Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Growing Garden
The garden goes slow, but it goes and it grows. We try and try again while the evil caterpillars continue to eat our food before we do. Currently we have some very tasty radishes, spinach, Fenugreek leaves (Methi), some Massive pumpkin & lots of peppermint. In the big field, mung and urad dal in the summer and wheat in the winter. All chemical free... hence the insects.
Google tells me today that to get rid of the insects who steal our food - boil garlic, onion and red chili in water for 15 minutes, cool. Then dilute with water and spray on the garden. So hopefully this will work and there will just be the monkeys left to deal with!
Peace Flags
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Gulab & Abundance
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Winter drawing
Achar (pickle) with Amma
Amma has a way of doing things as they have been done in Rajpur for generations- with process, grace, rhythm and timing.
Pickles are made by season.
It's best to start in the morning so whatever fruit or vegetable you are using has time to dry out.
Here we've used large green chili, carrot, starfruit and radish to make two different types of pickle. One of green chili stuffed with crushed coriander and fennel seeds, salt and mustard oil, creating an interesting mix of flavours to munch on with Dal and rice. The second pickle was the same spice mix (masala) with carrots, star fruit and radish.
The pickles can be eaten straight away, and if you're a chili-head like me you won't be able to wait, but they are best a week or so after sitting in oil when their full flavours have been released.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Nanu and his worms
New stairs
It was for quite a while that we risked our lives every morning climbing up a very dodgy bamboo ladder to get to the roof every morning. These stairs are a well-welcomed luxury. The roof is now an easily accessible space for yoga, sleeping, drying foods and also provides a nice view of Rajpur village and the lake.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Fresh sugarcane juice for everyone!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Biogas Project
The video is from a fantastic company doing fantastic things: Grassroots India
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram (Sanskrit/Hindi:(आश्रम)) is a religious hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction.
An ashram would typically, but not always, be located far from human habitation, in forests or mountainous regions, amidst refreshing natural surroundings conducive to spiritual instruction and meditation. The residents of an ashram regularly performed spiritual and physical exercises, such as the various forms of Yoga. Other sacrifices and penances, such as Yajnas were also performed. Many ashrams also served as Gurukuls or residential schools for children.
Ashrams have been a powerful symbol throughout Hindu history and theology. Most Hindu kings, until the medieval ages, are known to have had a sage who would advise the royal family in spiritual matters, or in times of crisis, who was called the rajguru, which literally translates to royal teacher. A world-weary emperor going to this guru's ashram, and finding solace and tranquility, is a recurring motif in many folktales and legends of ancient India.
Sometimes, the goal of a pilgrimage to the ashram was not tranquility, but instruction in some art, especially warfare. In the Hindu epic Ramayana, the protagonist princes of ancient Ayodhya, Rama and Lakshmana, go to the Rishi Vishvamitra's ashram to protect his Yajnas from being defiled by emissary-demons of Ravana. After they prove their mettle, the princes receive martial instruction from the sage, especially in the use of enchanted weapons, called Divyastras. In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna, in his youth, goes to the ashram of Sage Sandiipanii, to gain knowledge of both intellectual and spiritual matters.