Tag Archives: Ananda Marga Organic Peach Farm

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It’s a Monk’s Life

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Settling into a rhythm here. Mondays through Thursdays we usually start around 7:30 or 8 am. Every morning begins with watering all the potted plants and seeds, feeding the chickens, and cleaning the chicken coop. (Like having eggs? Gotta clean chicken poop.) Roughly 4-5 hours of work in the morning, a lunch break between 12:30 – 3:30 pm, then another 2-3 hours of work in the afternoon. At 6 pm we feed the dogs, which involves chaining four of them lest they fight and bite each other’s necks off. I’m usually tuckered out by 8 or 9 pm!

Fridays and Saturdays are a bit different and start earlier around 6:30 or 7 am. Friday is spent harvesting in the early morning before it gets too hot, then cleaning, sorting, weighing, and packing all the vegetables for next day’s farmers’ market. Saturday we pack everything into the van at 7 am, sell at the market from 9 am – 12 pm, do grocery shopping for the week while in town, and then finish with resorting all the unsold veggies.

Sunday we rest, like god.
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First Days at the Peach Farm

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“It’s nice today, only 90 degrees.” Welcome to farming in the California desert!

I arrived at the Ananda Marga Organic Peach Farm on Tuesday. Although it’s called a peach farm there aren’t any peaches in season right now, so we’ve been working with many vegetables. It’s been very enjoyable so far. Dada runs the farm and has been teaching us so many interesting things, from how to help seeds germinate to making delicious Indian corn bread. There are two other volunteers here from Taiwan, so there’s also a lot of Chinese-speaking going on. Randomly pleasant surprise.

The living quarters are rustic, and the work is hard. Even with several breaks throughout the day, I’m still ready for bed by about 9 pm. We spent most of the last two days building raised beds. I’m now steps closer to becoming an expert wood worker.

Cutting wood with Ann and Richard

Assembling the beds

Collecting chicken wire for the raised beds — rough work!

There are six dogs on the farm. They help guard the land and also provide great entertainment.

Meet Will. He follows us around everywhere. Most of the time it’s endearing, unless he’s panting in your face while you’re using the power saw.

Today is our big harvest day. We were up at 6:30 am collecting tomatoes, kale, arugula, beans, basil, and chard. Tomorrow we head to the farmers’ market!

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A Peachy Plan

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It’s been tricky trying to answer people who ask where I’m planning to go after leaving New Haven. It’s not their fault. It’s a completely logical followup question when someone tells you they’re taking off to travel. The problem is my plan — or lack thereof. I really don’t know exactly where I’ll go, or how long I’ll stay, or what I’ll do. The plan, in short, is to travel unplanned. And hopefully learn and discover a ton along the way.

I do have an initial destination set, officially confirmed this week. I’ll be WWOOFing at the Ananda Marga Organic Peach Farm in Lake Hughes, CA at the end of the summer. This farm was recommended by a friend and seems to offer a great balance of everything I’m craving. The Dada sent a schedule for a typical day there:

5:30 -7:30am meditation/yoga
7:30 – 8:30 Breakfast+clean-up
8:30-12pm field work
12-2:30 Lunch break+clean-up
2:30-5:30 field work
5:30 – 6:30 free time
6:30- 8:30 meditation/yoga
8:30- 10:30 dinner+free time
10:30 lights off

I feel more relaxed already!

I’m also looking forward to the opportunity to mature my yoga practice. After years of being a wayward dabbler, I’ve recently started toeing the line into more advanced poses. It’s terrifyingly humbling (I fall over a lot) but also exhilarating to work toward. Speaking of which, this video of Briohny Smyth is BADASS. Must work harder, harder, harder…