AGRICULTURE
IN NEW JAYAPUR
Almost
three years ago, as soon as the farm was under contract and even before the
deal was closed, we began planting fruit trees. After all, they take years to
start bearing and the sooner planted, the sooner the fruits would be coming… The
property had been vacated in the 1950’s and had grown up into wild dense bush.
Some squatter farmers had made a thin track down the river to the beach, but otherwise
there was no way to penetrate the jungle with such vines and thickets (viliawa
and vau). We had brought from Suva about 500 potted plants (fruit trees mostly)
that we had been able to find from various sources. Loading potted fruit trees onto
a boat a few miles down the road, we motored down the Dogoro River past huge
mangrove trees and out to the seacoast. Rounding Katianga Point, we ferried our cargo
up our own small river at high tide, reaching a mile upstream to a tiny
clearing where we had decided to start our orchard.
As
the workers’machetes flew and chain saws buzzed, as we cleared the bush, that
little opening grew into several acres. In one place the vines were four feet
thick, something like the network of material desires in the conditioned soul’s
heart. The sad part though was felling the huge majestic raintrees- the earth
shook as one by one, all seven came down and daylight reached the soil once
more. Fruit trees cannot grow in the shade of these spreading raintrees which
are almost like giant weeds. The raintree trunks were sawed up for wallboards
later on- beautiful golden semi-hardwood with the look of African wavy-grain
mahogany. Every 8 paces a fruit tree was planted, in rows, and water tolerant
species allocated to the wetter areas.
Two
fields were planted, maybe a total of seven acres. Avocado, kumquat, lemons,
limes, grapefruit, oranges, mandarines, rambutan, lychee, mangosteen, langsat,
cinnamon, sapadillo (chico), macadamia, star fruit, star apple, soursop,
custard apple, abui, rose apple, mountain apple (locally called kavika), jackfruit,
pomegranate, bael, guava, cocoa, longon, tamarind, sweet carambola, and more
were planted in the rich reddish-brown soil. Today our orchards are immature as
yet but thriving, as many citrus and avocado are already 12-16 feet high. This
year we picked many crates of lemons, limes, kumquats from the first harvest,
and also a few abui (delicious yellow fruit from Brazil).
As soon as
the ashram grounds were cleared and the first roads completed, we planted lines
of bananas and plantains (vundi) interspersed with papayas. These have been
bearing year-round, and the extras we take into town and sell in the market to
help cover fuel costs. One big Fijian lady sits under a tree outside the town
market and sells iced papaya juice- she gets all our extra papayas for FJ$1
each. We put three thousand pineapples in two rows to help with erosion control
on the steep slopes around the ashram headland, and in a few more months we
should have lots of first crop pineapples (sweet since they are in full sun).
Two days
ago a worker brought up a huge bunch of apple bananas (manzana bananas in
Central America), those short fat ones with the taste of vanilla ice cream. It
was hosed down, offered to a picture of Prabhupada, hung on the porch beam, and
everyone availed themselves of plenty of these tropical delights.
As the
bananas multiply, we thin them out and plant more rows. They and the papayas
produce year-round, although in one season they are a little scarce, therefore
the more the better. (Seasons- warmer and cooler, or wetter and wet seasons). Wherever
we see fresh papaya seedlings coming up, we know one of the workers snuck one
down and spit out the seeds… Someone brought some papaya seeds from St Croix,
those big red fleshed ones, but they haven’t matured just yet. Although Fiji
can flourish with all the wondrous fruits of the world’s tropics, the bio-variety
here is very limited because the people are basically scavengers and don’t
plant much besides cassava, taro, and maybe some sweet potatoes. They subsist
on whatever volunteers on its own, and they have little ambition to grow anything
except their basic root crops…
Veronica
at the Spice Farm, on the main island of Viti Levu, had given us a few
strawberry plants, which multiplied and two weeks ago we finally made a raised
bed box and planted 30 of them with sawdust mulch. Of course we put them close
to the ashram so they could be watched and thus there is hope they will make it
onto Sri Sri Radha Govinda’s plates! We also made a rack for 6 or 7 passion
fruit vines, and the juice is frequently offered at Their Lordship’s lunchtime.
However, the rack was not properly built, part of it has collapsed and will
need to be redone soon. Hopefully soon we can walk under the overhanging vines
and pick passion fruits from the “juice tunnel” instead of crawling
underneath. Kumquats, limes, and lemons also make delightful juices that really
quench the thirst.
