While searching for farm land, we had explored several parts of Tamil Nadu. Kodaikanal was one of them. It got dropped off the list because of difficulty of access and doubt of my family’s tolerance to colder climate for prolonged periods of time. But, no other place in Tamil Nadu came close to the beauty…
Category: Natural Farming
Malabar Pepper by Kaani tribe, KMTR forest
Dichotomy of the cultivated and the wild More & more people are slowly coming to realize the destruction settled-agriculture has caused on the planet by cutting down forests. So, it is upon our generation to restore them or at least, preserve them, now that we are aware that : forests are one of the many…
Palm Jaggery – King of Sweeteners
In the first 17 years of my life in Bombay, I used to wait for Taadgola every summer. I vividly remember the vendors who used to sell Taadgola in the corner of the road 100 metres from our house in the suburbs. I used to coax my mother to buy some whenever we used to…
Agni-nakshatiram, Cyclones and Rice harvest
When Noushadya and I chose to settle down for life in Tirunelveli, few geographical factors that this district had rooting for itself were : No major seismic activity in the past 100 years It was far away from the coast. So it wouldn’t face the wrath of rising sea levels directly in the next few…
Can natural – organic – sustainable – regenerative farming feed the world?
A lot of people agree that sustainable ways of farming are good for the ecosystems, humans and animals. But they don’t agree that it will be able to feed the world. The yield of individual crops have known to be lesser in sustainable farming than conventional agriculture. But rarely are the systems compared in entirety….
Farm Bills and Stone Age
A common argument that we hear against the simple lifestyle that Noushadya and I are trying to lead is that we are going backwards from the common narratives of progress and development. The comment that we usually encounter is that we are heading towards the stone age. While it is known or can be intelligently…
Solar Dehydrator and Vana Tulsi
Shade and sun drying are the most sustainable ways to preserve food for long duration. We, at our farm, utilize the power of the sun directly with this process. With minimum industrially produced goods such as meshed trays, glass and black paint, we have got a solar dehydrator made locally to shade dry flowers, herbs,…
Cold pressed oils : Fad or here-to-stay ?
Oils labelled as cold pressed oils have started appearing in supermarkets, kirana stores, exclusive oil shops all around us. They are being sold in both packaged and loose forms. In Tamil, it is called Sekku Ennai; or pronounced as Chekku Ennai by people of southern Tamil Nadu. The manufacturers are both domestic as well as…
Why organic food is costlier?
It seems counter-intuitive but the current sense of the word ‘Culture’ seems to have been derived from the word ‘Agriculture’ and not the other way around. And it is ironic that there is almost no culture left in mainstream agriculture anymore. What we are now seeing is not synthesis, which is what agriculture needs, but…
How do we deal with our shit? Like, literally…
In human history and specifically India’s history, there is a plenty of stigma associated with handling human faeces / shit / poop; whatever you like to call it. I think poop sounds cute. So, I will stick with poop, for the rest of the blog. And pee, for urine. If handled incorrectly, poop and pee…
Vivasayee's Life 
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