No-till 2022 – an update
I’m happy to report that our no-till avare is coming along nicely. It’s a six month crop, so we’ll hopefully start harvesting in December. In addition, I’ve planted five little […]
Category Archives: Natural farming
In which I fall off the wagon, slightly
So, if you remember, I had sworn off tilling. The intention was zero disturbance of the soil and the continuous adding of layers of organic material. But what to do? […]
Move over, tuvar dal
In most South Indian kitchens, there are the Big Four dals or paruppus – tuvar (tovarai), urad (ulundu), channa (kadalai) and moong (payaru). In the north, they have masoor as […]
All the perfumes of Arabia
I have spent the last few days brewing a terrific stink! Usually Anilodharani is the sweetest smelling place. We have champaka, roses, jasmine – wild and domestic, angelonia, tithonia, water […]
The sweetest chikoos
If you’re lucky enough to have a chikoo/sapota tree in your garden, the witching hour is at hand! I see chikoos in the market almost all the year round, and […]
A river runs through it…
Not really! But almost. We have four small ponds in various parts of our land to catch and store rainwater. But despite really good rains this season, the ponds weren’t […]
Ruminations on cows
We don’t have a cow. As a 90 percent vegan, I’d like to give a pair of bullocks a retirement home. But I still haven’t managed to persuade Srini that […]
Discouraged by pigs, encouraged by tubers
Yesterday was a pig day at the farm. The wild pigs got into the fenced groundnut field — the precious no-till experiment — and had themselves a feast. Meanwhile, the […]
Who’s whose?
When we first bought this land, there was a proud sense of ownership. I would look out from the terrace, follow the boundary of our four acres with my eyes […]
Sweet potato loves us back!
We’re having to start everything from scratch after the lockdown eased. Most of our veggies are a distant memory. But not these sweetie pies, who have been working hard while […]
The Long View 