The kids of class 5 have been asking Roshni about why we are doing Ragi and how little of farming are they actually doing. A seed here, a hole punch there, some digging, a bit of watering and that's all. Worrying about this lack of razzmatazz in farming and the lull in a group activity, I got down the school bus on Wednesday slightly apprehensive about what the day would bring. Not to mention , it continues to be very bright and sunny . Not a cloud in sight.
But, to my delight, the next one hour turns out to be very engaging. Sreeja, Vasantha, Indu, Jalaja, Roshni, and Ashwini come along. We bring over the leaves that Vasantha has stored at school the night before ( Neem and Pongamia leaves (honge in kannada- which have a very sweet smell) in the school bus and gather at the farm to MULCH. Vasantha explains why we mulch- to improve soil nutrition and retain water. Here is some more detail on why and how we mulch: https://permaculturenews.org/2016/01/22/mulching-with-purpose-and-precision/. An excerpt : "Mulching is a top priority for a healthy garden. It does so much work that it’s hard to oversell the importance. A proper mulch maintains the integrity of the soil beneath it, protecting the earth from drying out under the sun and/or washing away when the rains come and/or blowing away in the wind. It creates water retention, mulched gardens credited with requiring as little as ten percent of the watering that other gardens do. Mulching prevents weeds, provides habitats for useful insects and microorganisms, and moderates soil temperatures. The right type even feeds the soil as it decomposes. In other words, it’s a good idea." We discuss the lack of rain. And what people/ governments do to entice rain( sing songs/ pray/ seed clouds!) Later we pick up rain and the lack of it as the month's theme for classroom activities that teachers might do with students. (Indira later in the week sends me some facts from the recently published newspaper article : http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/news/state/another-drought-year/articleshow/59851744.cms indicating that Karnataka faces a severe water crises in the next few months. We expereince it visually every week when we go to the farm. Laskh reassures me later that Tuwar and Ragi will survive. They are draught resistant, hardy crops . But the farm caretakers are not watering enough.The drip can is not prepped well and so the water woes of being completely dependent on rainfall continue) Kids have a go at spreading the leaves around the Tuwar plant. Jalaja quips that the care shown to Tuwar more than Ragi makes her think this is the Tuwar project. HAHA! Yes, Ragi looked like a stepchild indeed. It had only grown to 13 cms. -growth measured and quickly noted down by kids in their books. I looked around to see who was not having fun. I saw kids collecting the seeds from the honge branches and thinking of making a craft out of them. I saw kids making a green tunnel of leaves ably supported by Vasantha and Sreeja; some running to get water to fill in the can, some digging insects out, some making tall claims about kind of insects they or their dads (!) have eaten ; some going ewww about many claims( "I once ate a scorpion, my dad once ate termites etc, etc!") It wasn't that bad! Everyone was engaged even if it was to trace out the termites and follow the line of ants and being on the farm was nice and open despite it being sunny. Sreeja and Vasantha have another go at fixing the drip pipe to the water can. the m-seal around the hole still leaks because we didn't give it time to dry. Chandru feels we didn't cut the hole properly. We might have to redo this but for now Sreeja ingenuously decides to make a small tunnel for the leaky water to go. Vasantha volunteers to do it as she lives nearby. We came back and talked of how hot it was and that the real farmer would never have worked on her field at this time. By this time s/he would be napping after a thindi of ragi mudde and perhaps buttermilk? This week was also a discussion amongst all of us involved around visiting Narayan Reddy's farm to see how farming can be done ecologically . Laksh had pointed this possibility out and I think it would be good if students can "see " a farm. All this talk of insects prompts me and Roshni to explore farm based insects as a next week topic. Perhaps only one class can go and we can give others a break. At lunch time, a quick meeting with the teachers was very very useful to plan a bit for the coming months. Here is what we decided: 1. Vasantha: will refix a new can. 2. Roshni : will check dates for Narayan Reddy’s farm visit ( 5th /12th); also will update notice board with outputs of other classes. 3. Roshni +sreeja: will make a DIY instrument for making music accompanying rain songs 4. Ashwini: tackles her topic on monsoon/ sawan, explains nature/animal/farming through nagapanchmi,. talks a bit about monsoon and limits to diet and prepares two students who will talk about monsoon and limits to Vasantha’s class who will then use this to prepare their rain related performance next month. 5. Madhu will prepare a script for a drama around rain/appeasement to rain god. 6. Jalaja will focus on 2 rain songs or prayer songs for rain- explain context of water woes and farm 7. Madhu will remember to get a " Frog wedding " organised when kids visit her family farm to give a sense of how culture deals with nature , especially rain. 8. Dipika is already doing rain guage so all 3 ragi groups need to get that data and talk abt lack of rain. Maybe Dipika can come and talk in class about her results? 8. Madhu will set up a system whereby we systematically have conversations with kids saround the why of Ragi project. To me , as a coordinator of this project, this was a fantastic meet! These bright,enthusiastic and very involved teachers coming together to think of ways and what to teach around the theme of food! Oh, And I almost forgot, Asha's class was cooking and the small kids made Ragi Payasam. Almost like chocolate pudding. Almost. I saw some kids going ewww and some asking for second helpings.