After
the rush of construction on the main ashram building was completed and we moved
out of our rental in town to the farm in February this year, we finally got
down to starting a little vegetable garden. We are not experienced gardeners,
but have a little history of it, and now aim to get serious. It is 90% weeding,
of course; fortunately we dumped ten loads of sawdust from the construction
work at the garden’s edge, and spreading sawdust between the rows helps control
the grass and weeds. So far we have 7 rows of longbeans, French beans, pak
choy, mustard greens, snap peas, lettuce, and 12 zucchini plants that are now
flowering. We look forward to fresh vegetables soon, depending on what will do
well. Bele (a bush with leaves that can be cooked) and a dozen young eggplants (perennial)
are also producing.
But
maybe the best feature of this property is the water cress patch that grows in
a very unique spot, just downstream from a spring that bubbles up from below.
In this stream of natural, pure mineral water, water cress thrives in the
gravel-bottomed, 3 to 5 inch deep water. There are only a few places on this
island where water cress can grow. The spicy taste of water cress (karessi as
it called locally) is unique, and it is very high in vitamins and nutrients.
For raw salads and in rotis, it is excellent, very healthy. It can also be
sauted- fresh greens from the stream ! Every Sunday we go and pick a few bags for the
coming week, and it is fun wading in the water and thumb-snapping the thicker
stems off, letting the rest grow until we return for more…when there is enough,
we have a dozen regular customers in town that wait anxiously for our delivery.
The excavator took several months
cleaning up the swamp below the ashram and between the hillside and beach. Drains
were dug like little canals, and twice the excavator sunk six feet into the
mud, requiring mud technology with poles
and shovels to gradually crawl the digger back up to hard ground. We decided
that this first year we would let the swamp drain and settle, as all the vines
and bush had been buried underneath and everything was very spongy. Even
bullocks would get trapped, what to speak of tractor or rotovator. So… we chose
a strip of solid bottom land next to the swamp and plowed it with tractor and
disc-harrow. It took Bill a week to learn the tricks of the tractor hydraulics
and plow adjustments, but in early March he broadcast by hand the Chorta-Mortka
(short and fat) variety of rice seeds that Jaja (retired Indian California Mercedes
mechanic from Dreketi side of this island) had found and supplied us. It is a 6
month variety, and has grown up strong and healthy. The soil is fertile- we
used no fertilizer. Already some seed heads are appearing, the area is about an
acre or more. Estimated rice will be 300 kilos, enough for a year. Srila
Prabhupada had written me when I was in New Talavan: “annad bavanti butani”-
quoting from the Gita, we should just produce food grains. It is amazing to
think that after almost 40 years, I am finally executing his instructions.
Growing rice! (Although we did grow a very small plot of wheat in New Talavan
in 1978.)
This key and integral aspect of a
self sufficiency village project is actually being realized. At harvest time,
we will use little sickles to cut bunches of stalks and pile them in
rain-shedding mounds. Then we drive the tractor over the stalks, back and
forth, with a tarp underneath, to separate the seeds from the stalks
(threshing). The seeds are bagged and brought to Labasa where several
households will husk the rice with their tractor powered mill for a small fee
within an hour. We could then mill it into white polished rice, but we suspect
a better tasting, healthier rice will be our choice instead, a somewhat browner
rice. We’ll see… Many Indian farmers in Fiji grow their own rice, one family is
just a few miles away, but it is pioneering and new to us! Often in Fiji we see
yoked bullocks, used by Indians for plowing their fields, and by Fijians for
pulling firewood logs from forest to village.
Well, that’s a little snapshot of
our life in a tropical paradise… Krishna has been so very kind to us, why? Must
be causeless mercy…
Yours in Prabhupada’s service,
Nityananda
das
New Jayapur, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Islands
PS. If you would like to be added to
our regular mailings of Vedic Village Review news bulletins, please send us an
email at srigovinda@gmail.com, or
send us your feedback and news from your side. Hare Krishna! All Glories to
Srila Prabhupada!
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VEDIC
VILLAGE REVIEW
NEW JAYAPUR RELOCATES TO FIJI
The first Prabhupadanuga rtvik center was New Jayapur farm
community outside Natchez, Mississippi, started in 1987. We worshipped Sri Sri
Radha Govinda, facilitated a few brahmincally inclined devotees, published the Vedic
Village Review (philosophical Vaishnava magazine discussing ISKCON issues), and
uncovered and publicized the rtvik initiation system that Prabhupada wanted for
ISKCON after his physical departure. We also operated a gurukula, health food
store and antique store, milked Red Devon cows, and had tourists pay to tour a
Southern antebellum mansion filled with period antiques and a Vedic cultural
museum (Srila Prabhupada’s murti and quarters were the final part of the tour.)
