Mayoli organic farm

For the past month we have been volunteering at an organic farm in Almora district in Uttarakhand called Mayoli organic farm.

Mayoli is run by the man who does everything, (with the help and support of his loving family) Pankaj Bhakuni. The farm is on his family's ancestral land in the jungle next to the Binsar Forest reserve.
The ultimate purpose of the farm here is to serve as a seed bank and reserve for traditional seeds and rare plants, especially those of medicinal value. And to serve as an education center for preserving traditional knowledge and ways of living in harmony with the land and each other.
Pankaj also has a new shop and food processing center set up below his house in Basoli where he sells local organic products from Mayoli and other nearby farmers. 

He is doing all of this to provide a means of income for farmers in the hills so they have some incentive to stay and live in a sustainable harmonious way.

Throughout Uttarakhand there is a rapid shift of people from the hills uprooting from their ancestral land and moving to the cities to find higher paying work so they can try to live the life that is promoted in the media. Leaving behind the simple farming past of their ancestors and the knowledge of how to survive and thrive in deep connection with the land. The cities in turn are expanding dramatically and with it material consumption and pollution while the hills are full of abandoned farms, remnants of a more peaceful past. 

For those that are still farming it has become much more difficult. The native broadleaf forest, full of diversity has been largely  taken over be invasive pine planted during British occupation. The pine grow in vast monoculture and are much hotter and dryer than the native forest. Forest fires have become increasingly problematic each dry season, burning up any chances of native plant regeneration that wasn't lost from over grazing.  Pine forests provide little for animals to eat and have resulted in large increases in difficulties for farmers to protect crops from wild animals. Pankaj says that before all of this there were more animals, more people in the hills, and more than enough food growing in the fields and forests for all. At Mayoli monkeys, deer,  and wild boar have become frequent visitors to the farm and protecting crops has been made more challenging. 

These difficulties along with the glamorization of city life in the media are pushing this shift off the land. Pankaj is working to provide options for those that want to stay, creating a market for farm products and encouraging the continuation of traditional sustainable farming practices. 

Stepping through the gate to Mayoli after the 3 km hike up through the pine forest everything becomes much more green, even in the hight of dry season. Oak trees are growing in abundance mixed in with fields full of beans, vegetables, fruits, grains, herbs, and fruit and nut trees mixed throughout.
6 years ago this land was largely barren and overgrazed but since it's been closed the native vegetation is rapidly returning.
Multiple streams and natural ponds now retain their water year round whereas they were dry outside of the monsoon season before.

The farm provides an example for how nature strives to bring balance and harmony. It can show surrounding landowners how they can heal the land and provides the reserve of native plant species for when the interest arises. 

While here we spent our time watering, cooking, planting, weeding, composting, mulching, harvesting, and processing. With space in between for much yoga, meditation and reading.  We learned about medicinal uses of different Himalayan plants and harvesting and processing of different herbs and produce.

A wonderful Nepal family is now staying up here as care takers of the place so Pankaj has more time for other work down below. We got the chance to become close with them and learn from their curious energetic kids! The kids spend their days running barefoot around the farm together, helping their parents and us out with chores,  watching after the animals, harvesting and eating berries, smelling and tasting plants, and sitting all together on their mothers lap. From observing them there seems to be no better or more natural way for a child to grow up.

Living at the farm makes us feel more connected to the natural cycle of give and take. Taking in energy from the land around us as food and then putting that energy back into the land through actions that encourage further life here.

All is simple.
It's so easy to get caught up in that push for doing. Doing more. Expanding further.
But if our needs could be met by such a simple way of life why is there such a push for anything else? Do this extra things, extra tasks bring more fulfillment or just more clutter and imbalance?
Maybe farming and other simple tasks of self sustainance was all we ever really had to do....

Each farming experience for me has me feel confident that this is all I really need to be doing. Has me feeling ready to settle down on one piece of land and begin to live in harmony with it.

Yet for now we are still here in northern India, not in a place to settle with much to be learned through connections made with those we will meet along the cycle journey. Using the journey and its challenges to greater internalize the oneness inside and around us.

We head off from the farm at the end of May to make out way west towards Spiti valley and Ladakh. Having little expectations but to remain open to what is.

Pankaj much in need of long term passionate volunteers whether it be in farm work, education, product processing,  or in more technical media work.
If someone doesn't have the time to volunteer but would still like to support this project there is also a need for monetary donations.

You can visit the farm website at:
https://www.facebook.com/HIMALAYANETHNOBOTANICGARDEN/
Or email Pankaj: bhakuni_pankaj@yahoo.com
Or if you are in India you can call Pankaj at:   +91 7830514041