Lettuce wrap from all homegrown fresh veggies.

Fresh (cashew ,garlic powder salt coriander ,green chilly dip), 

Added layer of grated beet & carrot,lemon juice, 

Next layer of sliced cucumber,onion, 

Peanut chilly powder ,

Added some baby spinach ,purslane and lots of mustard MG(they are too good ,tangy mustard taste).

Growing Microgreens without soil , Step By Step

                    Thanks to my dear friend Prashanthi for introducing Microgreens to us.
Microgreens are young tender green veggies . Best part you can grow them easily at home with or without soil and they germinate quickly.  They are flavorful and extremely nutritious.
They can be harvested in 1 to 3 weeks depending on variety of seed.
You can grow many varieties. I started with  moong ,chana,mustard and flax seeds.

Urad Daal Microgreen

Growing Microgreens at home ,step by step:


Step 1: Soak Seeds overnight or 6 to 12 hrs.

Step 2:  For setup :
             a) Take a sieve or a basket with holes.Avoid using bamboo basket they get bad after                  one use. Metal or plastic sieves are good.
             b) Take another container ,fill it with water.
             c) Place Sieve/basket on a container ,make sure water should not touch sieve.
             d) Drain the water from seeds and transfer them to sieve.
             e) Cover it with a lid ,place them away from direct sunlight.

Step 3:  Make sure to mist seeds with spray bottle every 12 hrs. keep them covered 2 to 4 days  and change the water of lower container everyday. 

Day 2 

Day 3

Step 4:  Once seeds are sprouted well remove lid and place them where they get good sunlight.

Day 4

Day 5 

Beautiful roots they got

Step 5)  Chana and moong beans are ready just in 6 days. You can cut and leave some part to regrow .I harvested them thrice. 
   
Chana Greens                                                      Urad daal Greens

You can use them in salad ,dal /curry. I even tried them in banana milkshake. 



In the time of Lockdown let's reconnect with nature. Do composting , make your own multipurpose cleaner -Bio enzyme , grow your own veggies ,switch to sustainable menstruation cup ......

For any queries please leave comment or write us on greenutsav@gmail.com .

ECO Ganapati celebration

This is how we celebrated Ganesh utsav in our society (Sumadhura Sawan) in eco-friendly manner.

Let Ganesha get you more healthy and prosper environment.

Guideline to be followed:

1)  Organiser: Be part of festival management team in society.If you are in committee you can contribute more easily.
    All email communication regarding celebration should include note to bring water bottle,bowls and cloth bag #byoc .

2)  Idol: Get clay Ganesha without colors. I had to fight for clay Ganesha without colors for almost 2 weeks. Prepare yourself to fight till end. Involve like-minded people n raise your voice .

Be ready to answer below questions: (answer in blue)

·   Clay Ganesha will break easily. (We will handle it carefully . It used to be clay idols only when Ganesha festival started. People have used it  for years so it won’t be a problem ).

·   Without color Ganesha won’t look good. ( You need to see inner beauty and God idols look pretty always. I convinced them to decorate Ganesha with flowers and dhoti ).

·   At last team got agreed to get eco gansesha . And everyone was so happy to see Clay Idol ,I must say the best Idol I have ever seen.

3) Kids Activity: We announced Eco- Ganesha making competition for society kids. Kids were excited and we were surprised to see their creativity and ideas.

       

4) Decoration: We used flowers, paper, cloth curtains for decoration. No plastic ,no thermacol .

5) Box to collect pooja waste: Decorated one box with some crepe paper and kept in one corner of pandal. Pooja organizer requested to collect all pooja waste(flowers and fruit peels) in this box.Do not trash flowers,coconut shells and fruit peels.

   

  7) Pooja and Prasad :We requested pooja organizer to get all pooja                     flowers/fruits in cloth bag or in basket. 

      For prasad distribution we asked everyone to get their own boxes and for           defaulters we used banana leaves and leaf bowls. Banana leaves and leaf           bowls were kept in compost bin later on.

          For water we got some reusable glasses which were kept near water                   station. This also encourages many to get their own bottle.

      8) Prize distribution: We gifted potted pots to winner of Eco Ganesha                   competition. People may object for this but it was a hit ,kids loved it.

      9) Visarjan: I tried my best to get inside tanker for visarjan but there was a

           separate place dedicated by bbmp for visarjan. Where nearby apt did                visarjan within society which is best practice. We made sure no                          plastic or flowers going for visarjan because people get flowers n prasad            during visarjan so a check must needed.

      10) Post Activities: I got my box at home and kept some of the flowers,                fruit peels and coconut shells in a pot with some dry leaves and 1 spoon of        curd .After 20 days I got a fine compost with pleasant earthy smell.

                           

               

      

         Rest of the flowers I kept for sunlight drying  and made fine color which I          used for holi celebration.

            

If you have not started home composting yet please check below like for easy step by step process.

How to do composting at home

Thanks for visiting feel free to contact for any queries.

Meet Mr Jayram Sir-'The organic man'

                Celebration of life - In the world of chemicals ,organic life is in.

