Chemical fertilizer is commonly referred to as NPK –Nitrogen Phosphate and Potassium. These are the main necessities for plant growth.

Organically, you can get nitrogen from manure, nitrogen fixing green manures, or supplemental fertilizers that are composed of things like soybean meal, whatever.

The soils here are naturally high in potassium and it can be supplemented with wood ashes, which are valuable for trace minerals as well.

What the soils are lacking here is phosphate.  We supplement this with soft rock phosphate

“Phosphorus, an essential macronutrient

“Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important elements for plant growth and metabolism. It plays key roles in many plant processes such as energy metabolism, the synthesis of nucleic acids and membranes, photosynthesis, respiration, nitrogen fixation and enzyme regulation (Raghothama, 1999). Adequate phosphorus nutrition enhances many aspects of plant development including flowering, fruiting and root growth. ”

 http://www.enhanceability.com/whitelupinacclimation/introduction/nutrition.html

Rock phosphate is not easily found locally. Mostly you will find super phosphate which is the chemical version.

We have bought a pallet of rock phosphate from Ohio Earth Food and trucked it here.

 http://www.ohioearthfood.com/fertilizers.htm

We are making this available to devotees for $15.50 per 50 pound bag.

They recommend applying at the rate up to 1000 pounds per acre.That amounts to about 2# per 100 square feet.  50 pounds will cover about 2500 square feet. Talk to your friends and share a bag if you have a smaller area. I will split small amounts as a favor for devotees until the end of Feb but after that I am too busy.

As this is a slow release material, one application is good for 10 years.

Please contact Madhava Gosh for how to get this.

FYI, this also has a slight neutralizing effect like an equivalent amount of lime.

Please tell your friends who don’t have internet access.

1). Overview
2). Review of Annual Crop Production.
3). How Much Was Harvested? What’s the Wholesale Value?
4). Status of Student Apprentice Training Program.
5). Three Recommendations to Boost New Vrindaban Sustainable Development.
6). Networking, Local Community Outreach and Plans for 2012.

Overview

The Small Farm Training Center’s (SFTC) is an educational center and a hands-on working organic farm. Our mission is to address the looming issue of food insecurity by creating a land based green economic model that functions in both the city and rural environs. With the help of small scale technology, we make organically grown food affordable and available.

Review of Annual Crop Production

The 2011 agricultural cycle was shaped by extremes in weather. Excessive Spring rains, a period of searing summer heat and eighty days of Fall rain showers (typically 3-4 rainy days in a week from August 20th until Nov.15th), all combined to negatively impact crop production. Here are the highlights:

–First Spring planting date, March 16th.
First crops planted: spinach, lettuce, parsnip, radish, carrot, beet, chard, fava bean,
–Second planting May 16th –May 26th. Transplants grown and donated by West
Virginia State Univ. included: tomato, okra, brussel sprouts, cabbage, peppers,
kale, cucumber, basil and stevia.
–Third major planting July 17th-August 1st. Direct seeding of winter squash,
pumpkins, green beans, late beets and summer squash.
–Successes: lettuce, spinach, winter squash, pumpkins, okra, green beans,
cucumber, kale, summer squash, bitter melon and fava bean.
–Failures: cabbage, peppers, beets carrot, parsnip,
–Mixed results: tomato, chard, brussel sprouts.

*notes: Tomatoes did not begin setting red fruit until Sept. 1st. Good yield but late harvest. Six hundred cabbages were destroyed by ground hogs. 1000 pepper plants performed poorly due to wet soil conditions Chard yielded heavily until July when the plants succumbed to an invasion of leaf hoppers. Brussel sprouts did well in the Garden of Seven Gates but were attacked by aphids in the Teaching Garden. Carrots and parsnips plantings were destroyed by groundhogs in the Teaching Garden. Three attempts to grow winter storage beets all failed due to weed pressure The beet beds were too wet to allow either hand or mechanical cultivation.

How Much Was Harvested? What’s The Wholesale Value?
*note: The wholesale value chart below is determined by price comparisons to Jebia’s Market. The quantities are calculated according to standard weights and head counts for a specific vegetable. For example, a waxed box of chard weights approximately 25lbs and contains 20-25 individual chard bundles (tied with a twisty or rubber band). Jebia’s wholesale price for non-organic chard is $23.00 per box. Organic produce is typically 30% more.

