Organic farm and retreat

The organic farm that we went to in the kerala TN border that I spoke of 2 posts back, remember?
An amazing place in the rain shadow area of the western ghats, close to chuliar dam on the foot of a small range. Interestingly that area falls exactly in the break that happens to the western ghats range before palghat.

That is a neat 10 acre land where the rare rain is the only source for the plants and what a heaven he has made of that! A man made pond with very intelligent irrigation channel and very well planned out blocks of flora diversity. One could witness most of the tree and plants we generally associate to our younger day's memories (or prolly not seen as the case may be with some of u city bred). what an ambience! tranquility is the right word i guess.

Suman who owns the place is amazingly humble and says he is still learning from the land and trees. He is also involved in translation of J.Krishnamurthy’s books in to Malayalam! He has experimented with permaculture and is constantly modifying his methods..Current market demands being what they are, his organic produce (especially mangoes) get sold along with the artificially ripened mangoes. This postpones the sustainability of the organic farm by itself. (more details on the sustainability and organic farm’s perils are reserved for a later post- that’s more in general!)

Then he has this – sradha : There are a couple of cottages for visitors who choose to stay so close to nature and can also opt to volunteer at the farm. He has had quite some foreigners who gladly took part in the perspirations in the farm and rarely have the desis been part while they did talk lots about putting in the ‘work’. Anyway he caters to both types of crowd, the talking/non-doing ones can use the library more and the others can have lotsa activities in his farm.

His son, 7 years, was a revelation for me. He does not go to any school ( infact the school near by picks him couple of times a year to fill the number requisite during the visits of some officials, so that the school exists – for the benefit of his neighbours). The ease with which the kid does various ‘field jobs’ and the ease with which he climbs a tree or the way he plucks the ripe ones or the way he struts around- all were sheer pleasure..

One of these days- do that..go live in communion with nature, organic farming, may be yourself and also get the hilly terrain, water falls etc as freebies.