Message from Krishna
Dear Friends,
This week we had a visit from our youngest group ever, 3 year olds from Lycée Français, Pondicherry. We took them around the farm to smell, feel, explore, run, harvest and get lost. While exploring plants, millipedes and tasting sweet flowers, they harvested a big basket full of Butterfly Pea with which, upon returning to the kitchen, they made their own butterfly pea juice commonly known here in Auroville as Radha's Consciousness.
The wonder on there faces, the intense curiosity and innocence with which they harvested the flowers was very inspiring. There were some children who wanted to run run and run! One could see the simple power and connectedness that being in such a space with so many plants and trees, colours, smells and newness offered to the children.
We are planning to offer more workshops like this for very little children. It is not only for them, but brings so much joy for us too.
(Children adding lemon to the juice and watching the color change.)
Yours,
Krishna
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution
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Community Supported Agriculture | Fruit & Vegetable Basket
Jack beans - Canavalia Lineata - These beans also known as Pig Beans (feijão-de-porco) in Brazil are an amazing source of biomass and they grow especially well in the summer, covering the fields, suppressing weeds, fixing nitrogen and preparing for the next season planting. Recently we confused them with another bean that is good to eat but not so well known, Canavalia gladiata, the sword bean or scimitar bean.
Then with a little research we discovered that we could also eat the tender pods like french beans. One new addition to the basket!
We are slowly moving into a warmer season so certain crops are reducing in production but others are about to start like the sweet potatoes, stay tuned!
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We are able to value these foods because we are creating a community around the subject of nutrition. The longer participants subscribe for the baskets the cheaper they are and the closer their connection with the farm and their understanding of these local foods the more we can offer.
Baskets are available for pick up from the farm on Monday and Friday and there is a Pondicherry pickup Wednesday afternoon.
Please email solitudepermaculture@gmail.com for sign up.
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Field Notes
Nursery Seeds and A Whole Lot More
Last month Solitude’s team grew by 2 new members. Anshul and Angelica, both residents of Auroville, have been working in Permaculture and sustainable agriculture for a number of years and in the space of 3 weeks have injected an amazing energy into our seed bank, Ayurvedic Powders, developing the nursery, providing ready to plant saplings in the fields and just this weekend they joined us as a faculty for our Weekend Intensive Permaculture, teaching how to make compost and giving an in-depth understanding both informatively and practical on seeds.
February is the last month before the summer where we can still plant a diversity of crops that will establish in the relative cool of this month and manage through the more intense heat of April and May. Cucumber and cucumber melon, basella spinach, ridge gourd, pumkins, bottle gourds, bitter gourds, lettuce, capsicum, brinjal, chillies.
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Music from Solitude
Chosen By God - EMERGENCE
The title track of our second album "Chosen By God".
You can listen to all Emergence tracks here.
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What is happening on the farm ?
Regular Workshops
Every Saturday 11:30 A.M - Weekly tour and introduction to the Solitude Farm
Every Friday 9:30 AM | Natural Soap Making Workshop
It is imperative that we stop polluting our water sources with chemical soaps. By making our own soap with natural local resources, we can recycle all our waste water to grow food. The Process is simple, easy and fun.
Every Wednesday 9:30 AM | Secrets Of Our Salad: An Introduction to Permaculture
Secrets of our Salads is an exploration of the values of local food which is at the very heart of permaculture.
Every Tuesday 9:30 AM | Cooking With Local Food
The wealth of local foods, their nutritional and ayurvedic values reflects the greatness of this culture. Many of these foods have been eclipsed by the industrialised agriculture and this workshop aims teaching people how to revalue them in traditional and fusion cooking styles.
Please email us at solitudepermaculture@gmail.com to sign up for the workshops.
Contribution required for all the workshops, except the weekly farm tour.
3 Day Intensive Permaculture Workshop
People have so many concepts about everything even about Permaculture! It means different things for different people. For me permaculture really boils down to the food on the table. This is a photo from the Secrets Of Our Salad, which is one of the module from 3 day Intensive Permaculture Workshop which is happening next on 27th to 29th March 2020, 10th to 12 April 2020. All this produce was harvested by workshop participants and transformed in the most amazing salad that demonstrates all the important characteristic of local food, include a direct solution to climate change. Learning about local foods in this very practical way starts to integrate permaculture in your daily life.
Please email us at solitudepermaculture@gmail.com to sign up
Update on Mid-Day Meal Scheme:
We are looking for an enthusiastic, pro-active individual who is willing to intern for three months to help facilitate preliminary mapping and analysis. This internship would provide the opportunity to experience starting with the ground work to run the pilot project.
Skill:
1. Fluency in English and Tamil
2. Advanced computer skills, data compilation and analysis and creating presentations
3. Grant writing and project report writing. Any experience in facilitating a project, background in social work, development studies will be added advantage. This position is open for candidates in and around Pondicherry.
Interested candidates who meet this criteria can email their CV to solitudepermaculture@gmail.com
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