Thendup Tashi and Pema run Yangsum Heritage Farm in West Sikkim. The property is one of the best
places to try the local food of Sikkim.
Our home was built by our ancestors and later remodelled by our grandfather during the
1960s. Farming here has been an ancestral profession from decades. Over the period
of time we still practice organic farming and as well run our homestay. The homestay is
at Yangsum Village is near Rinchenpong with a splendid view of the Kanchenjunga.
It adjoins our farm, where we grow crops like corn, buckwheat, millet,lentels, ginger,
turmeric and cardamom, seasonal vegetables and fruits like orange,pear,plum,peach
etc.
The main reason behind starting our homestay by us as a brother-sister team was to
sustain ourselves, to be self-employed and support the farm. We started with just one
room at the Main House initially and slowly over the period of time started renovating
our other part of the house which in those days was used as storage to keep the grains.
We renovated one room after another slowly and created rooms to accommodate guest.
We promote the homestay through travel agents and social media, and many of our
guests come through word-of-mouth recommendations. Bloggers and travel magazines
have also popularized our property.
The food we serve is Sikkimese: Singing Nettle soup( Sishnu ), Millet Pancake. Khudi
(buckwheat spring roll mixed with local cheese and patatoes), a fermented spinach
soup called Gundruk, Nakima made using orchid flowers which
goes well with cheese, churpi, paneer and meat. Thenthuk is a noodle dish. Local corn,
rice, lentils, millet and buckwheat, and local greens, are widely used in our cooking.
Chang or Tongba is a fermented millet beer which is served in bamboo vessels. We
use our farm’s spinach, greens,beans,bamboo shoot, etc. Nettles, squashes, fiddlehead
fern, etc are harvested seasonally. Rice porridge and buckwheat flatbreads are staple
on our menu,
I have always had good reviews from our guest in term of our food and Pema’s
housekeeping.
The state government provides vegetable seeds from time to time for farmers.
The government also provides with pipes, tanks to store water for agriculture and
different type of saplings are disturbuted to farmers every year such as
kiwi,oranges,gauva,cardamom, etc for horticulture. Also cash incentives are also given
by the government for deserving farmers. The government promotes homestays and
hotel through official government tourism Website.
The government helps and encourage educated unemployed youths with subsidies to
start homestays, It alsohelps potential educated youths with soft loan to set up
businesses.
However, in terms of agriculture tourism, we need good promotion and marketing
outside Sikkim. Since Sikkim is an organic state if the government markets well at
tourism shows and travel trade fairs we will get good quality tourist in the future. The
same is the case with heritage hotels and homestead tourism that have much potential
here.
We want to focus more in agriculture and keep our room inventory limited so we can
offer the personalized service and hospitality we are known for.
