Afroza Akhter and Mehpara Maqsood
Abstract
Kashmir is a landlocked bowl shaped intermontane valley surrounded by huge mountain ranges of Pir Panchal in the Southwest and Himalayas in the Northwest cutting it from the plains. The climate of the valley is temperate and Mediterranean type with four distinct seasons viz, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The winter season is very severe and harsh with temperature falling below -10oC in urban areas. The only lifeline of the valley, the Jammu-Srinagar national Highway which connects the valley with rest of India gets blocked due to heavy snow falls in winter months and incessant landslides at vulnerable points along the highway. The result is the severe short fall of essential commodities particularly of fresh vegetables. To overcome this shortfall, Kashmiris have adopted a novel method of using sun dried vegetables which grow in wild along the foothills of mountains, meadows, pastures and open fields in pleasant spring and summer months.