Want To Grow Your Own Garden Or Have An Organic Farm? Dig Deep With This Hands-On Course

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Goodbye pesticide ridden, preservative-filled frozen veggies, hello home-grown organic veggies — if you always wanted to have your own farm, Smell of the Earth will tell you just how.

What Is It?

Want to start your own farm? Trying to cultivate your green thumb {pun intended!}. Birbhum-based Smell of the Earth is doing a 7-day crash course in ecological farming. The course will take place on their farm near Shantiniketan.

They’ll teach you how to design your space, grow vegetables, fruits, grains, oilseeds. Not just growing plants. there’ll even be sessions on making your own fertilisers and chemical-free pest repellants; managing your water and soil.

Smell of the Earth is not an NGO or a funded organisation, it’s an individual effort to “heal the planet”. As the Facebook page says. it was started by a ‘normal’ Kolkata couple {both came back to India, leaving behind jobs in the US} who decided to “move to the village, buy a small piece of land, and start chemical-free, low-input, minimal intervention farming on it”. They grow most of their own food and sell the surplus locally. Read more about this incredible venture here.

Who Is It For?

Planning to set up a new farm? Want to grow your own veggies? Here’s where you can learn it all. What’s great is it doesn’t matter how big or small your space is — they’ll teach you how to work with whatever you have.

 

Why Should I Go?

Because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on an actual farm! They’ll teach you techniques for both rural and urban farming. There will be hands-on sessions, intense theory, discussions and projects to prepare you! Also, you get to sample some amazing food made with chemical-free ingredients grown on the farm — think passionfruit juice, lentil burgers, home-baked bread with roselle jam, grilled fish, and even pizzas!

Anything Else?

If you don’t mind heavy outdoor work, and have 7-10 days you can spare here, you can also volunteer with them. We love that sside from farming, they also teach local kids reading, writing and basic math skills.

There are limited seats available {only 8 people are taken per session!} so make sure you register fast — registrations are only open till February 23. The course will take place from March 24-30.

To register, you can message the Smell of the Earth page or call 9748831271/9331943836.