Food · Briddim
Farm day with a Briddim family
Spend a morning in the fields with your host family, depending on the season planting or harvesting potatoes, cutting buckwheat or barley, and learn how the harvest becomes the dishes you eat at dinner. Every season brings different work.
Farming in Briddim follows the seasons. In spring, potatoes are planted and fields prepared; in autumn, potatoes are dug, buckwheat and barley harvested and grain dried on flat roofs and courtyards. Work is done mostly by hand, with tools that have changed little in generations. Families share labour at busy times, working on each other's fields in turn, so you may find several households working together. It is social work, with tea breaks, jokes and songs, and visitors are welcomed into it.
With your host, you walk to their fields at the edge of the village and join in for a couple of hours. Your guide translates as they explain which crops grow at what height, how they store food for winter and how the market for potatoes has changed with the road and, now, its loss. Potatoes from Briddim and nearby villages used to be sold in Syabrubesi and Kathmandu. With the road cut in 2026, families face the problem of getting crops to market, and many will talk openly about it.
Back in the kitchen, you help prepare lunch from what you have picked: boiled potatoes with chilli and salt, buckwheat pancakes or a simple curry. It is not a show; it is ordinary work that keeps the village fed. Afterwards, wash at the outdoor tap and rest in the sun. Most people find a few hours of field work at 2,230 m tiring, which tells you something about the strength of the people who do it every day. Hosts appreciate the help, however clumsy.
Good for
Questions
Do I need to be fit to join a farm day?
No special fitness is needed, but field work involves bending, carrying and walking on uneven terraces, often in the sun. Work at your own pace and stop when you want. Bring a hat, sunscreen, gloves if you have them, and clothes that can get dirty.
What crops grow in Briddim?
Potatoes are the main crop, along with maize, barley, buckwheat and some vegetables. Many families also keep cattle and yak crossbreeds for milk, butter and manure. Crop choice depends on altitude and season, and the rhythm of planting and harvest shapes the village year.
Is a farm day available all year?
Farm work happens through much of the year, but the most interesting times are spring planting from March to May and the autumn harvest from September to November. In winter there is less field work, and in the monsoon heavy rain makes some days unsuitable.
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