Part 1: The Garden
In part one, we tour the organic garden at Peaceful Valley Ashram. Among other things, you'll see how they plant onions and marigolds to help deter bugs. (Keep those marigolds in mind, as we may just revisit them next week for another really neat video!) Leela also talks about her experience with biodynamic gardening, which produced an incredible population of earthworms for her.
Part 2: Meet Mommy & See Some Bees!
The highlight of part two is a chance to meet Leela's mother (we call her Mommy), a 96-year-old organic gardener. You might think, "Well, what can a 96-year old really do outside " Well, we're here to tell you that this woman is incredible! She spends hours each day caring for her crops, strong and limber as many people decades younger.
Part two also shows some neat (though brief) close-up footage of bees busily working a large wild thyme patch that sprung up on the ashram's front lawn. Fascinating stuff! When Peaceful Valley first formed, there were two large bee colonies that had taken up residence in one of the building walls. Leela called a local beekeeper to see what could/should be done about them, and the man reportedly was astonished at the health of the colony. He attempted to integrate those colonies with his own, hoping to improve the health of his bees. Sadly, those once-healthy bees became sick and died off. With world bee population being quite a concern in these times (an important topic that we haven't covered in depth here yet), it was encouraging to see so many healthy bees abuzz at the ashram during this visit. Perhaps local hives are regaining their health!
Contact information for Peaceful Valley Ashram:
[NOTE: A few years after this post, the Ashram was closed, so the contact info here likely will not work.]
- Peaceful Valley Ashram Web Site
-
Peaceful Valley Seminars/Workshops Schedule
(Beginning July 24, 2009, there is a two-week teacher s training yoga course being offered. There was another session for the course going on while we were there this weekend and it looks like an incredible program for becoming a certified yoga teacher!)
- Email: contact [at] leelamata [dot] com
- Phone: 814.902.1180 (main), 814.316.6307 (cell), 814.316.6307 (fax)
Original Comments
Below, we have included the original comments from this blog post. Additional comments may be made via Facebook, below.
On July 15, 2009, wrote:
Thanks for bringing me for a visit back to Peaceful Valley, Mataji and Ma! The garden looks beautiful! This whole series from what you wrote describing how and why you ended up at Peaceful Valley to the videos has been wonderful.
What music did you use for the background on the garden videos? I found it very peaceful and think my massage clients would enjoy it while on the table as well.
On July 15, 2009, wrote:
Amazing. Hope I am that active at 36, forget about 96.
On July 18, 2009, wrote:
Thanks so much Wendi, Leela Mata and Mommy so showing me your farm, what a fabulous place.
Yes we are growing our own food, we are starting small but adding bits as we go along this year we got chickens, I am a vegetarian working my towards raw foods.
Our children love our chickens and collect the eggs every morning.
I wish we lived a bit closer so we could visit.
sheryl miller
canberra
australia
On July 18, 2009, wrote:
What a wonderful promotion for the ashram, I absolutely loved the videos.
Namaste
On July 21, 2009, wrote:
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
http://howtomakecompost.info
On September 8, 2009, wrote:
There are many vegetables available in the market today but it has chemical or pesticide that will harm our health organic the best for me.