A Higher Plane of Thought

Groveling, as we were, in indecision and dubiousness as to what we should do to revive the dead, depleted, depressed dirt that cumbers the orphanage property, we decided we needed a new higher level of thinking and inspiration. The answer came in the form of Sandra telling us of an organic farm, run by a British lady, way up in the nearby mountains.  A couple of days ago we literally moved ourselves to this higher plane of thought and altitude.  For nearly four hours we climbed higher, in the orphanage's van, with the road becoming more treacherous, the mountain more precipitous, the surroundings becoming greener, the air fresher and colder (we were unprepared for that, going in our tee-shirts and all), and the scenery ever more beautiful.  As we made our ascent the only life we saw were the lethargic monkeys sitting by the side of the road like hypnotized spectators watching for the end of an eternal race of vehicles chugging up and down this winding perilous racetrack.

We finally reached the office of the organic farm, located in a little town called Ketti. There we encounter, Vanya Orr, the founder and director of The Earth Trust.  We had a pleasant discussion in the which she provided excellent tips on how to resurrect our poor bedraggled dirt.  She explained to us the process of green manuring and creating biomass and putting the right ecological balance back into the earth.  Even white grubs and cut worms can become our friends.  Of anyone we have met she would know. Vanya has not just been doing organic gardening for years, but has been doing it here in India for over 16 years, so she is a pretty knowledgeable resource.  We were glad to have talked to her.

Nestled even higher up the mountain from her office is one of her farms.  Very well organised and aesthetically pleasing, it was fun to tour the ground.  we saw many many different plants, vegetables, and herbs.  She even had raspberries and strawberries and because the raspberry season was over they let me scour the bushes and devour whatever remaining berries that were hiding. It was delectable! Our main purpose in trekking into the mountains precisely involved these succulence raspberries and strawberries.  We had come to secure some starters for ourselves.  However, because of some seasonal discrepancies which we did not completely understand they did not have any for us an would not cut any at that time.  Though a little disappointed in not accomplishing our mission, we were glad to have visited this gorgeous part of the country and have enjoyed the cool climate. After a quick trip a botanical garden we started on our way home a midst the gathering darkness.  Leaving this higher plane we eventually arrived home later that night and crashed into our beds exhausted and slept soundly. All in all it was  a fun trip but fruitless, as in we came back without the fruit. The moral of the story is if you do something with fruit make sure you take extra fruit so your work does cannot be completely "fruitless".  Actually, a better moral would be to prepare everything ahead of time in order not to waste time (but if you are going to waste time make the most of it. heehee!)
Here are some more pictures of our trip!

On the way up!

 The compost pile.

 Where are the raspberries?

 Mani, the guard of the botanical garden.

 David by herbal India (Botanical Garden)

The strawberries, but there was a sign warning not to touch. Too bad!

Thank you! This is David your Post Host and I hope your watching because you never know when I will post. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Wheat is for Man!

That's right! Wheat, being nutritiously dense, contains most of the vitamins and minerals necessary to comfortably sustain human life. Since we are surrounded by ultra refined rice cooked to death and  vegetables boiled and cooked out of nutritious existence, it is extremely difficult to come by food that feeds the body and nourishes the soul.  However, instead of succumbing to the adverse conditions and filling our stomachs with dead fillers we have found and commenced eating organic wheat.  How did we find it? That in itself was an adventure. Sandra, the director of FFC, gave us a couple of addresses to organic shops, so merrily we went to visit one. When we arrived at the supposed destination there was nothing that looked like an organic food store.  But, we did not fret because that is normal.  Luckily, we were with a couple natives and we had them call the number provided with the address. Come to find out it was still closed for the holiday of Pungal,  holidays usually take several days in India, but we ascertained the correct location, which was tucked away in an adjacent side road.  Next day, we paid a call on the shop and paid the price for the organic wheat and other grains and foods we bought.  Wheat, though it is for man, poses, unfortunately, a difficult problems in eating soaked, low heated, and plain, because it is almost unpalatable, and we have no raw honey or other natural healthy sweeteners to make it edible.
However, never do we falter or permit small inconveniences from stopping us.  Mani had the innovative idea to extract the juice from the sugarcane.  Great idea, but how? We started first by beating the poor sugarcane until it split several times longways then we twisted and squeezed it.  Effective? Well, sort of.  At last we reverted to stripping the sugarcane of its hard purple colored shell, cutting the inside into small pieces, blending it to a powder, then squeezing and straining the pulp in a cloth t to produce the sweet watery juice.  Fortunately, this worked better, and we were able to enjoy our wheat to a higher degree than before.  The moral of the story is never buy wheat unless you have something sweet to eat it with...maybe not.  The moral of the story is; if you are determined to do something you will always find a way to do it! (except, maybe, for exterminating all of the mosquitoes, I am still trying to find a solution for that one, heeehee)

This is David, your Post Host...and you'll never know when I  will post again.

We Are Here...Where Is the Green Stuff?

Yes, we are here three days and are ready to start our projects.  Those first two days were not good for much except dream chasing which I exploited to the fullest.  We arrived early in the Saturday morning ready to drop which I unceremoniously did, then it was Sunday, the day of rest, so I rested in the truest meaning of the word. Then thinking we could buy things and get started Monday, we found out it was Pungal, an Indian holiday, and all the shops are closed so we "reluctantly" took advantage of the down time to relax. However, we have not been completely lazy these past couple days but we have formulated a couple prospective projects, each presenting itself with its peculiar problems.  Nothing comes easy especially in India.  We are going to start a couple of garden and see if we cannot coax anything to grow in this red barren dirt. We have thought to start an herb garden here.What do you think?

Yea! it is right next to the goat farm which does not smell as bad as you might think...well definitely not as as bad as some ol' feed lot in Nebraska! That brings up the other project problem on our list. In order to sustain the bountiful produce that might spring up, maybe a little less spontaneously than hoped for, we need  lots of good organic fertilizer.  Humm.  THE GOATS!! what a wonderful idea and here is their contribution...                                                        The only problem is that this goat dung is adamant about not decomposing naturally like all civilized dung does.  Luckily we have a worm farm (I know it sounds funny but it is quite amazing).  These slimy wrigglers convert our atrocious goat dung and dead dirt into usable organic matter. 

So now we have some material to work with, where are the plants? It now being Tuesday we were able to buy our first plants today and of course since Katie holds the purse strings she had the first and last say in the choosing of the plants. No one who knows her will be suprised to know she bought herbs.  Stevia, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary, thyme, lemon grass, and cinnamon were her choice of herbs.  By the way, me and the other grazers agree that stevia makes a great choice for dessert.  Just pick a leaf and chew on it...Yumm!


I am David, your Post Host...so keep the holes dug because you'll never know when I will fill it with a post!