The newest addition! Little Hamsi!

Our little Hamsi is the cutest!  She has fun in the barn with her Mommy, aunties and uncles, Madri and Kunti (our 2 little goats), Bala (our donkey who is her scratch post), the peacocks and roosters.  She is so happy and carefree and curious.  And funny!  She gets to loaf all over, often ignoring the concerned mooing of her Mom when she is out of her sight.  She has started to chew on some hay now, like a big girl :).  We have a joke on the farm here - she did not drink from her Mommy for about the first 7 days (we bottle fed her and even that she did not like very much), so we all thought she was vegan :D!  However, now she is a confirmed milk lover!

Here she is!

Welcome to Hemchan, Kumarie, Ajay & Rasala!

Our organic growers have arrived from sunny Florida into a wintry Pennsylvania - and are settling in quickly and effectively!  Their 35 x 120 greenhouse is practically up, 1000s and 1000s of brassica crops have been seeded, they are cooking, cleaning, teaching the children, and just having lots of fun!  The children will be attending the K12 Agora Cyber School, online, with lots of farm-based learning as well.

We are delighted for them to be fully engaged in the agriculture facet of our Project.  We have been liaising with various affiliated Projects based in the Cities and have proposed to offer them fresh, organic produce for their Kitchens, as well as CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares for their community members.  There has been an encouraging response.  We have also committed to grow for a local organic growers co-operative.  So, it is going to be a very exciting and busy growing season!

Please do stop by for a visit or overnight stay and check out the developments, and have some time out for yourself too, in our peaceful environment.  We guarantee to serve you sumptuous vegetarian meals!

Yoga Studio / Multi Purpose Hall

We have recently converted one of our buildings into a Yoga Studio / Multipurpose Community Hall on the first floor, and accommodation with 3 full bathrooms on the second floor (only 1 is currently complete).  This building served many purposes in the past: the granola bar factory, the Gita Nagari Press and Damodara's Gift Store.  With many requests for Retreats in the Summer, the vision is to expand the location around this building into a recreational and social setting with some comfortable seating, fragrant gardens, and possibly an outdoor pavilion for outdoor dining.  Our new 8 roomed guest-house completed last year which sleeps 24 is located a little behind this Multipurpose Hall venue.  In time, we would like to establish a kitchen and dining serve-out here too.  So, with all these amenities in close proximity, we hope we can design the facility to meet the needs of our upcoming guests.

More Highlights in Nov, Dec 2011!

The disability access to our main Worship Hall is complete!  And we have been making our own special butter and ghee from the milk of our cows, Ekadasi and Jalangi.  We also had the sweetest Music of the Heart Festival, initiated 11 years ago by one of our spiritual mentors, HH Bhakti Tirtha Swami, on New Year's Eve!

Stained Glass Magic!

Rasamsrta led a vibrant team : Kalindi, Rasa & Kava, 3 extremely talented young ladies from a similar Project to ours in Canada.  They spent many long hours, with bent sore backs and hand muscles and full hearts, designing and painting these beautiful stained glass images!