2 types of rice varieties were grown at our collective this season
- black rice locally called illapu samba, where the paddy is black but the grain is white - this is a type of scented rice
The other variety we have grown this year is navara - it is a desi red rice variety- navara is good to prevent diabetes, good for stomach and digestion. It can grow up to 5ft tall.
Desi varieties were chosen with seeds from farmers in Andhra, with the intention of preserving our indegenous rice varieties which are quickly being forgotten.
A total of 1.5 acres of paddy was grown this year, with sowing taking place in June, transplanting in July. The crop was grown as a rainfed or Kharif crop. Paddy harvesting process began in the first week of Nov.
Our crop yield was affected by unseasonal rains and we lost more than 50 percent of our yield due to changing weather patterns. Our question going forward is to understand and continue to explore how we can better prepare ourselves for these unpredictable scenarios, which will continue to become more frequent as the years pass.
Members from our team also attended a Desi Rice Festival organised by WASSAN, where over 50 desi varieties of rice grown by farmer collectives within a 100km radius of Hyderabad were displayed.
#harvest #blackrice #riceharvest #beforest #beforestcollective #cropyield
The Blyton Bungalow is a beautiful, 6 room eco-friendly bungalow constructed by Biome Environmental Solutions at the Poomaale Estate. Located at a short walk up from the Poomaale site office, this guest house was built from locally sourced material. It encloses a common area or Aangan, and is surrounded by a dense forest, with chirping birds and all sorts of beautiful wild creatures.
A typical day at the guest house would include walks around the estate interspersed with some wholesome meals prepared from mostly locally foraged or grown produce.
As a beta test, we hosted 2 families in August on separate occasions and were heartened by their feedback. They expressed their delight in how beautiful the bungalow and its surroundings looked and felt during the rains and suggested creating a seating arrangement in the courtyard
Our hospitality team is diligently working towards creating a warm and memorable experience at The Blyton Bungalow. We look forward to hosting you all very soon!
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#Blyton #BlytonBungalow #Poomaale #Coorg #August #test #feedback #ecofriendly #beforestfarming #destination #guesthouse #bungalow #monsoons #homestay #biome #meals #naturallysourced
The Storyteller - Seeds vs. seedlings : what is better for your food forest?
It’s been a seedy month! Building a food forest comes with its set of challenges. Team Beforest’s Suhail Bagdadi writes about his experiences about one critical element - choosing between seeds and seedlings
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#storyteller #foodforest #permaculture #seeds #seed #seedlings #beforestfarming #devgad #maharashtra #mangoorchard #plants #trees
Gardening has many health and therapeutic benefits, and can be enjoyed by everyone. With some planning and thought, you can create an interesting, productive and pleasant space that can be used as an edible garden.
We want to bring this experience to the front yard of the newly constructed Blyton Bungalow at the Poomaale Estate, Coorg. Our permaculture design team is ready to landscape these exteriors with medicinal plants. This curation is useful for insect bites, cuts, cold, headaches and neck pains. Also included are exciting kitchen herbs, fruits, vegetables. Finally, we also have plants that are natural insect and reptile repellents, securing a safer space for the guests to sit around and enjoy. Disclaimer: not 100% guaranteed!
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#gardening #guarding #insectrepellent #insects #reptiles #bugs #herbgarden #therapeutic #planttherapy #natural #benefits #healthbenefits #mood #moodeleviation #kitchenplants #herbs
Bamboos are lithe, bend easily and are easy to cultivate and harvest in a relatively short
period of time. These qualities make it a highly versatile and sustainable building material and one of the reasons that we have been using them to build trellises in our food production zones.
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#bamboo #bamboos #sustainablematerial #ecofriendly #pocketfriendly #versatilematerial #versatile #sustainable #buildingmaterial #affordable #decay #foundation #trellis #trellises
Bewild will be at the @sundaysoulsantehyderabad at the Hitex Exhibition Centre on Sunday 30th October from 11AM to 10PM.
Drop by to experience our one of a kind forest friendly coffee and more!!!
We have put our wildly grown and harvested coffee to a test and the results took us back to school and to the joy of passing with distinction. We also did a cup tasting session. During cupping, coffees are scored for aspects such as cleanness, sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel and aftertaste. We scored above 80%.
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#sunday #sundaysoulsantehyderabad #hyderabad #explore #exhibition #coffee #coffeecupping #cuptasting #roasting #coffeeroasting #acidity #mouthfeel #aftertaste #sweetness #BewildCoffee #beforestfarming #coffeeproducers #coffeebuyers
Dating back at least 4,000 years, this tropical perennial herb, native to the mountainous forests of southwest India is treasured for its use in Indian cuisines. Cardamom plants grow ideally in moist soil and under partial shade, which makes the Poomaale climate ideal.
