The poromboke pond has dried up fully and the land is thirsty for rains. Dawn and dusk are the only parts of the day one can comfortably spend outdoors without sweating. Fresh batch of Cacao Powder from Kaabaay arrived this month. We like to test out all batches before shipping to customers. And the cacao…
Author: Noushy
Vaanavil Diaries : January 2026
January was a difficult month for us. A lot of positives happened last month too: We have not been regular with posts as much as we would like to be. Hosting guests, homeschooling Vanya, and running our small organic groceries business has been taking up much of our time. So here is a photo dump…
Karuppu Kavuni Aapam
By now most of us know the history of Karuppu Kavuni – the fragrant black rice that was brought from Burma to Tamil Nadu by the Chettiar community. The first time I learnt about Karuppu Kavuni was a few months after we moved to Tirunelveli in 2018. It looked so exotic and I decided to…
A Bowl of Comfort: Navara Rice Kanji
On days when we want a light meal, we make rice kanji. We had this delicious light Unpolished Navara rice Kanji for lunch few days ago. Paired with Sundakkai (Turkey Berry) kootu and Kollu (Horsegram) thogayal. Here’s how to make Navara Kanji: Navara or Njavara is a variety from Kerala. It has been cultivated in…
Tangy & Spicy Tamarind Rice, புளி சாதம் Recipe
We have two mature Tamarind Trees in our farm. But, only one of them fruits well. It more than suffices for our personal consumption. We have been selling this super sour Tamarind to our friends, family and via our online store. The processing of the tamarind to deseed is not similar to the flattened ones…
What we eat will decide if we need to find another planet to grow our food
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…
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…
October 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…
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