The City of Lakes Lives Up To Its Name!
The rains over the last few weeks have been the highest in 30 years. The term ‘City of Lakes’ has been reinforced with the overflowing of all the 30 lakes across the city.
We have identified some beautiful potential sites within a 30 km radius and are waiting to get started with the due diligence, the seed community being the blocker.
Among the 3 sites:
Site A - reminds us of Downton Abbey
Site B - a barren land that has been replenished to a water surplus
Site C - on the edge of Ratapani and in the heart of Tiger country.
We will mostly be kickstarting the collective by the 4th of September.
Do you have a soil nutritionist? Eating healthy is step 2, step one is to know the nutrition value of the food you are consuming. We have heard of farm to table, for a change lets go backwards from table to farm.
Someone once told me, "A farm is always 10 days away from starvation. But a forest never dies, come rain or fire". To us, working on landscape restorations, that was empowering to hear. Forests, by definition, are self-sustaining systems, independent of external agents for critical inputs. For e.g. no one waters plants in a forest. They have healthy 'spongy' soil that stores water until the next monsoon.
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Naturalists are the new Realists!
“The floor of the forest is like a mirror. Whatever goes on above is reflected below.”
How true. Especially in an era where climate change and its compounding effects are hitting our daily lives. It’s time we start understanding this intricate web called nature and not outsmart it by breaking it down into the confines of logic.
#nature #travel #photography #naturephotography #photooftheday #love #beautiful #adventure #landscape #travelphotography #art #summer #sunset #explore #wanderlust #beach #travelgram #hiking #instagram #outdoors #naturelovers #photo #happy #ocean #mountains #sky
Independence - what does it mean? Does the definition evolve with time and circumstance? Our understanding certainly has evolved. Empowering ourselves to address the fundamentals - food, water and power has been a rewarding journey. The world suddenly looks different once these basics are taken care of. At the collectives, we are making our way up the hierarchy of needs and discovering true independence - resilience, fearless and completely secure
How are you making everyday food independent of unwanted chemicals and pesticides?
#independenceday #75yearsofindependence #IndependentIndia #HappyIndependenceDay #15thAugust #freedom #india #JaiHind #bharat #indianindependenceday #tiranga
What's your soil fix?
Before Hyderabad begins its food production, we first want to give the soil the nutrition it needs. One of these ways is to grow cover crops of nitrogen fixing plants that will in 45 days of its growth be mixed into the soil, and then finally be made into defined grow patches. These plants have roots with small bulbs that are the home of bacteria that help breakdown nitrogen into more accessible compounds for the plants to use, like ammonia. It's why we rotate crops with nitrogen fixing plants from season to season, so the plants have more accessible nutrition from the soil.
#dripirrigation #horticulture #seed #organicfarming #planting #foodforest #soilscience #healthysoil #fertilizer #soilhealth #savesoil
Is your coffee a roaster’s coffee or a farmer’s coffee?
Is your coffee spending more time at the roasters or with the farmer?
The flavors hidden in a cup of coffee: what are they and where do they come from?
It’s simple to grasp that a more-recent roast would have a different flavor profile than a stale batch of coffee beans, but have you ever wondered why? Due to high temperatures achieved in the roasting process, the beans evaporate excess water. Wonderfully-scented compounds are created as the bean roasts. Most coffee beans have a water content of around 12%, but this drops almost four-fold when the beans are roasted. With all this water loss, the beans lose mass, become more porous, and release aromatic molecules much more easily. After coffee sits on a shelf for weeks on end, these aromas are largely absent.
#coffee #cafe #instacoffee #cafelife #caffeine #hot #mug #drink #coffeeaddict #coffeegram #coffeeoftheday #cotd #coffeelover #coffeelovers #coffeeholic #coffiecup #coffeelove #coffeemug #envywear #PleaseForgiveMe #coffeeholic #coffeelife
World Elephant Day
Elephants are perhaps the strongest influence on the landscape. They keep the succession in check, the grasslands in order, make new paths, spread new seeds, and all in the course of a single day. At Beforest we are trying to understand these in-built connections that define the balance in an ecosystem. This is why every time we find elephant poop on the estate, our team sports a big smile, acknowledging that the estate is following the right trajectory. Just yesterday.... we found elephant dung on the road with jackfruit saplings.
So we decided to pick them up for the collection at the nursery.
There were Mango seeds in the dung as well. Some of them have sprouted as well. The saplings will be grown in grow bags at the nursery.