At the base of the stalks, the plant forms long bracts of flowers that develop into seed pods which may be harvested by hand in the fall, 30-40 days after flowering. Harvest timing can be tricky as the pods need to be harvested just before they are fully ripe and begin to split and release their seeds.
If you are unsure, pluck a pod and check the color of the seeds inside. A ripe capsule has black seeds, whereas an immature capsule’s seeds are white. Another indicator is the fact that ripe pods will easily come away without much tugging. We harvested 2.5 kg of raw cardamom and got 850 grams of cardamom post the drying process.
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#cardamom #harvesting #pods #seeds #poomaale #coorg #moist #soil #climate #favourableclimate #favourableconditions #harvest #tropicalherb #perennialherb #mountains #forsts #SouthIndia
The universe was created with an integral place and role for every life form. The world would be incomplete without animals and human together living sustainably
The epic tale of Ramayana is a beautiful example of how we humans have depended on the wisdom from the animal kingdom time and again
Take the example of the deer, who showed us that all that glitters may not be true gold. Happiness lies in abstaining from greed.
Jatayu the vulture and Garuda the eagle were valiant birds that taught us we must always show courage, even in the face of grave danger. One guided Rama on the path of success and the other fought bravely along with him
Monkeys like Sugreev and Hanuman proved that any creature is capable of great strength and character. The mighty stature that Hanuman took on and flew across oceans was symbolic of how no task is too big for the determined ones
When Jambavan, the bear king helps hanuman realise his might, he is speaking to the entire human race too. We all posses immense strength deep inside us. It us upto us, to have faith and recognise this strength.
_____ the squirrel perhaps was the most important teacher, setting an example that no task is too big if we set out to do it with determination and faith.
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#diwali #happy #newyear #light #festival #india #greendiwali #festiveseason #wishes #ramayana #animals #ecofriendlyliving #ecofriendly #fire #love #friends #familytime #beforestfarming
Lately we have had frequent visits from wild boars and other animals near our food production zone and as much as we would like them to keep visiting, we also have to protect our food crops from getting damaged by their activities.
We are in the process of installing a buffer fence using chain link and barbed wire, along with a biofence. While our bio-fence grows, the chain link will be used as a support structure to grow climbing plants that provide food for us as well as support biodiversity. Simultaneously, we will also grow a combination of plant species along this fence - some thorny plants to deter animals from entering, as well as wild food plants for the animal visitors to enjoy from the outside, safeguarding our harvest.
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#barricades #boars #barricade #naturalfence #fence #vegetables #burrowing #predator biofence #animals #cropdamage #pests #protection #encroach
This Dhanteras aim at praying for the prosperity of our home, earth. Invest in a future with nutritious food, clean water and make it happy and secure with Beforest.
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#dhanteras #festivaloflights #money #auspicious #india #festivevibes #festival #traditional #love #light #bestwishes
The increase in coffee production in major producing countries like Brazil and Vietnam has come at a huge cost to the environment.
This makes a strong case for eco-friendly practices and the biodiversity conservation potential of Indian, especially Karnataka’s, coffee agroforests. With global consumers becoming increasingly conscious about conservation efforts at a local level and willing to pay for such; there is a real opportunity for Karnataka’s coffee growers to avail of economic benefits by capitalising on the environmental and livelihood benefits of their traditional practices.
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#coffee #brazil #vietnam #braziliancoffee #vietnamesecoffee #biodiversity #Karnataka #agroforests #sustainable sustainablecoffee #globalconsumers #bewildcoffee #beforestfarming #sustainableecosystems
The journey of the Hyderabad Collective always amazes us at Beforest. From a landscape that is unfit for cultivation to complete security for the on ground staff and now the surplus going to general consumers as veggie baskets. Just WOW!.
Our Food Production Zone trials have worked out really well and we have done two rounds of veggie baskets. Each basket would have 5 kgs of veggies including leafies, veggies, gourds, etc and is door delivered to interested members in Hyderabad. The basket changes depending on what is available that week but continues to be a wholesome mix of different kinds. This was well received with the baskets getting sold out within an hour of announcement on both occasions.
Once the trials are over, the entire planned food production zone would be planted by mid-October, and that would be orders of magnitude more than the current trial patch.
The stream bed exercise is completed and we now have 53 different structures on the 9 stream beds. The running water now walks and remains to be seen how the land responds to this. Fingers crossed!