Got a chance to visit 'Green Path Restaurant'  and to meet Jayaram Sir(founder of Green path).Its an amazing place with serene environment and 'ECO food'  where each ingredient comes from his own organic farm.Green Path has beautiful terrace garden on top, an organic shop, an organic detox café and an eco-hotel. 

He is very simple,generous and inspiring. At the end of our visit he offered us free shots of organic spiced tea which were so refreshing(I still remember the divine taste). 

Where other food business are only concentrating on earning money ,Jayaram sir  is protecting environment by using all natural resources- -rainwater-harvesting,solar energy,bio-gas energy,organic fertilizer and giving new life to forgotten food-the millet.

His own words:

'I’m a farmer by birth, and by default, our farm is in my village, where my father at 86 still ploughs the land, that’s the only way of life I have seen. I came to Bengaluru, became a lawyer, made my money, and decided to go back to being a farmer. I’ve almost quit my legal practise.

Life in Bengaluru is not good – it’s all artificial. I strongly believe organic is the only way forward. If only our farmers turned organic, they would hardly incur any farming costs, wouldn’t be in debt, and wouldn’t commit suicide.

On my farm, Sukrushi, started 18-years-ago on barren land, I grow fruits, vegetables. In Coorg I have another farm where I grow organic paddy and coffee.

My farm is run entirely on rain water – we are a “no borewell” model and have been awarded for this initiative. One day’s rain is enough for about 20 days of watering on the farm; we save every drop. I also adopt the “food forest” model of growing, where we do tree-based agriculture — it’s also called multi-storey farming – it allows for mulching. Everything gets generated on the farm – from manure to pesticide, naturally. I have trained the 15 people, who work on my 40-acre farm. I opened Era Organics earlier in Dollars Colony. Now in Malleswaram I run The Green Path, which has an organic shop, an organic detox café, an eco-hotel, and will soon have a full-fledged restaurant.'

If you are in Bangalore you must visit 'The Green path- organic state' restaurant,to feel an amazing experience with serene Environment and eco food ! 

http://www.thegreenpath.in/

Address:The Greenpath organic state,Opp Metro station, Mantri Mall ,Rajiv Gandhi circle, Banglore 20

Zero waste home

The event is organized to spread awareness for waste management.
Participant has to do below activities to make Zero waste home:
Let's Do, Learn and Perform:

1) Do composting for wet waste.
2) Recyclable items need to be stored neat and clean. Can be sold to scrape dealer.
3) Reduce your reject waste. DO not use plastic liners/polythene for your reject waste.Try to reuse/recycle items before discarding them.
4) Decorate compost bin/pot.
5) Prepare a skit on your experience from above activities and perform it on 26th Jan @ Club House.

We will be taking workshop for composting in club house.
Timing : 6 pm to 7 pm today on 18th Jan.

Case study on Composting problem

Problem: 

1) Worms coming out of bin/pile is too wet/pile is smelly.
    
Solution: 

• Nitrogen is high in your pile.Need to add more carbon rich materials(crushed dry leaves/sawdust/newspaper pieces). Once added mix your pile well. 
• There should be a hole at bottom so that extra liquid can be released which is called Leachate (very nutritious for plants).

2) If there are many flies in compost bin.

Solutions: 

•  Check if your pile is too wet then try solution provided above,if problem still exists add 1 spoon of turmeric and salt mix.
• You can also add neem powder if available.

Please see below link to check composting process at home.

How to do composting at home

Le-Grow (From Dump yard to Green Yard)

In old days, all natural process were there to manage waste. No diapers,no sanitary ,no disposals,no plastic.People use to serve cow,dogs,birds,beggars. So no kitchen waste.Even if there is any leftover they use to throw on their garden which  after decomposing used to make land fertile.What an automatic waste management.Everything was so clean, so natural,so pure.
And what we are doing today,mixing all type of waste and sending it to landfill which is increasing ground water pollution and making this earth hell. Organic waste can be converted to compost,plastic can be recycled if we keep them separate.Nature gives you food in form of fruits and vegetable,you clean it ,cook it (spend your time so you can enjoy eating). Now if you don't give it back to nature how you except her to give you more.Think !!!

Came across Le-grow contest conducted by  Benit and Tina,found it very interesting and also a way to encourage people to start composting at home. I contacted them if we can do some contest for composting ,they got ready and here we are announcing:

           Le-Grows Mission to convert kitchen waste to Compost

DUMP YARD 2 GREEN YARD  

Our very first environmental friendly event that lets you to make your own compost and also saves our environment. 

Start date: 5th Sep 2015

End date : 1st Dec 2015 

Material needed: A pot/plastic bin,kitchen waste,dry leaves,newspaper.

After end of this event you will get compost from your waste which can be used in your garden/if you have no plants you can dump it anywhere (make land fertile)/donate.

For more info on how to do composting please click here. We are here to help you anytime during this contest.Let's join and make a change together. 

Join us on Facebook group 'Go green-way to go' for more updates.

REGISTRATION CLOSES BY 4TH OF SEPTEMBER , 2015.

Sign in the form below to participate. All we need is an OLD BIN and daily scraps from your kitchen.