New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

ECO-Vrindaban Board Meeting Minutes 09/23/2018

Mission Statement: ECO-Vrindaban promotes cow protection, local agriculture, and above all, loving Krishna, as envisioned by Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON New Vrindaban’s Founder-Acharya.

Participating Directors: Anuttama, Chaitanya Mangala (chair), Jamuna Jivani (board secretary), Makara, Olivia, Ranaka, and Vraja.

Participating Advisors: Kripamaya.

1. Ranaka’s Monthly Report

Lalita Gopi – Temple Barn:

• There are currently 12 cows here. We are milking seven cows: Jamuna, Surabhi, Subhadra, Lakshmi, Anjali, Sriya, and Malati who are producing approximately 24 gal of milk per day.
• Usha, who is about seven months pregnant, is also residing here waiting to come fresh. Also, there are also four calves: Lalita, Gaurangi, Gopi-Katyayani, and Jayasri.
• We have dried Sita and she is now at the Valley Barn with Dharma to be bred.
• Anandavidya is making 15-20 lbs of butter weekly, and 15 gal of yogurt. He is not making ghee this month.
• Dr. Mores visited Lalita who had a nail in her hoof. She is walking with a slight limp but improving greatly.

Ray (General Farm Hand):

• In addition to normal duties, he continues harvesting hay as the weather permits. Pippalada has been moving hay into the barn while training Rama, who has also been raking hay. To date 468 800-pound round bales have been harvested and stacked in the barn for storage, in addition to the 210 bales from last year.
• He completely rebuilt the cow loading chute at Bahulaban so we are ready to move cows from there to the Valley Barn next month as winter approaches.
• He is working with Suchandra’s crew, harvesting potatoes at the Community Garden. The potatoes are being brought down to the valley storage building to be washed and bagged on the wash line there.

Caitanya Bhagavat – Nandagram:

• He and Rama have been taking care of Lalita’s hoof at the Temple Barn and caring for Saraswati at the Valley Barn, who has an infection in her udder.
• He and Rama are working daily with the new oxen Bhadra and Sesa at Bahulaban, and Hari and Priya at Nandagram.
• Preparing for winter by clearing the dung out of the Nandagram barn.
• Cutting trees off the fence line at Nandagram.
• Mowing and weed-whacking weekly at the Nandagram and Bahulaban farms.
• Daily cow care for the 18 cows in Bahulaban, and 17 cows in Nandagram

Suchandra – Community & Teaching Gardens:

• Suchandra’s crew consists of: Monique, Moriah, Madri, Ryan, and Shyama.
• Moriah, Monique, and she mostly worked at the Community Garden harvesting and weeding, and made plans for next year.
• They helped clean up tomatoes and marigolds, and harvested at Vidya’s garden
• Pippalada, Moriah, and Ryan mowed the grass at the Community and Teaching Gardens.
• Madri deadheaded marigolds, watered, weeded, and maintained the area at the Teaching Garden. Also, she planted some mums to replace the marigolds that had become too blighted.
• Shyama picked marigolds, zinnia, and dahlias everyday. Also, she helped with some harvesting at the Community Garden.
• Harvest Totals for the Community and Teaching Gardens for August:
  • Large Marigolds – 5,900 pcs
  • Small Marigolds – 2,165 pcs
  • Dahlias – 300 pcs
  • Zinnias – 200 pcs
  • Cucumbers – 726 pcs
  • Green Beans – 70 lb
  • Tomatoes – 200 lb
  • Zucchini – 26 pcs
  • Green Peppers – 20 lb
  • Hot Pepper – 6 lb
  • Yellow Squash – 103 pc
  • Bittermelon – 32 pc
  • Okra – 45 pc
  • Carrots – 40 lb
  • Beets – 50 pc
  • Lettuce – 10 lb
  • Butternut Squash – 3 pc
• Vidya’s Garden, Harvested by Suchandra and Crew in August:
  • Green Peppers – 2 lb
  • Hot Peppers – 2.5 lb
  • Large Marigolds – 18,050
  • Small Marigolds – 8,950

 Lila – Nandagram Garden:

• Pulled out old plants and cover with hay.
• Cut along fence for mower.
•  Trained plants to keep them away from mower.
• Weeded.
• Brought harvest to temple kitchen and Valley Barn.
• August harvest from Nandagram:
  • Kale – 1.5 lb
  • Hot pepper – 4.5 lb
  • Yellow Summer Squash – 15.75 Lb.
  • Bitter-melon – 26.5 lb
  • Green Beans – 18.25 lb
  • Small Roma Tomato – 138.5 lb
  • Cherry tomato – 9.25 lb
  • Okra – 2.25 lb
  • Green Bell Pepper – 1.75 lb
  • Big Rutger Tomato – 152 lb
  • Zucchini squash – 1 lb
  • Basil – 1.25 lb

Radhanath Das – Vidya’s Garden:

• For the month of August, Govinda harvested hundreds of pounds of bitter melon.
• Radhanath das did maintenance, clean up, and organization at the garden sheds and storage areas, and made plans with Vidya for next year
• The garden received two dump trailer-loads of manure from Nandagram that will be spread and tilled in to the beds.
• Ranaka, Radhanath and Vidya are planning a 10’ x 16’ greenhouse built on skids with electric heat, city water, and grow lights that would allow for Vidya to continue her service of starting over 60 flats of flowers and vegetables to be grown for Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra, and many devotees in the area. ECO-V would be able to relocate the greenhouse in the future, if need be.
• Vidya brought produce to sell at a table by temple on some weekends.
• With the help of Anandavidya and his trailer, Ray was able to fix our riding lawn mower.
• 200+ lbs of tomatoes were brought to Ranaka and Josh to process into puree.
• Due to the rain and other factors, the marigolds have reached the state where the blight is in every flower and are no longer offerable.
• Basil was also planted in overabundance
• Total produce from Vidya’s Garden, delivered to the temple kitchen in August:
  • Lilies – 827
  • Gladiolus – 106
  • Sunflower – 5
  • Marigold – 825
  • Bitter Melon – 511
  • Tomatoes – 103
  • Green Beans – 95
  • Green Peppers – 39
  • Hot peppers – 43
  • Loki – 50
• 100 additional pounds of bitter melon and 100 pounds of tomatoes were harvested. The tomatoes went to the Valley Barn for processing and the karela (bitter melon) was sold to community members.

Ranaka:

• Elena and Joshua Rama continue to process the tomatoes from the three ECO-V garden areas (Nandagram, Vidya’s, and the Community Garden) in the ECO-V processing room at the Valley Barn. We now have two 15-cubic foot chest freezers full of green beans and tomatoes. To date the ECO-V team has processed and frozen 138.75 gallons of tomatoes and 23 gallons of green beans from our garden.
• Interfacing with Tejo on the complete revamping of the 35-year-old Valley Barn water system, which includes purchasing and burying two new 1,500 gallon storage tanks on the hill above the barns, locating and repairing water leaks, adding meter pits and new shut off valves, and installing a new water pump and its controls, etc.

2. Report on DeLand, FL Meetings

Jamuna Jivani reported on the ISKCON Ministry for Cow Protection & Agriculture organizational meetings in DeLand Florida in June:

Setting: Bhakti Caru Swami sponsored the meetings at the Veda Foundation, situated on a beautiful piece of land in a rural setting in central Florida. While the project is new and the buildings are old, the dedicated team were able to accommodate the group very nicely.

Attendees: Approximately 18 devotees from LA/Ojai, The Bhakti Center, New Talavan, Alachua, The Harmony Collective (Ypsilanti), Veda Foundation, and ECO-Vrindaban. Also, Gita Nagari and ISKCON Silicon Valley gave virtual presentations.

Facilitators: Kalakantha dasa, Bhaktin Allegra, and Jamuna Jivani

Objectives:

Networking and Awareness: connecting with and deepening relationships between devotees whom are engaged in related services; sharing about achievements, current projects, and future plans. Also, introducing the North American Farm Organization team to the various projects.
North American Vision and Plan: bringing together the leaders in the field to devise a vision and a strategy for the promotion and development of agriculture and goraksa throughout NA. For the Ministry, it represents identifying central areas of focus for agriculture and cow protection in North America and presenting the policies and action lines that the ministry is working on.
Biennial Conference in 2019: to discuss a theme, topics and ideas for the 2019 North American ISKCON Farm Conference, and to begin its planning process.

Highlights:

• Bhakti Caru Swami’s presentations on the Veda Foundation and his vision for a gosadana program, as well as his general participation
• Special messages submitted by:
  • Devamrita Swami – shared the vision for Gita Nagari by Srila Prabhupada, presented the city/farm relationship and how the direct experience with cows is a great transformational tool for outreach, and spoke of a strong trend in society of being “re-enchanted” by nature.
  • Mukunda Swami – produced a booklet about cow protection that can be customized for any project.
  • Krsna Ksetra Swami – writing a book on Cow Care, which will be published by MacMillan Palgrave.
• Inspiring presentations by the participants on their various projects
• Deepening relationships and new connections made
• A warm, supportive atmosphere where devotees felt comfortable to share their frustrations and difficulties
• Discussions on the challenges and areas of focus for North America on agriculture and cow protection
• Also, Lalita Gopi and Jamuna Jivani gave a brief presentation on ECO-V’s activities and projects.

Based on her report, Jamuna Jivani was requested to continue developing a plan for networking within and outside of ISKCON, which she will continue to do.

3. Request from Varsana Swami to Use Stones from Madhuban

Previously Madhava Gosh had purchased some stones that have been sitting unused at Madhuban. Varsana Swami would like to use stones to build a replica of Govardhana hill. The Board agreed. Ranaka will inform Nityodita who made the request on Maharaja’s behalf.

Announcements:

The next board/staff meeting will be on Sunday, October 14, 2018.

The October board meeting will be on Sunday, October 21, 2018.

The Autumn weekend gathering will be November 2-4, 2018.

Here’s a link to the ECO-Vrindaban website.

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