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#hyderabadcollective #hyderabad #beforestfarming #vegetablebeds #famrtofork #homedelivery #dailydelivery #streambed #streambedregistry #foodproduction #organicfood #naturalfood #foodproductionzone #vegetables #gourds #basket #vegetablebasket
The journey from the first day when we visited this place to today has been an extremely rewarding one. Many interesting people, hundreds of deep conversations later, the world definitely looks different from our corner.
#restorationfarming #lifeinthehills #kodagulife #permaculturedesign #coffeelovers #coffeeestatelife #naturelovers
If you are excited about the idea of living in a food farm near Mumbai city, then join Team Beforest over a cup of coffee and learn more about how you can make this dream come true.
Please contact 8977945350 to RSVP.
Hyderabad, Block Your Date!
Come drop by at the Bewild stall at India’s most loved flea market - Sunday Soul Sante on Sunday 30th October.
Experience our forest friendly coffee, interesting brews, destress with some natural soundscapes and more.
See you there!
#sundaysoulsante #fleamarket #coffeelover #forestfriendly #farming #coffeetime #festivevibes #hyderabad #shop #exhibition
The coffee beans at Bewild undergo the ‘monsooning’ process which involves exposing them to very humid air during the monsoons from May to June. The beans are stored and raked in special roofed buildings and then put into sacks and exposed to the monsoon. They gain their characteristic colour and flavour within seven weeks.
The flavour and aroma of Bewild coffee is also a consequence of it being grown in coffee plantations which include about 50 various plant species shadowing the trees and protecting them from seasonal temperature variations and prevent soil erosion on the slopes.
Fruits and spices growing by the coffee trees influence the coffee aroma, giving it a delicate sweetness, fruitiness and distinct spicy notes. Thus tasting Bewild Coffee is like tasting the whole microcosm of oriental aromas.
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#Bewild #BewildCoffee #beforestfarming #monsooning #monsoons #coffeebeans #coffee #humidity #exposure #colour #flavour #ripening #temperature #plantspecies #variety #aroma #coffeearoma #spicynotes
If you are excited about the idea of living in a food farm near Mumbai city, then join Team Beforest over a cup of coffee and learn more about how you can make this dream come true.
Please contact 8977945350 to RSVP.
Kodagu comes to a halt during the monsoons. You will find most people sipping chai on a planter’s chair, waiting for sunset.
But this time we took on a few micro-projects and built some nice makeshift shelters for the veggie beds and compost pits and started the process. While the composting didn’t go as well because of the moisture, we realised we needed to add a lot more carbon than normal to offset that. It’s not called failure if you’ve learned something in the process! But overall, things seem good right now. The leafies are coming out well and the gourds too.
The Blyton Bungalow opened to members and we engaged with folks with tons of hospitality experience to train our team in barefoot luxury (a term we have grown increasingly fond of). A month into the process, the team is doing some great work. We have hosted a few families and the feedback has been phenomenal. We have also leveraged the local understanding of the flora and fauna by picking our naturalists from the local tribal hamlet and training them on the narrative experience. This was an extremely productive exercise, and they were more than eager to learn.
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#kodagu #coorg #poomaale #beforestfarming #poomaaleestate #blytonbungalow #bungalow #guesthouse #luxury #naturalists # hospitality #gourds #compost #composting #vegetablebeds #moisture #holidayhome
Happy World Food Day
Living as we do with mass-produced food, markets, and restaurants in every town, and giant supermarket complexes that are often just down the road, it takes some imagination to think of finding food every day in the natural environment. Yet that is just what humans (Homo sapiens) have done for most of their time on Earth — from their appearance about 200,000 years ago until about 11,000 years ago when they began to develop agriculture. Before Homo sapiens evolved, our hominine ancestors foraged for millions of years.
Foraging means relying on food provided by nature through the gathering of plants and small animals, birds, and insects.
Meal cooked with wild ingredients are rare and packed with seasonal flavors! It helps us diversify our nutrition palette and creating awareness regarding foraging will help people be independent off commercial agriculture for food.
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#food #foraging #flowers #worldfoodday #foodislife #agriculture #permaculture #wildfood #survival #awareness #farming #natural #beforestfarming #bewild
THE SEED ACT: 80% of all seeds in India are still saved by farmers. Beforest Co-Founder & CFO writes about how The Seed Act is designed to ‘enclose’ the free economy of farmers' seed varieties.
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#lawsofnature #seedact #seeds #seedsaving #farmers #farming #seed #freeeconomy #seedvarieties
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