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This Wednesday was about fixing a drip to irrigate the Tuwar plants. Our watering woes are not ending and the rain has been dismal this monsoon. Ragi will survive but Tuwar / legume saplings need water. Preetam was visiting the city market on the weekend and agreed to haul back the 35 metre pipe and distributors. He also gave me the Mseal, There is a shop called Karthik Enterprises on S.P road which specialises in equipment for setting up drips at home or on farms. (In case, any reader would like to know). Vasantha arranged for a used 25 litre Bisleri bottle and we were set.(later , we needed a scale to measure the plant - I luckily had it. A knife to cut the plastic --I only had a paper cutter, put in last minute which we had to make do, and scissors for cutting the twine- which we managed with the cutter; small things that we don't think of beforehand and are always struggling with at the farm)
Class 5 kids were prepped with what to observe by Roshni and this worked very well . They came in with their journals and recorded their observations. The Ragi plant had grown to 9.5 cms!!! Yay! Laksh got the kids to punch holes in the pipe and fix the distributors while Vasantha and a few children fixed the pipe on the 25 litre drum. Some of the kids turned the soil, others observed termites eating their boundary ropes, and others played in the free space. I again found kids very sweetly tipping their water bottles over the Tuwar plants while worrying about lack of water. They have adopted one Tuwar plant each (why?!) and talk of it as their own! It was a rushed one hour and it got over so soon. Back to school with scheduled classes . Zeta ( class 4) missed the farm visit because they were cooking. Their Ragi dish was Ragi Muthia- tried and perfected by Ashwini. Here is the day in pictures: I reach school to find the Ragi seedlings sprouted in two big pots arranged by Vasantha. What a happy picture it was - the tiny plants looking very happy- swishing away in the lovely Bangalore morning breeze. And such a lovely green. (Ardhendu da, founder of the sustainable agriculture organisation, DRCSC informs me, when I ask about poetry/literature around this unique colour green, "Bengal being a Rice growing area ,has many songs about the greenery of young rice seedlings ,often compared with the colour of emerging/young Banana leaf"! A quick internet search revealed a lovely folk tale from Vietnam called, Heaven and Earth, Kitchen recipes in the book, Songs of the Bamboo, by Xuan-Lan Nguyen vividly describing the traditional New year dishes that depict the paddy green of the vegetation. Here is a google book link :https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Bamboo-Xuan-Lan-Nguyen/dp/1625160089/) Anyhow, to complete the day's chronicle, we had to now check the farm Ragi. Our concerns of under watering Ragi seeds continue and weekly visits begin on a slightly nervous note. But since it had rained heavily the previous night, there is hope. Mixed with practicalities- the slushy path to the farm is not exciting and when I find that the school bus to the farm cannot be arranged , it is a bit of stress . But nothing like the excitement of kids- barring a few everyone else wants to walk (err run!) . One group (Alpha-class 5) cannot make it as they are busy with their cooking so we manage with two groups. At the farm, Ragi has sprouted. Not looking as happy as the school one but growing it is. Roshni had flagged the issue of observations a night before so we got the kids to write in their journals about the colour, smell, taste, and the height of the tallest Ragi plant using a small measuring scale. Vasantha did the measurement and explained why she cut off the roots to measure the plant. It was 5 cm tall at the farm. Laksh (who wasn't able to make it this Wednesday) advises us on the phone- "if they reach 10 cms we can transplant". Certainly not yet. Since rains are our only source of water, we have to be monsoon watchers. Rain guage readings in school can help at this point to actually measure the rainfall but setiing it up now is a bit late, I suppose. Kids had some nice observations about the different shades of green colour of the seedlings and a discussion about chlorophyll can be taken up in the classroom. Here is a nice resource: https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/why-do-you-see-different-shades-of-green-in-a-garden.html The Tuvar Dal had germinated too and the seedlings were swaying in the breeze as well . Zeta's plot saplings were quite a success -almost every seed had germinated while Alpha and Epsilon didn't see many saplings. Vasantha will discuss these observations in the class -(correct ways to sow the seeds) and the why of school Ragi growth rate is better than the farm Ragi growth rate. Some kids were already able to guess the role of a healthy soil . The kids deweeded and by then it was an hour already! Came back to the school to find Roshni and Jalaja and Alpha kids busy prepping and cooking -it was their turn that day and the Ragi dish was something special- Ragi uppitu and they were trying out a recipe belonging to Jalaja's father. Uppitu was a success. I missed documenting the main step of moistening the Ragi flour