#worldelephantsday #savetheelephants #bekindtoelephants #elephant #elephants #elephantlove #elephantlover #elephantsofinstagram #babyelephant #elephantsanctuary #loveelephants #elephantlovers #elephantsafari #elephantbaby #hearthelephant #iloveelephants #mamaelephant #elephantrock #elephantfamily #elephantcamp #elephantjunglesanctuary
Rakhi is celebrated as brothers are known to be protectors of their sisters conventionally. This Rakhi lets pledge to be protectors of our trees and tie rakhi around the trees and tighten the human nature bond.
#rakhi #rakshabandhan #savetrees #rakhiwithbeforest #rakhiday #happyrakhi #happyrakshabandhan #rakhigifts #rakhispecial #rakhicelebration #rakshabandhancelebration #rakhifestival #rakhifortrees
Can the view of a landscape enhance the taste of your coffee?
Sitting in the middle of a coffee estate, with birds chirping, the crisp wind filling your lungs, and viewing all shades and tones of green and sipping on coffee after a hard day at the farm VS sitting at a coffee shop, going through the menu, where the experience still revolves around the standard retail point-of-sale.
#coffeetime #coffeelover #cafe #coffeeshop #coffeeaddict #food #bewild #forestfriendly #love #coffeelovers #breakfast #barista #latte #tea #kopi #instagood #coffeegram #foodporn #coffeeholic #caf #instacoffee #latteart #coffeebreak #specialtycoffee #goodmorning
Let’s try to “hear” a forest. Sounds of the forest
Ears can hear further than the eyes can see in a forest. For, not just the spirits, But even the birds and monkeys can hide their forms from you but not their breathing. So it’s important to keep your eyes open. In fact that is why kadavul gave lids to our eyes but not our ears.
#forest #nature #naturephotography #photography #trees #landscape #naturelovers #tree #travel #hiking #mountains #forestphotography #photooftheday #green #love #adventure #autumn #wildlife #woods #outdoors #landscapephotography #art #naturelover #beautiful #photo #wald #instagood #explore #sky #sunset
Yes, it is a cicada molting and coming out as a complete adult.
Now the male will start calling to attract females. After mating the female will lay eggs in the ground and die. Young hatchlings are called nymphs. These nymphs grow up underground till next year monsoon starts and come out of the ground at night and molt into adulthood like this. Depending on species some cicada nymphs stay underground growing for 2 , 4 , 6 years etc
One species of cicada found in America stays under the ground for 17 years.
Post by - @kaadupapa 📸
#permaculture #permaculturefarm #permaculturegarden #cicada #nature #insect #cicadas #insects #entomology #macro #bugs #insectsofinstagram #oddities #naturephotography #art #macrophotography #cicadaseason #cigarra #photography #butterfly #cicala #curiosities #wildlife #cicadidae #insectart #photooftheday
World Nature Conservation Day is marked globally to spread awareness about the best practices to protect the earth’s natural resources such as its air, minerals, plants, soil, water, and wildlife.
These resources need to be preserved for future generations by maintaining diversity of species, ecosystems as well as functions of the environment, such as nutrient cycling.
Maintaining animal paths and habitats, replenishing ground water, protecting top soil from getting washed away or with cover crops, enriching natural habitats and creating self-sustaining thriving ecosystems are some of the ways in which we are conserving nature across Beforest collectives.
We believe that a healthy environment is paramount for the foundation of a stable and healthy society.
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#worldnatureconservationday #natureconservation #conservation #environment #minerals #plants #soil #water #air #regenerativesystems #environment #ecosystem #nutrientcycling #groundwater #beforestfarming #collectives #regenrativeagriculture
Why We Need To Take Soil More Seriously – Part 2
In the concluding series of Why We Need To Take Soil More Seriously, Beforest CEO - Sunith Reddy shares his views on the role of forests in carbon sequestration, the importance of perennial forests over annual crops and how food forests could be the answer to the
world’s food requirements.
Read more on: https://beforest.co/2020/09/why-we-need-to-take-soil-more-seriously-part-
2-air/
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#sustainablelandscapes #sustainability #groundwater #ecosystem #regenerative
#restoration #soil #water #soilenrichment #nativespecies #solarpanel #selfsustaining
#soilhealth #enhancebiodiversity #biodiversity #foodforests #forests #foodsecurity
#layeredfarming #companionplanting
Why We Need To Take Soil More Seriously – Part 1
Soil is one of the 4 fundamental requirements of life as we know it, along with water, air
and the sun. While we have always been focussed on the depleting quality of air and
drinkable water, we just never paid attention to the fact that we are fast running out of
liveable soil. This is despite the fact that recent studies show that healthy soil directly leads
to cleaner air and cleaner water. Sunith Reddy shares his views about how great soil could
to the silver bullet we’ve been looking for.
https://beforest.co/2020/04/why-we-need-to-take-soil-more-seriously-part-1-water/
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#soil #air #water #sun #soilpreservation #sustainability #beforestfarming #liveable soil
#clean air #drinkablewater #restoration #ecologyrestoration #soilrestoration #sustainable
#fundamental
Did you know that increasing carbon content of the soil by just 0.4% can remove carbon emissions of the past 50 years? Or building structures like bunds, check dams and swales
can help replenish ground water and contribute to prolonging its availability beyond the
monsoon season.
