We have long wondered what our brand philosophy should be. Local, Organic, Pure is what we have stood for since the launch of the store in November 2021. We have only now starting saying it out Loud & Clear. You have seen it in our cartons and labels that we ship to you in the…
Tag: regenerative agriculture
6X increase in soil organic carbon in 6 years at Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest
It has been 6 years since we started organic farming in our land. We are very happy to announce that we have achieved an average of 5.75X increase in soil organic carbon at Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest, Vikramasingapuram, Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu. The results were very encouraging especially because the improvement was seen across…
Why Masala Lab needs to look at agricultural systems from an Indian lens and not an American one?
Krish Ashok is at it yet again. He thinks he has built a nuanced position for GMOs. Nothing could be far from the truth. His recent video conflates artificial selection that has happened over thousands of years with lab developed GMOs which have a questionable history over 50 years. At its broadest, the definition of…
Rising from the Rain : Our Compost Toilet Chronicles! December 2023
We lost our compost toilet’s walls, partially, and roof to the torrential downpour over the session that lasted 36+ hours in our farm between 16th December evening to 18th December noon. The deluge that occurred in Tirunelveli and neighbouring districts has been atrributed to cyclonic storm near Sri Lanka. We had transplanted our rice saplings…
Transformation from Rice Fields to Forest Garden at Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest
Back in 2018, we were skeptical when we wanted to convert 40% of erstwhile rice fields to a bio-diverse forest garden comprising of fruit trees, timber trees, herbs, spices and more. Typically, rice fields are plots which get flooded because of proximity to a river, irrigation canal, pond or any major water body. Also, to…
What is the big deal about not tilling our soil?
I remember learning about top soil erosion during the environmental studies in class 5 in school. But, beyond that i don’t remember having any discussion about soil health or top soil loss in any other forum during classroom education. This is unfortunate, given that our existence is still dependent on us consuming food and not…
Homesteading update : Composting our own shit
We started construction of compost toilet in May 2019 and completed in August, the same year. The compost toilet foundation and the chamber walls, the chamber ceiling were constructed with stones, hollow bricks, cement, sand and concrete. The walls were built with self-manufactured sun-dried adobe bricks made with farm sub-soil. The roof was a madras…
COP26: Are India’s commitments enough?
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th annual conference, held in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. Around 197 countries attended. The representatives were either the country’s leaders or delegates. Here is a summary of what India what has agreed to in COP26. There are only 7…
Raising chickens: our experience over the last six months
Chickens, we wanted to raise for quite some time but never took the first step. When we shifted from hybrid cows to native cows, we realized it was time to buy native chickens. And it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Chickens and cows share a symbiotic relationship – cows poop attract…
Up in the hills, In a forest clearing: Prayogshala
While searching for farm land, we had explored several parts of Tamil Nadu. Kodaikanal was one of them. It got dropped off the list because of difficulty of access and doubt of my family’s tolerance to colder climate for prolonged periods of time. But, no other place in Tamil Nadu came close to the beauty…
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