Terrasoul
Located near Kottakarai plaza in Auroville, Terrasoul is a 7-acre land farm stewarded by Juan. He and his team have been experimenting with permaculture, natural farming, biodynamic farming, orchards, and tree care. Other activities that the farm does are conducting permaculture workshops, volunteering programs, cooking classes, lunches, farmer’s markets, food processing, organizing farm walks, and tours.The intention of this farm is to incorporate a holistic way of life in farming.
Terrasoul Vision and Mission
Terrasoul Community aspires to Live in the Inner Light in Unity and Harmony with Mother Earth and all living beings. The community members support each other to express the Community’s full potential for the good of Humanity. The Farm enables a space for inner and outer exploration that will benefit mankind.
Terrasoul employs organic farming, permaculture, and biodynamic principles. Farmers need multiple skills to start their new projects. A mix of hard work and skills is needed to be successful in the present economic and social environment. At TerraSoul the team unites to bring the best skills from each other and share this knowledge with those who want to learn. This is done by creating workshops, organising events and hosting volunteers to participate in this project.
Terrasoul is a Permaculture project which started in 2011 with the vision of creating a holistic approach to working and living on a farm. Farming is a livelihood that requires multiple disciplines and TerraSoul hopes to demonstrate how to run the farm in a sustainable way. They are inspired by both biodynamic and permaculture principles, but try to adapt them to the realities of the climate and location. TerraSoul works on 7 acres of fertile land that consists of forest, orchard, vegetable garden, and housing.
The Farm has developed several activities that aim to encompass a sustainable lifestyle and technology. In 2015 the Terrasoul project hosted a PDC (Permaculture Design Course) led by Martin Bastide and Neil Meikleham where a design for the farm was done and an implementation started.
Permaculture Design implementation in practice needed to be readjusted to fit in not only with the environment of the farm and weather, but even within the distribution network as well.There is a lot of work happening with trees and as an arborist, Juan is the lead in taking care of the trees. He is also looking at preserving the natural fertility of soil and managing the food production.
The farm aims at showing people how to grow food and live in a holistic way.The farm concentrates on quality and not on quantity. The fact that more and more people need to connect to local food and environment is crucial.This is a very important element in the educational focus of the farm. For Juan, it is very important that people know and be involved in the food production whether it is in planting trees and plants or composting etc.
‘Human permaculture’ demands that the farm goes slower given the economic and social structure constraints.The diversity of the Auroville community is both an advantage and a challenge. All kinds of farms and philosophies have to co-exist in Auroville. In such a context, collective growth is slow.
Biodynamic farming is something the farm aspires for. Astrological calculations, placements and timings are observed in different stages of growing a crop. Planning the biodynamic approach with the planetary influences however is not so easy, mentions Juan.
The aim of Terrasoul is to provide organic food for the Auroville community. They cultivate a variety of vegetables that include spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, capsicum, green beans, pumpkin, radish, local gourds among others. In the orchards, the farm grows guava, mango, banana, papaya, coconut, rosella, citrus, Chicco among others.
Terrasoul also makes fruit jams from the excess production of the farm. They make pickles, kimchi, dry flowers, and gather medicinal plants.
The farm participates regularly in different farmers markets for selling the produce. They often organise a weekly market at the farm. The main challenge with the markets is that the consumers look for diversity in produce which a farm market might not be able to offer. However, the Terrosoul farm market is warmly received by the community.
From the very beginning, Terrasoul has organised Thai Massage Training, yoga classes, Tai-Chi, and other practices that are done in their ‘Sunspace’ area.
The farm also conducts multiple workshops related to renewable energy and trains village mechanics, farmers, carpenters, and engineers to build small wind turbines. They have an ongoing project to develop open-source technologies for rural areas of India. Workshops on traditional adobe construction and improvements in low-cost dry toilet designs are some projects that are being organised. In the near future, the farm plans to test new designs of adobe bricks and develop recycled roofs for lightweight structures.
The farm calls for volunteers as there is a lot of work that can be undertaken at the farm.
Juan, Jorge, and Sandyra were the founding members of Terrasoul in 2011. At present Juan and Jorge continue in the project and are supported by some volunteers that contribute to the project. The team shares different skills in different fields which meet a common goal.
Juan is a farmer, arborist, and tree surgeon
Jorge is an engineer specialising in renewable energy and rural development.
Francisco is a carpenter, farmer, and project accountant.
Durga is a Waldorf school teacher, farmer and delicious food magician
Kumari is a farmer, master chef and food processor and helps in the maintenance of the site.
Pau is an arborist and tree surgeon who takes care of trees and bio-construction.
Ferdi is our public relations and helps in the farm.
Stella helps in food processing and farm harvesting.
Paul is an experienced constructor and helps with infrastructure work.
Primarily, the farm would benefit by having the support of volunteers, workforce and further financial assistance. Financial sustainability is an important aspect of running a farm and the current financial support from the central administration is not sufficient to develop the farm. At the moment, the farm hopes to become financially sustainable by conducting educational programs, workshops, yoga classes, and art events.
A lot of research is also needed for the farm to become more sustainable while keeping the focus on permaculture, social integration and setting up resilient economic systems.
While resistance to eating local foods is a challenge, the need for a shift in consciousness is evident, notes Juan. There needs to be more focus on eating high-quality food which can be inspired by the right education. Eating better quality food would shift the community to higher consciousness, notes Juan. Terra-soul is one farm that's best placed to do this, as their focus is on education and inspiring. Bringing more attention and marketing via social media is something that the farm is already concentrating on.
- Join Terrasoul community - Spread the word of this community within Auroville that believes in holistic living in farming and human unity as a vision.
- Volunteering - Opportunities in Organic Farming that includes daily tasks like Composting, Mulching, Harvesting and all/any task related to the farm or maintenance of the farm. Apply here or contact us using the information below.
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