Ichor Farms and Services

“Man, despite his many cultural and technological accomplishments, nevertheless owes his entire existence to a six inch layer of top soil and the fact that it rains.”

Anonymous

Indian Vedic tradition cites 64 arts ranging widely from mathematics to astronomy, sculpture to agriculture. All things of heaven and earth were worthy of sacredness, study and practice to the Ancients. Over the centuries, agriculture was relegated to a menial occupation, devoid of art and today subject to the marauding hand of the trader philistines and tractable scientists. Here at Ichor in keeping with Ichor Foundation’s Charter we are striving to retrieve the sacred meaning that the art of agriculture was to the Ancients. We believe it is important not just for the health of the larger environment but also vital to our individual health and well-being.

GLOBAL GARDEN

Our planet can survive in a form that supports our existence only as a global garden. It is this indisputable fact that fuels our efforts at Ichor to establish a self-sustaining microcosm of this planetary need. The terrain and soil are challenging and the endeavour will be to carry on fruit and vegetable production as well as animal husbandry while maintaining the 12 acres as a place of beauty. For Ichor is primarily the Indian home of its founders, Anthony and Marian Christian, artists par excellence whose dharma it is to manifest beauty through the fine arts. In forthcoming ezines we will document our above expressed aspirations and link it to our vision of where our planet’s destiny is moving in everything from the intricacies of a flowering fruit tree to executing the finest landscape painting.

REFERENCE TEMPLATE

Figure 1 is our reference template through which I would like to discuss our micro-garden in relation to our global garden referred to above. Broadly, the purpose of the template is to understand the relationships of individual components within the framework of the single farm unit, at the same time understanding the farm unit’s relationship with the “outside world”. This analysis rests on the primary fundamental Vedic principle that “everything is connected to everything else”.

Present chemical, “scientific” agriculture desecrates this fundamental principle of unity with the corollary of today’s divisive developmental economics that still rules the planet’s life systems. It arises from a separative consciousness that has evolved in the “Ignorance” by which we simply mean “separated in consciousness from the Unity”. The vehicle for such an evolution is the ego and its classic down the line product is the present economic philistinism that prevails in these times. The need is to evolve a new paradigm that must emerge through a consciousness of Unity, of Knowledge. Let us therefore look at our template and briefly outline its various components. We will then discuss each component in detail in forthcoming ezines and try to see how a more enlightened art of agriculture can establish itself through a progressive evolution in Knowledge – towards our goal of a Global Garden.

Figure 1

ICHOR - THE FARM

Ichor is a 12-acre plot of west to north facing moderately sloping land. It is blessed with several mountain springs whose perennial flow is tapped and stored in water harvesting tanks. The river Gangavaar flows just beyond its western border and is a vital source of drinking wter for the nearest large town, Palani. The present infrastructure meets all the agricultural and domestic water needs and our normal rainfall of 1400 mm is enough to replenish the springs and keep the land green and luxuriant. However, the soil is still poor and needs huge effort to restore its humus levels so that it can become significantly productive again. To this end, biodynamic preparations and composting are used and all the produce certified Organic and “safe to eat”.

PEOPLE We have two families living on the property with a permanent workforce of five led and overseen by Raknesh our indefatigable master of all works. Over the years there has been an increasing “identification” with the land and its well-being and the farm has responded by coming alive. The goal is to have a conscious farm organism through the agency of its people.

SOIL, CROPS AND LIVESTOCK It is through the above components and their increasing health that the prosperity of the farm depends. But in our new agricultural paradigm, profit and economic gain from these critical elements is not our aim but rather a result of fulfilling each components dharma. In our forthcoming ezines we will look at this aspect in detail and discuss its implications for a new economic order.

ENVIROMENT

The world has seen a huge interest in “environmental science”. Universities now have separate faculties devoted to it and it has become the buzz-word for the elusive new age. Separate is the key word and we will be exploring how this newly found science can be integrated into our holistic model. For practical purposes, we have two components:

a) Biotic: all that is biological, arising from “living” processes, like trees, hedges, water, insects, birds etc

b) Abiotic: all those things from so-called dead matter (if there is such a thing!), like stone and wire fencing, irrigation systems, tanks and even housing.

FORMATICE FORCES OF NATURE

This interesting and greatly misunderstood component involves analysing how solar, lunar and planetary factors must be incorporated into our agricultural art if it is to be truly holistic and enlightened. For example, is there a case for the moon’s influence in farming? We will explore this interesting subject as we get deeper in to the farm organism’s connectedness.

RETAILING, CUSTOMERS AND STAKEHOLDERS

Our template illustrates how this is our area of connection to the “outside”. But if we consider our consciousness goal in the emerging new world where “nothing will be external to us, all will be internal, even the whole world and all that is in it”, then this element is an integral part of our farm organism. The stakeholders are therefore literally everything on the planet! Similarly, we need a link with our retail and customer segment based on trust and transparency, which then by implication eradicates toxic practices that would threaten health and well-being of life processes. It is a change of consciousness that will deliver our goal not exhaustive regulatory mechanisms.

For our farming will incorporate the second principle of Vedic Truth: that everything has to go somewhere. The coming articles will explore and describe in detail the agricultural measures being taken to transform Ichor into a productive garden, one that can give a clue to the way land can be used to nourish and delight the human, animal and vegetative spirit. We would like to highlight the vast life-force resources freely available to us in the bacterial/fungal realm of the soil and the often-ignored contribution of the light and cosmic forces above the soil.

In closing, we leave the reader with two historical phenomena to ponder. Virgil, that supreme spirit in Roman poetry, in his later years gave up poetry for agriculture. He spent his last years writing agricultural manuals much to the dismay ever after of his countless admirers. Darwin, the first exponent of Western evolutionary theory, left all speculation on the finer points of evolution to his contemporaries and spent his last years meticulously studying earthworms and their critical role in agriculture throughout the ages. Can we therefore with any real conviction believe that agriculture is so menial and devoid of higher virtues?

The next article will deal with that most delicate and misunderstood of subjects: the soil - the very soul of our physical existence. Aryaman Biodynamic Association of India Ichor Estate, Pethuparai, Perumalmala, Kodaikanal 624101 • More Photos from The ICHOR Estate • If you would like to receive updates about new articles then join ICHOR's Mailing List