ITEM QTY HARVESSTED WHOLESALE VALUE COMMENTS

Tomato 120 boxes $18/box $2160
Cucumber 45 boxes $26/box $1170
Lettuce 20 boxes $27/box $540
Chard 51 boxes $23/box $1173
Bnut Squash 40 bushels $20/bu $800
Pumpkin 70 pcs $3.@ $210
Kale 6 boxes $20/box $120
Spinach 6 boxes $28/box $168
Spaghetti Squash 13 bushels $20/bu $260.
Summer Squash 16 boxes $24/box $384
Okra 14 boxes $27/box $378
Green Beans 9 boxes $22/box $198
Fava Beans 75 lbs $2/lb $150
Red Bell Pepper 8 boxes $30/box $240
Jalapeno Pepper 6 boxes $29/box $174
Red Chile Pepper 3 boxes $29/box $87
Radish and Greens 9 boxes $21/box $189

Total……………..$8401
Total if paying organic wholesale prices………….…..$10,921

Status of Student Apprentice Training Program
–Number of inquires via email and phone……………………17
–Number of apprentice participating…………………………….7
(Brandon, Brian, John, Laslo, Yogadeva, Tracy and Ben)

Needs: The most urgent need for boosting apprentice participation is website development—specifically, a dedicated person to handle content management and recruiting. In short, we’re under-communicating what we have to offer. Target audiences include ISKCON social media outlets, animal rights organizations such as PETA and Farm Sanctuary, food activist organizations, universities and colleges, gardening clubs etc. For a comprehensive view of SFTC’s apprentice opportunity see www.farmeducation.org. Look for ‘training” in the top menu bar of the home page.
The apprentice program has mentored 30 plus full time participants and dozens of weekend helpers over the past five years.

Three Recommendations to Boost New Vrindaban Sustainable Development

a). Follow the lead of New Vraja Dhama (Hungary).
At New Vraja Dham, all devotees supported by the temple—from temple president to pot washer, yes even pujaris!—are available for 3 hours of farm related service per week. Devotees often fulfill their obligation by dividing the 3 hr. time slot into two days of 1.5 hours. The farm manager arranges work assignments knowing that each day he can expect a team of helpers. By sharing the chores in the garden, barn and fields, the whole community gains insight into the value of the cows, the land and the joy of shared sacrifice for Lord Krishna’s pleasure.

b). Restore brahminical standards in Krishna’s kitchen.
Our farming and gardening should be guided by the purity of the offering to Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chanda. Foods planted, nurtured, and harvested by devotee hands are, in the words of Srila Prabhupada, “One hundred times better” than bhoga purchased from the outside. Implementing that standard of purity should be expected in the place Srila Prabhupada anointed as a holy tirtha and ISKCON’s first farm community.

Adopting a higher standard begins with connecting the dots between the garden, the kitchen and the Lord’s altar.

c). Incentivize farming, farm culture and farm related occupations
Not only are New Vrindaban’s original settlers aging, but the ones who are experienced farmers—who can successfully grow food in large quantities—can be counted on one hand. Farming is not just ”another” manual trade. Organic farming, in particular, demands a diverse set of skills, the most important of which is the ability to accurately read and quickly adjust to the rhythms and mood swings of mother nature.

How does New Vrindaban attract the next wave of agrarians? How do we convincingly present the case for “plain living and high thinking” when the only occupations that offer a living wage revolve around Hindu fund raising, guest facility maintenance and internet administration? In the past seventeen years—that’s the number of consecutive years the Teaching Garden has been productive—we’ve purchased over one million dollars worth of outside bhoga. Imagine if that money had stayed within the community to create a local food economy.

Networking, Local Community Outreach and Plans for 2012

What began six years ago as a genuine effort to share surplus produce with area food pantries and soup kitchens has blossomed into a burgeoning grass roots movement called the Green Wheeling Initiative. The Small Farm Training Center has played a leading role in local networking efforts to bring about a unique collaboration of academia, social service agencies, city government and urban gardeners.

SFTC is currently pursuing the following initiatives outside of New Vrindaban

-A grant funded study to explore how Wheeling spends its food dollar.
-A grant funded mandate to form a business plan to shift food production
and consumption by 10% over a three year period.
-The expansion of a Community Garden Network, now comprised of fourteen urban
gardens as well as New Vrindaban’s ‘Teaching Garden’ and ‘Garden of Seven Gates.’
-The creation of a downtown Wheeling ‘Green Zone’ in partnership with West
Virginia Northern Community College.
-Regular interaction with seven local colleges and universities to stimulate dialogue
and debate about a local food economy.

Within New Vrindaban, SFTC’s 2012 plans include:

-Completion of the artisan bakery.
-Renovation of the Small Farm Training Center Guest House facility.
- Opening the Center for Preventative Medicine (inside SFTC Guest House).
-Construction of the Children’s Learning and Play Center (the Teaching Garden).
-Enhanced Student Apprentice Program, including a written curriculum.
-Irrigation and drainage for the Garden of Seven Gates (ECO-V grant funded).

