Friday, July 25, 2008

journal entry: june 5, 2008

Today was our first day of yoga.  After a divine cup of 100% organic lemongrass tea, alas no coffee, we all gathered under the pavilion.  When we finished I felt completely refreshed and ready to take on our first day on the farm.  I've held off writing about the farm so I can let it sink in and see it for what it truly is... beautiful.  Pavlos, the ethnobotanist that joined our merry band at dinner several nights back, gave us a tour of the farm.  The farm and its accommodations are more wonderful than I could have ever imagined, dreamed, or expected.

As Pavlos took us to the seed bank, he periodically stopped to explain techniques and things about different agricultural plots.  Everyone asked very insightful and well worded questions.  I'm continually impressed with the brains we have here.  The seed bank.  Where do I begin?  It was wonderful and fascinating.  I was giddy.  I would love if I could live in such a place.  It clean, well organized, modestly decorated, and meticulous classified.  The number of different rice and wheat varieties astounded me.  All kept here.  The bank is restocked annually, and the excess is sold in local markets.  I could write forever about the bank, but won't, I like that I'm going to keep my magical happiness bottled up and preserved in my heart.  Secret.  Just for me.  Greedy?  yes.  But I don't care.  

We continued on the farm tour and approached the composting facility.  Everyone was surprised that it didn't smell of cow shit.  Take home message of the composting lesson was "decentralize the shit".  Compost is a unique blend.  Organic plant matter, cow pies, concentrated cow urine, and magic fairy dust (just kidding).  It was dark and moist.  Wonderful and in some time perfect for supporting beautiful little seedlings.  I feel like this part of our trip is the compost, getting ready to bloom into the wonderful, enlightened people we're to become in 5 and a half weeks.

The farm was quite beautiful, and farm-like.  In short, I'm positive that the entire farm runs solely on shit.

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