The beginning till now

1995 :

Bought land (1 acre) with a few fruit trees and left it at that.

2002 - 2009 :

Decided to develop it a bit and planted more than 100 various fruit trees. Development naturally without chemicals / pesticides was already decided upon. Only use of either cow dung, sheep dung or chicken manure would be done.

Basics learning process with the help of locals began. Labour was intermittent and thus haphazard planting / growing of vegetables was done with mixed results. Produce distributed among friends and relatives whenever possible.

Came across vermiculture and started that, another addition to the above manures. Soon sheep dung and chicken manure started becoming pricey. Only cow dung and vermiculture to be used now.

Learnt that growing vegetables and fruits this way was considered "organic farming". Came across the Cityfarmers group and learnt about Natueco farming. Joined the Cityfarmers group in May 2009 and attended a talk on city farming. Here I learnt about amrut pani and amrut mitti.

I thought that this was the right time to start growing vegetables in a systematic way. Since the rains were around the corner amrut mitti would have to wait for now. I started a group called Organic Vegetables and Fruits  and hoped that I could organise growers and consumers of organic vegetables come together and help in promoting the cause. For the time being vegetables would be grown the traditional way.

However preparation for amrut pani and amrut mitti was undertaken. Bio mass was not a problem. For lack of availability of cow urine, a cow shed was built

and cows purchased.

Four soaking pits were also constructed.

Things were going according to plan.The first crop of vegetables had arrived and were distributed to some, however most of the vegetables were rotten from inside, reason unknown. Considering this as a temporary setback, I was looking forward to the preparation of amrit mitti, as the rains were almost at the end.

Suddenly everything just fell flat. The only worker just left without any warning. All plans had to be shelved due to unavailability of labour. Finding somebody on a daily basis to just keep things steady became a headache.

2010 :

In April found a couple of workers, explained to them what would be undertaken for the preparation of amrut mitti. Since time would not permit the 100 days process, 30 day process was chosen. In the meantime had come across raised bed farming and decided to combine the two. Ten raised beds have been made (Size : length 10' , width 3' and height 1') using bricks and filled with amrut mitti. Some vegetables are planted in these and some on the ground supplemented with amrit mitti.

The following vegetables have been planted and the wait now begins :

Bhendi           (Okra)

Bhopala         (Pumpkin)

Chavli             (Long Beans)

Dudhi             (Bottle gourd)

Gawar            (Cluster beans)

Ghewda         (Broad beans)

Kakdi              (Cucumber)

Karla               (Bitter gourd)

Mirchi            (Chillies)

Padwal           (Snake gourd)

Pudina           (Mint)

Shengdane   (Ground nut)

Shirali            (Ridge gourd)

Tomato

Tondli            (Ivy gourd)

Vangi             (Brinjal)