just enough like the making of "Puttu" so was a bit bah about it. Alpha kids watching the whole process agreed to draw the recipes out for putting it up on the notice board . Sreeja and Vasantha quickly gave me an update around various soil related experiments they are trying out with kids. Sreeja has divided various agriculture project ideas (soil erosion, weathering, Aquaponics, Hydroponics) amongst students and the classroom is full of interesting contraptions. There were lots of insightful conversations with Madhu, Suja, Sreeja, Vasantha around agriculture and farming in the teachers room. Suja had come in to school and we discussed the slow food movement, gender dynamics in urban farming, and limits to consumption. I thought maybe an organised session on these perspective would help us all. Time , of course is a serious issue. Also have to start thinking about evaluation- what would we like to evaluate at the end of the term apart from a good harvest! The day ended with Ashwini showing me the Ragi pot brought by a kid from home- It was lovely and nice to hear about kids's experiences of growing at home. Here is the week in pictures: Sreeja and Vasantha in school are doing a bunch of activities around soil. They got the kids to prepare a potting mix and sow Ragi seeds in school . They are also making the kids do activities to get them to see layers in soil ( the kids got soil from home, clay, in school, and from the farm) ; making vermicompost , and classroom activities around weathering and soil formation.
The internet is full of soil related activities and classroom resources. I found a lovely short Clay animation film showing four ecosystem services provided by animals in agricultural systems thanks to Ardhendu da about healthy soil. Here it is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN-QQFjEqyw Ashwini continued bringing interesting Ragi dishes into the community lunch . The 5th July community lunch prepared by Class 6 (Epsilon) and Vasantha and Ashwini had Ragi chips (shankar Poliya/ shakkar paare) . Despite not attending, I managed to get a dabba full of yummy Ragi chips to chomp on. Who says Ragi mudde/ Ragi Ladoo are the few things one can make of Ragi! Every Wednesday Poorna surprises us all with the variety! Here is the week in pictures! Monday- six days after sowing Ragi seeds - arrived and we were curious. First thing in the morning- off to the farm and boy, oh boy, disappointment! A very dry patch . Some blades of green grass shooting up gave us hope but Laksh confirmed that they were Ragi .
What had happened? Too little water? No rain? Seeds not appropriate? Seeds needed some extra treatment? The land lacking nutrition ? Is Radha repenting the decision to offer us her land? Is her mother unable to water? Do they have enough water? No rain! Damn the rain! It hadn't rained at all since we planted and I immediately started to feel a bit superstitious( did we sow the seeds on the wrong Nakshatra date? ) Everyone had a hypothesis. In all this, I saw kids emptying their water bottles on the patch of dry land which to me was a very sweet gesture! Anyways, since we were there, we weeded the plots , sponsored the tanker money, and sowed the legumes (Beans and Tuwar ) around the boundary of the three plots . We also watered the patch. And got excited at the sight of the Rock lizard. Madhu was donated some Ragi seeds from the seed shop at Hebbal where she had bought Tuvar dal seeds (The shop keeper was very interested to learn about this project and had given her these seeds and wished her luck!). We decided to sow them in school this time and then transplant the saplings. In an hour or so , it was time to to go back to school -Most of the kids walked back to school through the mango orchard with hope but the caretaker was extra careful! And then, just like that, in the evening it rained! The day of sowing was also the day when kids worked a bit more on their scarecrows guided by Vanita. They have turned out very well. Kids in teams are discussing and designing and clothing the scarecrows and were having fun painting the faces.
The class 7 kids had to prep up for Wednesday cooking and they tried their hand at baking the Ragi cookies amongst other things. Roshni baked a few batches at home to supplement and Indira baked and served some next day. Lots of yummy cookies!! Vasantha designed a collaborative poetry writing exercise around a traditional Ragi song and pinned the poster up on the notice board for kids to complete. The picture below gives an idea. The school gardening team under Naveen, Vasantha and Kalyani's guidance planted some marigold seeds amongst other things. Deepika and Ashwini quickly got class 4 kids to do free writing about the farm visit and summarised the visit visually. See picture below. It was a very nice way to recap! Roshni and I sat and made some seed packets following this tutorial and gave it to kids to plant them back home . I didn't like this idea of us adults doing 45 packets with no children involved but there was absolutely no time that day. I also didn't take a picture of the final seed packets! (Note to self: Time management!!) In pictures, this is how the two days ( 27th and 28th June) looked like: |
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