Farm Newsletter: February 2001
Rainfall for the year 2001, January through December, fell below
average with only a total of 1048.6 mm (the average being 1220mm),
mostly coming in the month of October. Lack of heavy rain in
November made possible early progress in cultivating vegetable
seedlings and the winter crops (salads, greens, herbs) have been
exceptional. Tomatoes are already setting fruit and showing no
signs of wilt or fungus. Annadana project managed a beautiful crop
of off-season tomatoes, harvested in the months of November &
December! Rosella season is almost over, while papayas in many
locations are reclaiming their place in the overall ongoing
demand. Pongal, the Tamil harvest festival, was celebrated January
15 & 16 and evidence of the season's rice harvest abounds.
The Farms Office has begun to receive a
regular flow of inquiries from WWOOFers (Willing Workers on
Organic Farms) who have seen our description in their 'independent
organizations' listings. WWOOF originated in the UK but now has
contact points in the USA & Australia, too, coordinating work
exchange offers for almost every country in the world. More
infromation at www.wwoof.org
and www.soilassociation.org
-
Many thanks to WWOOFer David Klotz , who stayed and worked at
Siddhartha Farm & Buddha Garden, and to Margaret Shaddy, still
staying with us now working with Bernard & Deepika in
AuroBrindavan.
The January issue of Auroville
Today chose for its theme 'Farming in Auroville',
and ran articles on the current economic status of the farms,
comments from a major funder, as well as profiles on setting up a
vegetable garden (from Priya of Buddha Garden) and the seed-saving
project at the Botanical Gardens site. Some of these pieces can be
seen on the webpages as they are updated, and copies of Auroville
Today can be had by writing to avtoday@auroville.org.in
- As always, we are grateful to the editorial team at AV Today for
helping to share information on our work with Aurovilians and the
many people in many countries who like to read about activities
& issues here.
Annadana project hosted in November &
December the visit of agro-ecologist Maurice Chaudière of France,
who shared his knowledge & skills in the arts of bee-keeping
and fruit tree grafting techniques. Maurice is also a sculptor
working with clay and bee-wax, and demonstrated an easy design for
making bee hives. He is the author of two books in French 'La
Ruche Solaire' (The Solar Bee-Hive) and 'La Forêt Fruitière'
(the Fruiting Forest). His main focus in Third World countries is
to help people to create prosperity and beautiful things from
their very own local resources. Annadana is organising a 3-day
conference on preserving biodiversity through seedsaving &
networking in India, to take place in Auroville March 8-10, 2002.
The conference will be fully sponsored with limited enrollment.
February 15th is the last date to reserve a place. (annadana@auroville.org.in
).
Study programs and volunteer opportunities
are taking shape, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Minh
& SAWCHU (Sri Aurobindo World Centre for Human Unity), and
with the help of previous student group coordinators from around
Auroville. If you are interested in work/study possibilities
contact them via study@auroville.org.in
. Students are recommended to come in our "off season",
May - November, when discounts are often available for
accommodation.
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