Rupa Vilas, Karnamrita and myself were the first devotees formally
excommunicated from ISKCON for refusing to recant our “rtvik views.” However,
due to grievous errors on my part, we ran into legal difficulties with the
government, and the project was closed by 1992. I was to blame for this.
Now, over 20 years later, and maybe a bit wiser, myself and
family have re-established New Jayapur in the South Pacific islands at Telau
Estate, Vanua Levu, Fiji. Miraculously, Radha Govinda are still with us, as They
have travelled all over the world with us looking for a suitable site for a
farm project, from Natchez to Houston, the Carolinas, Hawaii, Panama and finally
Fiji (14 moves in total). We have been in Fiji since 2009 (but began visiting
in 2001) and we will apply for citizenship in September 2014. It is really very
wonderful here and we would like to share what we are doing in bits and pieces
(as we read the news from others too). Sharing is good. Rather than start our
own blog, we’ll rejuvenate the Vedic Village Review as short news bulletins,
posted on other Prabhupadanuga sites. We’d like also to accumulate an
interested parties email list for weekly news posts about New Jayapur (please send
a request to be added to the list to srigovinda@gmail.com).
We humbly seek the blessings of all Prabhupadanugas
everywhere, that our attempt may be pleasing to Srila Prabhupada. Sticking
tightly to the instructions and guidance of our lord and master Srila
Prabhupada, we proceed cautiously and with inspiration from our brothers and
sisters. Jaya Prabhupada, Jaya Radha Govinda! May Prabhupada’s Daivi-Varnashram
plan be implemented around the world in spite of all obstacles coming from the
gross materialists and pseudo spiritualists such as the shadow ISKCON. We are
affiliated with the Hare Krishna Society group of Prabhupadanugas
(www.krishnaconsciousnessmovement.com).
Our farm in Fiji is 857 acres, fully titled and held by a
Panamanian foundation. It measures 1 km x 5 km, fronting on the ocean with a
small river (7 km long) running through a valley of very fertile soil and dense
primary rainforest. The environment is rather benign; no snakes, scorpions, biting
ants or dangerous critters. Prabhupada said Fiji was Ramanik Island, home of
Kaliya, therefore there are no larger wild animals here (Kaliya ate them all?)
Feral pigs and the introduced mongoose is about all we have. The beautiful musk
parrots abound; the climate at 17 degrees south is mild and pleasant, similar
to Hawaii. Rainfall is abundant at 125 inches annually, although it varies
widely throughout Fiji (micro climates), which mostly occurs in the afternoons
or nights due to the prevailing southeast trade winds pushing up moisture onto
interior mountains up to 2500 feet high (including nearby Mt Kasi, the closed
goldmine). The scenery and views are awesome and delightful.
Vanua Levu (5600 sq km, 180 x 50 km) is the second largest
Fiji island, with 140,000 people, about 45% of Indian origin. A while back, a
police patrol car pulled me over one day in the mountains while crossing the
island, and when he approached my car window, he shook my hand, and smiling,
said he just wanted to thank us for the good work we are doing. The Indians are
very supportive of us foreign devotees of Lord Krishna coming here to teach
them about their lost culture which has been largely forgotten since their
forefathers came as laborers from India in the late 1800's. We are planning a
program of selecting qualified landless Indian families to reside at farm, by
application and trial basis, as many of them are natural devotees. Everywhere
we go, the Indians offer us respect and say "Haribol !"
The Fiji government last year lifted their hold on
registration of charitable religious organizations , and our lawyer filed our
long-waiting registration papers for Fiji Vedic Village Society. We are
officially registered as a Fiji religious body, just as ISKCON Suva has been.
This allows us to sponsor foreign volunteers and devotees to reside here on 3
year renewable visas as religious workers in our programs. Five years of any
kind of residency qualifies one for citizenship; dual citizenship is permitted.
Thus the immigration issue is no obstacle ( details available upon request).
Other residency visas include assured income (3 years, renewable) and tourist (up
to 6 months, and renewable with a 3 day exit).
In February our family moved to the farm from our rental
house in town where we were having weekly Sunday feast programs and Saturday
harinam book table with halvah packet distribution in front of ANZ Bank. Now we
drive in for the harinam, taking an hour and a half to reach Savusavu, a quaint
touristy yacht-harbor village of 5000 with a sizeable foreigner contingent,
mostly retirees. TV One did a show on us last year, and almost everyone in Fiji
now knows of us. Plus we had an article in the Fiji Sun about our spiritual
village project. The preaching has been good for us in Fiji, and the farm
project is now established as well, so we are feeling very satisfied with
Prabhupada’s blessings.
More soon…
Your servant, in Prabhupada’s service,
Nityananda das
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