054-PeachFarm

14 views

Skip to first unread message

Dharmadeva

unread,

Nov 1, 2010, 4:41:06 AM11/1/10

to Dharmadeva

Situated within the Angeles National Forest at an elevation of 3259 feet, the Ananda Marga Lake Hughes Peach Farm and Meditation Center is only a one hour and ten minute drive from Los Angeles. The Ananda Marga Lake Hughes Peach Farm is a project of Ananda Marga, a global spiritual and social service organization. Our farm has been a member of the California Certified Organic Farmers since 1995. In addition we are registered with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

There are about 2500 Last Chance peach trees in our orchard and being organic, they are grown without pesticides or sprays. Their sweet taste and full texture are due to the fact that only organic compost and fertilizers are used. Several hundred cherry trees and grape vines have also been planted, along with over 25,000 eggplants, tomatoes, bell peppers, melons and okra, which are planted as field crops every year.

Our farming practices revolve around 4 main points. The first is compost, second is foliar feeding and fertigation, third is cover crops and the fourth is love. We use 30-40 tons of certified organic compost per year. It has no redwood filler and is high in microbial life, humus organic matter and humus acids. Foliar feeding is specially formulated to increase the brix (sugar content) in fruits and vegetables. Insect and disease reduction has been documented with brix sprays. Cover crops improve the soil quality, prevent erosion and fix nitrogen in the soil.

Love is not as measurable as the previous three but we feel that love can create an environment where plants will thrive.

The Ananda Marga Lake Hughes Peach Farm is managed by volunteers from Ananda Marga which is a global non-profit spiritual and social service organization.

On the spiritual side, our main practices are meditation, yoga and vegetarian diet. On the social side, we have many service projects including schools, feeding programs, clinics, etc. Our socio-economic philosophy is called PROUT which stands for Progressive Utilization Theory.

For more information on Ananda Marga or PROUT, check out our web sites at www.anandamarga.org or www.prout.org.

The farm has been in operation under Ananda Marga since 1993. Dadaji Gananathananda, a yogic monk from Taiwan, is in charge of all farming activities as well as yoga and meditation instruction. He has been in Lake Hughes for some months now but has also worked at other Ananda Marga projects in the Philippines, Dominican Rep. and Haiti.

The Ananda Marga Lake Hughes Peach Farm welcomes interns at any time of the year. We provide free room and board with living quarters consisting of a nice three bedroom, two bathroom house as well as a two bedroom, one bathroom trailer. We all work according to our capacity, the hours are flexible but usually six to eight hours per day, and conditions range from intense to laid back depending on the time of the year or day of the week.

The nature around invites you to nice hikes, swims in the lake, or other outdoor activities. Meditation and Yoga instructions are freely available to all interns and volunteers. We have a good supply of reading material both spiritual and farming/gardening related. Our diet is vegetarian and we do not allow any kind of alcohol or drugs at the farm.

The interns participate in the many farm activities which include transplanting, mulching, foliar feeding, fertigation, irrigation, weeding, harvesting, packing, marketing, and transport. We hope that by participating in the daily care of this farming project you will enjoy the pleasure of working with the earth and with other people in a cooperative and coordinated way.

If you are sincerely interested in becoming an intern, please send us your resume including such things as educational background, work experience, farming experience, hobbies and interests, background in meditation, yoga or other spiritual disciplines, and anything else you would like to say. Kindly e-mail your resume to Allen Thurm at amu...@igc.org or send it to 880 Elyria Dr.,

Los Angeles, CA 90065.