Stewarding the forest, milling lumber, building infrastructure, farm planning and fire wood-based activities fill our winter days.  We are seeking people to join our efforts to build a Vedic Eco Village and manifest a self-reliant community with food sovereignty.

This spring Dharma Discovery class resumes with building, cobbing, gardening and cooking harvested roots like carrots and potatoes.  Chulha stoves are fueled by cow dung & wood chopped by kids. 

An opportunity to experience vedic living. Hands-on learning about cow care, ox cart & plowing, farms, forest, natural building, cob, arts, crafts & markets.  Our first apprenticeship focuses on Vaishya': cow and ox care, farming and trade in markets.  Vaishya knowledge is learned hands-on and not in class.

We have made great progress cooking on a hybrid chulha-mass heater. We have been cooking locally grown veggies, demonstrating that self-sufficiency in cold climates can be obtained with innovation and hard work.

The Vedas say that harvest, produce, and money should be used for self-realization. "So this Krsna consciousness movement is for spiritual enlightenment, not for how to get money, how to earn money. This is not Krsna consciousness" - Srila Prabhupada

Activities & Experiences

Farming and cow-protection provides the foundation for self-sustaining living and also generated prosperity for the rest of the society. A village should be an ecologically closed unit. Dung from cows fertilizers the grains and vegetables, and waste from vegetables and grains is food for cows and sheep. The surplus from this ecological cycle should be sold to markets outside the village. This makes for a stable economy.

We are currently growing Carrots, Beets, Potatoes, Peas, Cucumber, Broccoli, Kale, Chard, Lettuce, Spinach, Strawberry, Cabbage, Green Beans, Zucchini, Radish, Fennel, Squash, Asparugus and Corn. 

Apple, Pear, Cherry, Apricot, Hazelnut and Walnut trees trees are 10 years old.  Raspberries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, honeyberries (hascaps) and saskatoon berries are growing. Millet, buckwheat, grains and pulse seeds are being saved for future plantings. 

We grow assorted flowers, herbs, and spices.  Our value added items are Jams, Pickled Good, Juice, Teas and Baked Goods.  We will grow hay for our future Eco Village cows.

Society in Vedic history was a flourishing self-sustaining cow-centric and cow-revered culture. Cows and bulls are an essential contributors to peace and economic prosperity. Sastra tells human society how to live a simple life free from anxiety depending on the cow and bull, the land and the ample supply of natural gifts from the Creator.

To cultivate this culture in our village, Govardhan Goshala hosted Gopuja in a grazing areas on the full moon purnima.  The puja featured Surabhi cow and friends who were fed our locally grown foods.

Our desert like summer weather normally begins in June.  Everyday we are eating salad and green leafy vegetables from the garden and still carrots from last harvest.  A favorite is carrot, beet and parsley juice.  New vegetables are harvested every week.

The ox team has been plowing our garden fields in preparation for planting.  They are doing the work of 10 ten people preparing the soil for planting.  See the "Ox Plowing Garden Fields report" for more details, pictures and videos.

We are studying the three fundamental values upheld in the Vedic culture, namely the importance of cows, land, knowledge and their effect on the social, cultural, economical, health, educational and ecological status in each village

Problem Identification

1 Modernism (industrialization and urbanization) has disconnected and uprooted individuals and society from land, cows, culture, tradition and spirituality.

2 As a result, Modernism is destroying three cardinal values of prime importance in the Vedic culture, namely 1) the Gift of Cows, 2) the Gift of Land and 3) the Gift of Knowledge.

Problem Formulation

1 Modernity, with its over-fixation on materialism, has uprooted individuals and communities from land, cows, culture, and spirituality thus thwarting people’s physical, mental, social and spiritual needs.

2 Unless we reestablish cows, land and knowledge as natural GIFTS OF NATURE not to be exploited, abused or destroyed, we will continue to face severe global social, political, economic and ecological calamities.

Abstract

Our modern urbanized and industrialized society is overburdened with sufferings, calamities, and increased irregularities that have taken global dimensions such as desertification, deforestation,…

We need farm communities that can grow food.

Srila Prabhupada predicted that, "One day millions of people would be coming to our Hare Krishna farms because they are unemployed. And we must accept them. We must feed them. We must let them live there and they will gradually become spiritualized. We will put them to work, they will get their food and there will be prasadam. They will hear something about Krishna and they will gradually by the millions become devotees."

“Unless in the human society the Varnasrama system is introduced, no scheme or social order, health order or any order, political order, will be successful.” [October 18, 1977, Vrindavana]

"It may be an ideal village where the residents will have plain living and high thinking. For plain living we must have sufficient land for raising crops and pasturing grounds for the cows. If there is sufficient grains and production of milk, then the whole economic problem is solved." [Montreal 14 June 1968]

"Simple Living and High Thinking is the solution to economic problems. Therefore the Krishna Conscious movement is engaging devotees in producing their own food and living self-sufficiently so that rascals may see how one can live very peacefully, eat the food grains one has grown one-self, drink milk, and chant Hare Krishna…