 NEW RESIDENT OF NEW VRINDABAN

 One of Krsna’s new cows, Gomata Anjali Soma, whom you may have read about in a recent  article on the New Vrindaban website,  gave birth to her first calf early Sunday morning, Jan. 8, 2012. 

Both mata and calf are doing well and are resting at the Goshalla  across from the temple.

Little Gandharvika is the first calf born in New Vrindaban in 2012.  The last calf that was born in New Vrindaban was in 2009.  When a cow comes fresh with a calf she has a good flow of milk for the first year but after that her production falls off.  So the arrival of Gandharvika signals an increased milk production for Lord Krishna and His devotees. At present there are no other fresh cows in the barn.

Radha Vrindabanchandra will very soon be enjoying some wonderful milk sweets as a result of this new event.  Srila Prabhupada has called milk “liquid religion”, so the birth of a new calf in Krsna’s own herd of cows is a particularly auspicious birth. 

As their photos were being taken,  Anjali Soma Mata was looking around protectively, just like the good mother that she has become.  But she seemed to also be very trusting as she knows that both she and her baby will have some pleasant days ahead under the protection of Lord Krsna Himself.   Krsna is known as the best cowherd boy in Vrindaban, and Vrindabanchandra is that  same cowherd boy.

Hare Krishna:

The following information is being provided for those who are interested or concerned about the swans well fare. Our swans have three lakes to feed from in addition to fields and a daily supplant of cracked corn and whole wheat. Contrary to a popular current myth, they are not “starving.”

If you are interested to feed the swans, please note the following! Use extreme precaution when attempting to feed them. Best to bring a stick with you. They are very aggressive, they do bite, and their wings are very strong. They can break an arm or a leg with their wings if provoked. When stretching up on their legs and extending their necks, they become quite “tall,” able to attack the necks and faces of anyone 5’6″ and under. If they suspect you have food for them, they will come at you altogether. If this happens, back off and leave the area. (After reading this, I suspect not so many will remain interested to feed the swans!) I plan to post WARNING signs along the lake. Jaya Devi is the main caretaker along with myself when I am present, should you have any questions or concerns. Thank you!

Feeding Swans – the correct way

Please note that their natural diet is best for them and that filling them up with food that is not part of their natural diet should be avoided, as it will prevent them from getting the nutrition they need as well as being potentially harmful.

HOWEVER, when winter conditions set in and little food is available – our help in providing food is likely to be very appreciated and may be even life-saving.

What NOT to feed swans:

Anything that is NOT healthy for us: sugary, starchy, fatty foods, junk food, fast food
NO Bread, chips, cakes, cookies, and cereal, etc – as these foods can cause digestive and serious other health problems
NO Cooked and processed foods.
NO Raw Beans of any kind. However, cooked beans are alright.

What to feed swans:

Note: Any food fed to them should be in manageable size for swallowing. Foods should be as natural as possible, unprocessed without harmful additives.

Please refer to the natural diet as described above or on the relevant species pages … If possible, feed items that are close to their natural diet.

Particularly in the winter months when grasses or other plant vegetation is scarce, greens such as dark green lettuce, spinach, chopped/shredded carrots, celery and alfalfa sprouts and other vegetables and greens make a great supplement. Note that lettuce may be an acquired taste and the swans may take a while to get used to it. Any vegetables need to be cut up into small pieces. Remember, birds don’t have teeth!

Other foods to feed: Healthy popcorn (without artificial coloring and flavorings); corn / cracked corn; whole wheat GRAIN (not processed, not bread – natural state grain); whole oats; brown rice, lentils, split peas and smallish seeds

Equally loved and cherished are peelings from our own food preparations for dinner, such as broccoli, potatoes, green beans, cabbage — GENTLY steamed (only enough to warm up – NEVER cook and NEVER use the microwave to warm up) and feed warm (not hot) to swans who will especially appreciate that when it’s cold outside

Now that they are in New Vrindaban there is a commitment that they, and their calves, will  be allowed to live out their natural life span. The funds for the purchase were contributed by a donor.

The donor has requested the following 2 names: Anjali Soma… means gift offering; nectar of immortality & Asha Soma means ray of hope, nectar of immortality.

Anjali Soma & Asha Soma are very gentle and were able to be lead with a halter to the barn. Both will be a real asset to the herd.

Here they are being unloaded from the trailer that brought them across country to their new home.

