Much is said about how organic farming is much less productive than industrialized forms of agriculture. For people who have been thinking about organic farming as one of the many solutions to the apocalyptic mess we find ourselves in, this argument of productivity in a debate with friends and family becomes a speed breaker. While…
Author: Noushy
November & December 2022 update | Vaanavil Farm
Hello! Hope you all had great holidays and a fresh start to the new year! Even though Sudhakar and I live far away from busy cities, we still needed a tiny break to slow down and relax and that’s what we did with our parents to welcome the new year 🙂 We have decided to…
November 2022 Update | Vaanavil Farm and Food Forest
Hello! We witnessed one of the driest summers this year with very poor Southwest monsoon spells. The grazing fields had little to no grasses for the cows to eat. We ended up buy haystack after eagerly waiting several weeks for rain. The north east monsoon has also started late this year but we started getting…
Farm Update | August 2022
Calving season has finally ended with two calves born back to back in the last week of August. We are now selling curd locally at Agasthiyarpuram. We will be using the revenue from curd and sale of milk from Kanmani to fund the construction of the thatch shelter for our calves. Our plans to construct…
நாட்டுமாடு / देसी गाय and Farm update – July 2022
It’s calving season here in our farm. We welcomed two beautiful female calves last month. We’ve named them Parvathi, Gowri’s calf and Ponmani, Kanmani’s calf. It is so much fun watching three calves jump around the cowshed and grow up together! We wanted to share a photo of all three together but they start running…
நாட்டுமாடு / देसी गाय and Farm update – June 2022
June was a relatively slow month at the farm. The cows had slightly tough time grazing because despite the rains upto May mid, the grasses had all dried off after the delayed agninakshatram. The South West monsoon which brings the occasional drizzles also got delayed because of which the month of June was unusually hot….
Raising chickens: our experience over the last six months
Chickens, we wanted to raise for quite some time but never took the first step. When we shifted from hybrid cows to native cows, we realized it was time to buy native chickens. And it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Chickens and cows share a symbiotic relationship – cows poop attract…
Is MakeInIndia a wise decision for the 21st century?
To reduce poverty in our country, a common solution proposed by experts is that people need to move away from agriculture and into manufacturing & services : manufacturing because of China’s prowess and services because of India’s success in IT. A few years back, I was of the same opinion, thanks to conditioning. I am…
Vazhaipoo paruppu usili | Banana flower with crumbled lentils
The first few months after moving to Vikramasingapuram were one of the most difficult times in our life. We were new to the town, had no company and also quit our jobs. We didn’t know what to do or where to begin. The farm is located next to a forest so wild animals damaged almost…
Low plastic / Minimum waste lifestyle
~8 minute read~ I would loved to have posted a Zero plastic or Zero waste lifestyle blog. But we aren’t there yet. That is the direction we have chosen to take. The rest of the society seems to be going in the opposite direction. I hope the direction reverses. There are plenty of problems with…
Vivasayee's Life 
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