Projects

Hands-on learning about cow care, ox cart & plowing, gardening, forestry, natural building, cob, arts, crafts & markets.  We feature Vaishya life: cow and ox care, farming and trade in markets. 

On-going Experiences

Cows will benefit from more grazing areas and this will regenerate the land.  We will build colony fences (aka X-fences) from thinned trees in nearby over-grown forests.  Colony fences are moveable, fun to build and require no posts in the ground, so they will last for generations.

First we build 2 lengths of fence around the 6 acre triangle piece, with the lake being the 3rd side.  The lake provides water for cows to drink (we can also bring them spring water from the nearby garden)

A new barn will be constructed for the cows under the trees.  The barn is a wood cube covered with the earth.  This will serve as a 3-season sun & rain shelter.  A cool and shaded area is critical in summer when temperatures can exceed 40 degrees celcius.

The new fence allows cows to move between Vedic Eco Village land and Saranagati fields & barns.

We host volunteers at the Vedic Eco Village year round. The Vedic library provides volunteers with bathing, solar shower and kitchen area with a chulha mass heater. A future walipini underground greenhouse will provide year round produce and spices for cooking. 

We envision a village similar to Krishna Village in Australia – an eco yoga community set on an organic farm, that provides the blueprint for a simple, mindful, spiritually based lifestyle.

Our 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. 

The southern fruit orchard has 4 trees planted and installed drip lines.   We have built a temporary fence but will need a permanent one when there are bigger trees giving fruit.

The co-op orchard in the north of eco village has apple, pear, plum and apricot trees, as well as berries. 

We are building kitchen for all living areas of the eco village. We will start with a simple outdoor kitchen to feed the volunteer builders of the Colony.  We will need a basic structure with roof, cob stove (for cooking with wood and dung), stainless steel sink, tables and storage areas.

The colony kitchen will provide prasadam for guests, workers, teachers and students of the Colony. 

A small "Nature Cure" clinic for Eco Village residents and guests.  We grow and create our own medicines.

• Natural, locally grown and harvested medicines
• Cow medicines
• Holistic health care
• Patients stay in small cabins during summer time.
• Yoga Therapy

Vaidhyashala

Indian traditional medical science through Ayurveda. Ayurveda draws from the ancient knowledge of holistic healing and believes in restoring the harmony of the body.  Vaidhyashala educate and train the upcoming generation of healers.

The Learning Center (patha shalla) will host a Vaishnava College and provide brahmana and ksatriya training as well as accommodating other teachings.  

Vedic teachings point to universal basic concepts and principles that can help lead individuals and society to a peaceful, healthy and productive life. Those principles are based on an agrarian lifestyle promoting sustainability, self-sufficiency, localized living and respect and protection of all living entities, especially the cows, all centered on a strong character formation upholding moral, ethical and spiritual values.

The objective of the Learning Center is to gain a deeper insight into 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.

A rocket mass heater consists of an insulated combustion chamber where fuel is burned with high efficiency at high temperature, and a large thermal mass in contact with the exhaust gases which absorbs most of the generated heat before the gases are released to the atmosphere.

We have built rocket mass heater to heat water and provide a warm area to bath.  We are working with various recipes for plaster, for example:

• 3x sand
• 1x soaked, aged lime
• 1x clay from our lake
• 1x cow manure

More details about our chulha mass heaters:
https://vedicecovillage.ca/report/innovations-vedic-living

We acquired a canadian made wood mill with a saw blade that can cut logs up to 2 feet wide.  Most of the trees we are milling are only one foot wide because large trees cannot grow in a dense forest due to competition for sunlight, water and soil.

We inherited an over grown forest, thick with small trees fighting each other for survival.  The forest floor was full of debris from fallen trees and branches.  This pile up of forest debris is a great fire risk

First we cleared the debris and sorted it into piles for garden mulch, wind blocking piles and burnable wood. Thin trees were thinned and used fire wood and fence materials.  Larger trees can be made into building material.