Organic Cheesemaking Farmstay in Coonoor, Nilgiris, India.

Farm Links

Farms that I have found on the net that we can learn from.

Vanashree - A farm similar to ours, located near Bangalore where Srikanth and Priti are striving for goals similar to Acres Wild.  Over the 10 years since they started they have achieved some amazing results in rejuvenating their land which was devoid of top-soil and striving for sustenance.

Navadarshanam - Navadarshanam is the collective effort of a group of concerned professionals who, after a decade of study, introspection and dialogue, had come to realize that:

• people all over the world today are caught in the dangerous, swirling, currents of the materialistic, urban industrial way of life.
• alienation of the individual from self, nature, and the Creative Power is going hand in hand with societal disintegration and ecological destruction.

On of the key people there is Partap Agarwal who brought 'one Straw Revolution' by Masanobu Fukuoka to India thru Other India Press, Publications.

Silver Oaks Farm - A family run farmstay just out of Bangalore.  Owned and run by Meera and Praveen Khanna, it seems to be the ideal getaway from Bangalore as it is only 90 minutes from the city.

Cinnabar Farm and Farmstay: A very personal and delightful family run homestay and farmstay in Kodaikanal - a scenic hill station in Tamil Nadu, South India. We stayed there and in fact that is where Tina learnt her basics of homemade cheesemaking i.e. cheese that is not processed by the industrial method. Thanks Bala and Vasu. We have a long way to go in cheesemaking at our farm and we will be coming back to Cinnabar Farm for sharing notes and learning more.

Article from ‘The Farm’- This piece of writing is so heart-wrenching, because of its honesty and conscious effort at lack of bias, that I had to put it here. It is about a place called ‘The Farm’ that was started as a self-sustaining community and farmstay in the US and its final fate. Scary and tragic stuff but you have to read it even if you are planning idealistic stuff like Acres Wild. In fact all the more why one should read it. The return to basics is not easy at all. Actually this is the web link to The Farm.

Organic Pastures - A site about a family-run farm in California that keeps loads of cows and re-educates us about the virtues of drinking raw milk. Kind of puts in perspective why pasteurisation ever happened and why it is damaging. It kills all the bacteria and a lot of other good stuff and generates histamines that cause a number of allergies to milk.

Come to your Senses - That is where it all was before we became creatures of symbolic and logical thought.  I have a phrase I coined for discovering the Primitive - 'Lose your mind and Come to your Senses'.  Yes strangely when we say ‘come to your senses’ today we mean the thinking part - the what we call ‘Common Sense’ part. The thinking part. In today's context when we mainly live in our minds, there is a new found awareness of the ‘old or primitive.  Then the above phrase takes on a new meaning - or did I mean the actual ‘old’ meaning………..:-)  Anyway this is also a great site to learn some very valuable ‘Primitive Skills’ like making a fire (easy?), how to make cordage (rope!) and what not.  Maybe very useful in times to come.

Keystone Foundation - Keystone Foundation is an exceptional organisation in the Nilgiris, working with indigenous communities on eco-development initiatives. The Foundation’s work has been concentrated in the areas of apiculture, micro-enterprise development, non-timber forest produce, land and water management, revival of traditional agriculture, and other issues concerning indigenous communities.

The concept of keystone emerges from the nest-building behavior of some birds in nature. These permanent nest structures serve as habitat for several life forms. Such keystone species become crucial in providing opportunities for other associated beings to grow and evolve. Thus, Keystone Foundation is born out of a simple ecological principle of the interdependence of natural systems.

Village Milk Processing - Excellent guide to processing milk for cheesemaking etc with equipment, layouts and cost breakdowns by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (F.A.O.).

Nature's Harmony Farm - is a family-owned, pasture based farm and they believe in a lot of things that we do.  Would be interesting to read how they get about it.