Ranaka Prabhu did happily buy two Brown Swiss cows last Saturday via telephone during an  auction held in Wisconsin. They are bred heifers both over two years old.  One is due to freshen (have a calf) in a few weeks and the other in February.

A donor has supported the acquisition of both cows. His children will name the cows.

They are due to arrive early next week.

Your servant,
Jaya Krsna das

See slideshow of various scenes here.

He has now started training with Balabhadra to work oxen. Here is Dhanan leading an ox.

Although they are both stubborn you can tell the difference between Madhava the ox and Balabhadra the trainer by counting the legs. Balabhadra only has two.

An area has been set aside for this in the Garden of Seven Gates. Despite an unusually wet autumn,  some progress has been made. Here is Jayadevi standing in an area that has been covered with compost and had soft rock phosphate spread on it.

Most of this will be planted into annuals though some will be perennials.  20 mums and 20 peonies have already been planted.  The annual production will come up to speed in 2012 but it will take about 5 years to get the perennial garden fully planted. The eventual size could be about 5 times this area.

The gardens will be done organically. Chemical fertilizer is N-P-K which is nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. The nitrogen will come from cover crops and compost, the soils here are naturally rich in potassium and it can be supplemented with wood ash,  but they are weak in phosphate.  So we have supplemented with rock phosphate, an organic form,  at the rate of 2000 pounds per acre (2,200 k per Ha).  This is slow release so it will suffice for the next ten years.

The compost didn’t spread itself so Kalindi and her husband Adam did that.  They also spread some on some new terraces where berries will be planted next year.

Anyone wanting to contribute to support this project please let us know. One way is through the Contact Us form on the Home page of the Brijabasi Spirit.

We can also engage anyone who wants to donate time working in the garden so if you are planning a visit and want to do some hands on, let us know.

Another way to contribute is to grow some flowers in your own garden and donate them to the Deities directly.

If you have any divisions of perennials or flowering shrubs that you would like to share, we can accept donations of plants.  Before modern commerce and catalogs, that is how most gardens expanded, through gifts or trades with other gardeners.  You could also order plants through a catalog and have them sent to us but please contact us in advance so we would know what is coming.

Further plans for this fall is to  dig some daffodils in what used to be a picking garden for the  Deities but which is  a nonwalkable distance away and plant them in the temple area where the flower pickers can have easier access. Wouldn’t it be nice to do a thousand of them?

A New Vrindaban devotee’s efforts at organic gardening have inspired the general public, educational institutions, and leaders in the local town of Wheeling, West Virginia to support sustainability, eat local produce and consider spiritual motives for it.

Raised on a farm in Northern Michigan, Tapahpunja Dasa was attracted to ISKCON’s “simple-living, high-thinking” message and joined in 1974 in New Vrindaban, where he began growing organic produce. After some side projects over the years, such as missionary work overseas and starting North America’s first Food For Life program in 1982, he restarted his organic growing in 1996, and has been “focused on creating a connection between spirituality and sustainability” for the past thirteen years.

“I believe that if we want the rural, Krishna conscious lifestyle that Srila Prabhupada desired for New Vrindaban—not just generic cow protection or hobby gardening—it must be a centrally located, highly visible part of our outreach,” he says. “When I presented these thoughts to the New Vrindaban management, they kindly granted me a piece of property right in the center of the community, directly across from the temple, to turn my ambition into reality.”
To make the project more accessible to the general public and to secular organizations, Tapahpunja created his own 501 C3 charity organization called The
Small Farm Training Center, which names New Vrindaban as its “host community.”

Over the past six years, he has developed a vibrant apprentice farming program, which draws between eight and fourteen college students every season (from March till November), enthusiastic about getting their hands dirty and learning sustainability. They go through three levels of training: backyard gardening, market gardening—learning how to trade, barter and sell one’s produce at a farmer’s market—and mini-farming, which is performed on a six-and-a-half acre site called The Garden of Seven Gates.

“Rather than just grunt work, I want to give them a rich, well-rounded experience,” Tapahpunja says. “I’d like them to leave with a very solid foundation of why we should be sustainable, so that they can be articulate spokespersons on the issue.”

In return for their work, the students receive room and board, staying at the project’s Small Farm Guesthouse and eating prasadam. Many comment that they feel comfortable and cared for.

There is no pressure to go any further than learning the ABCs of organic gardening, but Tapahpunja does explain to the students that his Training Center’s host is a spiritual community with a beautiful temple, delicious vegetarian meals, philosophical classes, and the renowned tourist attraction Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, which they are welcome to check out.