Sustainability at Beforest goes beyond the token ‘solar panel’ and ‘not using plastic’. We are constantly looking at ways to contribute towards build self sustaining regenerative ecosystems. Whether it is increasing the carbon content of the soil, replenishing ground water or growing native plant species, which help restore soil health, control invasive species and enhance biodiversity. For us, sustainability starts right from the basic building blocks.
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#sustainablelandscapes #sustainability #groundwater #ecosystem #regenerative
#restoration #soil #water #soilenrichment #nativespecies #solarpanel #selfsustaining
#soilhealth #enhancebiodiversity #biodiversity #foodforests #forests #foodsecurity #layeredfarming
We had set ourselves a target of planting 6000 new saplings at The Hyderabad Collective this season.
The diverse saplings were prepared through the summer and we were just waiting for the first showers to come in. But planting 6000 saplings wasn’t going to be an easy task. Encouraged by our recent seed bombing activity, we decided to kick start this activity by inviting a few of our members to lend us a helping hand. And boy, what a day it was! After the mandatory instructions, members mingled around, demonstrated their abilities, shared some of their own personal experiences and enjoyed a lovely meal and snacks, made mostly from produce grown at the collective.
While we are still some way before we reach our target of planting 6000 saplings, this was a great start and we might just do a second round with more members on the coming weekend. Check your member Whatsapp group for updates!
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#saplings #planting #treeplanting #seeds #fruits #trees #beforestfarming
#hyderabadcollective #memberactivity #farming #sowing #regenerativefarming
#buildingecosystems #hyderabad #ecosystem
Sneak-peak into the Blyton Bungalow
With the final touches in place, The Blyton Bungalow, our shared accommodation at The Poomaale Estate is on its way to becoming fully functional and welcome its first guests. Here’s a sneak-peak into what the furnished interiors and external structure of this earth home look like. Watch this space for more news on the launch date
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#ecohomes #sustainablearchitecture #earthhome #sustainableliving #blytonbungalow #coorg #poomaale #guesthouse #sharedaccommodation #guesthouse #architecture #furnishings #interiors #interiordesign
Team Beforest brings you “The Bhopal Collective Open House”
A Virtual global office that will be open for 36 hours straight. Walk in any time, day or night, for a one - on - one discussion on The Bhopal Collective.
And don’t miss these Special Events lined up just for you
16th July 11 am | The Bhopal Collective seminar | Deep dive into the concept and structure of a Beforest Collective. Understand what it means to create and live in a self - sustaining community where humans co - exist with nature.
16th July 7pm | Meet the team | Ecological Designs & Farm Operations
Meet Manjeet Singh, Head of Operations and Keta Kant , Ecological Designer to find out how Permaculture can create a regenerative self - sustaining landscape of abundance and one that thrives in Biodiversity
17th July, 10.30 am - Live from The Hyderabad Collective
Catch Keta Kant and our members live, from the The Hyderabad Collective, where we are conducting a drive to plant thousands of saplings
17th July, 11am to 1pm | Meet the team
Meet Shaurya Chandra, Co-Founder, Beforest and Bipin Balakrishnan, Director for BD, as they share our intent, vision and plans for this movement.
Are food forests the answer to feeding the world?
Food forests are designed in a manner that they replicate a forest, but to grow food
very efficiently. Just like a real forest which do not need any work – no use of
pesticides, no gardener to water plants, no weeding, crop rotation or digging, food
forests too can maintain themselves.
By growing diverse food in multiple layers instead of a monocrop across vast tracts
of lands, food forest ensure that there is more produce grown in the same space and
is available at different times, ensuring food security. Food forests have the benefit of
companion planting and build natural integrated pest management systems, which
reduce damage to the plants.
Besides being low maintenance, they also boost biodiversity, and help build more
sustainable and resilient ecosystems.
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#foodforests #forests #foodsecurity #foodsupply #layeredfarming
#companionplanting #produce #lowmaintenance #biodiversity #resilience
#ecosystem
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