys and sweet pickles. I had no idea so many things could be made with green mangoes!

Another example is how well people know when the season of a fruit or vegetable is, almost down to the week of the month. It is very common to hear "Oh you want to eat Dussehri mango. You are leaving on the 5th? It is close. They usually start coming to the market around 10th." or "If you had come two weeks ago you could have had wonderful radishes. Now they are bitter and no good."

I cannot imagine this happening in the US. Yes, we hear of a crop being spoiled but it never ever changes the selection in the grocery store. Store selection is not much affected by the season either except for maybe berries. After having lived in the states for 15 years, I still don't know when certain fruits and vegetables are at their prime. Of course there is the berry-picking season and apple-picking season, but when is the cauliflower-picking season? I should start visiting farmer's markets more often.