“We have a lot to offer to the worldwide dialogue on sustainability,” Tapahpunja says. “At the heart of it all is the fact that there is really no such thing as sustainability in this world—everything is subject to devastating time. The only true sustainability is our relationship with God. And it’s important to understand that as we attempt to live a simple lifestyle.”

Tapahpunja shows himself to be aligned with this understanding by growing a garden that is specific to the needs of New Vrindaban’s presiding Deities Sri-Sri Radha-Vrindabanchandra, and to the needs of Their devotees.

Providing for the community is a challenge, however. “Right now only about ten per cent of the produce used by the temple is grown in our own garden,” he says. “It’s difficult because New Vrindaban is a major pilgrimage destination, with 600 to 800 people visiting on festival weekends, making it hard to match field production with consumption patterns. On top of that, most of the devotees here are from urban backgrounds, and they want seasonal vegetables all year around, which is impossible. So a big part of my job is convincing the temple management that to support a farm culture we have to get used to eating seasonally.”

Still, Tapahpunja tries to grow a wide variety of vegetables. He’s helped by grant money from West Virginia State University, which is offered in return for data on his yield.

There’s even surplus, which he began delivering to Wheeling soup kitchens as a charitable donation five years ago. Today, he has developed a good relationship with cooks, administration and clientele, and delivers to six different kitchens over thirty times a year—unheard of by any other farmer or agrarian-based community.

“They don’t have a lot of funding, and most of the food they serve people are corporate donations of sugary foods and heavy starches—cheap calories that are going bad in large scale grocery stores and get donated for a tax write-off by large corporations,” Tapahpunja says. “So they are very grateful for our freshly-grown donations. They especially love Swiss Chard, a kind of large beet green, which I grow a quarter acre of each year, and lettuce, which I’ve developed a technique for growing even in the hot weather.”

The soup kitchens, as well as the city of Wheeling, are very appreciative because they can see that this effort is not a cynical photo-op, but a genuine concern for the quality of peoples’ diets.

This charitable work and networking is not only excellent public relations for ISKCON New Vrindaban, but it has yielded yet another exciting project.

“It got me in touch with some local Wheeling gardeners, and about a year ago we decided to team up and share resources, creating the ‘Green Wheeling Initiative,’” Tapahpunja says. “Our byline is ‘A Green Bridge Over Troubled Waters,’ and we regularly meet at the local community college to discuss how to increase our charitable distribution of produce, as well as new gardening initiatives.”

The most exciting of these is an urban renewal project in which members of the GWI install gardens in vacant lots and former industrial deadzones throughout the city. They have installed seven so far, including one on the front lawn of the West Virginia Northern Community College, the biggest community college in the State.

“Working with their culinary arts department, we made a nice garden for them with lots of vegatables and culinary herbs, so that the students could get acquainted with growing their own produce, and realize how much better it makes food taste,” says Tapahpunja.

In return, the Community College arranged for Tapahpunja to meet with representatives of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the Hess Family Foundation, who were impressed with the GWI’s vision to turn Wheeling’s vacant lots into economic and health opportunities for its people.

“They also liked our mood of collaboration and inclusiveness, and our goal of empowering people to become food independent and build community at the same time,” Tapahpunja says. “As a result, they suggested that I write two grants, which I did. They then funded both of them—the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation gave $55,000, while the Hess Family Foundation gave $15,000.”

Tapahpunja says that the GWI’s work is making the citizens of Wheeling more aware of both the health and sociological reasons for becoming food independent. This naturally ties in with cow protection, since cow dung is essential to fertile soil for growing food; and with spiritual communities, where people support each other in a lifestyle closer to the land and the one who sustains us all: God.

In the future, Tapahpunja hopes to continue networking and reaching out to organizations such as PETA and Farm Sanctuary, and people such as young Indian couples, who, despite working in the technological field, are often not far removed from their village roots. He also hopes to launch a new initiative, VARA, which means “best” in Sanskrit and is an acronym for Vedic Academy for Rural Arts. Its mission will be to train brahminically-inclined devotees who can articulate a message of sustainability based on the Krishna conscious perspective.

“Once, while walking with his disciples on the outskirts of Atlanta, Srila Prabhupada took his cane and traced the outline of all the downtown skyscrapers,” Tapahpunja says. “Then he said, ‘Do you see this city? This city and all like it will be finished very soon. Do you know why?’ The devotees were at a loss, groping for all kinds of metaphysical answers. Finally Tamal Krishna Maharaja said, ‘Because they can’t grow their own food?’ ‘Yes,’ Srila Prabhupada replied. ‘Because they can’t grow their own food.’”

“Therefore,” Tapahpunja concludes, “I see food independence as one of our ISKCON movement’s most important missions,