Small Scale Farmers Cool the Planet

When people visit us on the farm, they always ask us- do we make enough money from this? is this really profitable? our answer is- you dont have to look up to us to decide if organic farming is profitable. maybe some farmers are better businessmen than others. and maybe you ll make better profits...

RECIPE FOR FUNGAL DOMINATED THERMAL COMPOST

  The starting materials used to build a compost pile determine the nature of the finished compost. If the starters were mostly bacterial food, the compost will be bacterial dominated, while fungal dominated compost would need lot of fungal food as the starting material.  If the starting material is not very diverse and rich in...

Compost

Compost is organic matter in which a certain sets of microorganisms have grown aerobically and in the process have released metabolic heat and metabolic products, which are useful to plants and maintain the microbial life in the soil. By application of compost, we inoculate the soil with a diversity of microorganisms and create a healthy...

The living soil

There are several techniques and methods of making compost for soil amendment. The following information is based on the research conducted by soil microbiologist Dr. Elaine Ingham, which was shared with us by Spero Latchis who has been farming in Bir, and implementing Dr. Elaine’s ideas, while improvising based on his own research and observations....

Shunya Farm

Our new home and work in Bir in the Kangra valley of the Western Himalayas.Its been a joy to see the farm grow and transform over the spring. Our work with the soil on the land rewards us every week with food for 10-15 people in Bir and of course ourselves. Now preparing for an...

Seeding diversity

One of the most fascinating things someone who owns a garden, tends to a plant or a tree, will recognize and appreciate is the power of a seed. Nature has codified the entire information of existence and beauty in a tiny capsule. This capsule germinates and matures to a whole plant in presence of the...

The origin from the threads / El origen desde los hilos

The thread in the indigenous tradition, is spun out of a natural fibre by the mother, and used as the starting point of a union, construction and repair. Several visible and invisible threads come together to unite stories and promises. From the origin, it is said that, Zerankua (God, the creator) placed two interlaced threads,...

Los chivos and the changing landscape of Wayuu existence

As we drove north-east of Riohacha, the vegetation became sparse, the land drier and the sun more intense. While still in the car, we could see the horizon on our three sides with the mountains of Venezuela to the far east. This land is an endless desert with cactus- tuna and cordon (used to make Yotojoro)...

Riohacha

Riohacha, the capital of the Carribean desert of Colombia, is an aspiring city slowly breaking through the shackles of a small town. Founded around 500 years ago, Riohacha has been the gateway to Colombia from the north and is house to the indigenous Wayyu community which also spreads to parts of Venezuela. The city was prone...

Camino al corazón del mundo / The walk to the heart of the world

La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, es una cordillera que alcanza una altitud de 5.700 mt y que a su vez se encuentra a solo 40 km de la costa caribeña, abarca aproximadamente 17.000km2 y en ella nacen más de 35 ríos, esta cordillera se encuentra localizada al norte de Colombia entre los departamentos de...