Tag: sustainable living

Summer VaanaVizha Immersion 2026 – A Farm Experience for Families

This summer, we are opening Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest to families with children aged 8–15 for a very special 4-day farm experience. 📅 Friday morning to Monday evening · 4 days, 3 nights 👨‍👩‍👧 2 families per batch · Maximum 8 participants, Minimum 6 participants🌈 Hosted at Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest, Vikramasingapuram, Tirunelveli…

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Vaanavil Diaries : February 2026

Happenings and thoughts from Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest, Vikramasingapuram, Tirunelveli District I will let the photos do rest of the talking for our February story. Regards Sudhakar

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…

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From City Life to Farm Life: A Journey Rooted in Health

A lot of you have asked about our transition — how Noushadya and I moved lock, stock, and barrel from city life to full-time farming. At a time when most of civilization is moving toward urbanization, as agriculture becomes increasingly mechanized and automated, it’s a valid question: Why go against the tide? There were many…

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Rising from the Rain : Our Compost Toilet Chronicles! December 2023

We lost our compost toilet’s walls, partially, and roof to the torrential downpour over the session that lasted 36+ hours in our farm between 16th December evening to 18th December noon. The deluge that occurred in Tirunelveli and neighbouring districts has been atrributed to cyclonic storm near Sri Lanka. We had transplanted our rice saplings…

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Homesteading update : Composting our own shit

We started construction of compost toilet in May 2019 and completed in August, the same year. The compost toilet foundation and the chamber walls, the chamber ceiling were constructed with stones, hollow bricks, cement, sand and concrete. The walls were built with self-manufactured sun-dried adobe bricks made with farm sub-soil. The roof was a madras…

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Palm Jaggery – King of Sweeteners

The author reflects on childhood memories of enjoying Taadgola and Neera in Bombay while expressing concern over the decline of local, sustainable products like palm jaggery in favor of industrial cane sugar. Advocating for localized economies, the text highlights the environmental benefits and health superiority of palm jaggery over its cheaper counterpart.