Growing Minds in Pulwama’s Apple Fields

Through apple picking, farm walks, and nature workshops, a new kind of education is taking root in Pulwama.

- Afshan Rashid

The morning mist still floats over Pulwama as the first cars pull into a small farmhouse nestled in the gentle folds of South Kashmir's apple country.

The air smells of dew and fresh hay. Somewhere nearby, a cow calls out. Time feels slower here, softer, as if it moves with the sway of the trees.

Children step out of their cars, rubbing sleep from their eyes. They look at the orchard that stretches before them: rows of apple trees glistening in the golden light.

Within moments, their hesitation gives way to curiosity. They run across the grass, their laughter spilling through the air like birdsong. Parents follow with hesitant smiles, some still carrying the city's hurry in their step.

The farm's name, Bagamanzuk, meaning “garden of joy”, feels true to its spirit. Once, it was simply a family orchard, known for its crisp apples and a sense of calm that only the countryside could offer. Today, it has become a living classroom for children and families, a place where nature is both teacher and companion.

The hosts, a local homesteading family, have reimagined their ancestral land into a space for learning and belonging.

“We wanted children to know what real food looks like, where it grows, and how it tastes,” says one of them, adjusting a wooden ladder against an apple tree. “Our generation knew the smell of soil and the patience of trees. We wanted to pass that on.”

The idea took root slowly, nurtured by people who believed that a farm could be an emotional space than merely an economic zone. That belief brought Dr. Rumana Masudi, founder of Booyn Breeze Kashmir, into the story.

Dr. Masudi, a physician by training, had watched her own child grow up surrounded by screens. She began to wonder what it meant for children to lose touch with the living world.