early days of august

The beginning of august saw a big influx of volunteers to the farm! Of a contingent of seven french women, three of whom were artists, one took the opportunity of being in this colouful environment to paint and draw the surroundings and the staff.  Above is her workspace, and below, a portrait of Kamal, one of our three chefs.

At the first Friday market of the month, we witnessed the first rainbow over the Doon valley:

On August 7 and 8, Navdanya hosted a strategic workshop for policy makers and learned men (yes, only men attended) of Uttarakhand to draft a recommendation paper for the mainstreaming of organic in the state.  During these two days, each person presented a segment of what they thought should be included in the document.  This was followed by collectively composing and editing, which was a long and tedious process. In honour of Dr. Shiva gracing the farm with her presence, the kitchen decided to prepare one of her favourite treats to serve at tea during the workshop. 

Kamal shows us the basics of how to prepare patol:

Take one large taro leaf, and spread it with a blended mixture of soaked rice, dahl, garlic, amchur, chili, salt, pepper, and garam masala - a sort of indian hummus! 

Take another large taro leaf and place it on top of the first. Cover with more paste. Repeat one or two more times.  Fold, fold, fold, then roll and tie with a long lemongrass leaf.

Tada!

The other big event of that very day was the blistered infect arm of Sheela, one of our favourite farm workers.  There was a fair amount of panic between Julia and I as we realized how severe her wound was and how little attention anyone was paying to it.  We played doctor for the afternoon and raced back and forth from field to dorm, brandishing clean water, sterile gauze, bandages, tylenol for fever, and instructions to stop working, take it easy, sit in the shade.  Sheela told us she could not leave work early, because Dr. Shiva would not approve.  When we came back to the field with all of our medical supplies (including a camera so i could send a photo to a doctor friend), there was a gang of fieldworkers huddled around her, teasing and trying to make light of the situation.  She joked with us, I have 10 bodyguards and 2 doctors!  Here are two of the bodyguards, fooling around with Julia's spanish fan, singing sianara...

Many weeks later, Sheela is in perfect health, but I have suffered another major allergic reaction to something unknown...having never had allergies before in my life, it has been a little bit scary.  Luckily, I have good friends who are watching out for me, as well as some good antihistamines.