Naveen had planned a trip to Auro orchard with the isaiambalam school children. There were two groups. One were interested in the getting to know about the honey bees and the other on methods of bed techniques.
Uma Ramanan a member of the farm introduced us to Auro Orchard, the first farm designed to sustain Aurovilles people back in time.
The day started by looking at raised bed technique and types of vegetables that they have grown.
Children were able to seen how much the production had increased due to the raised beds. (On an avg a turmeric plan can only produce 300gm of product but here they were able to collect up to few Kg)
The Papayas they have are not hybrid varieties the seeds can be used to grow new saplings.
This flower has medicinal values (kills germs and is antibiotic in nature) and are loved by honey bees as they grow through out the year.
Then came the honey bees, Uma explained that the bees are farmers most important friend as they are the major pollinators, and they don’t use them to collect honey in the farm. but recently a bee hive had vacated the trunk as it had over grown its population and moved out. Hence they had to empty the wax.
Then the children had a group discussion on the the life cycle of bees.
And at last they were able to see the bee hives that were in the farm 🙂 .
The children had a wonderful time, and are eager for another visit to the farm.