What does it mean to grow the food we eat?

How does a seemingly inert, lifeless medium – the soil – produce life?

Instead of food, why are we growing mountainous heaps of trash on the outskirts Delhi?

How do we deal with these hills of material and mental rubbish?

At this workshop we will confront these questions and many more by simply working the land. We will first cover the basic theoretical knowledge of kitchen gardening and composting. Then, we will step outside our usual selves, perhaps into the heat, and learn how to plan and run a kitchen garden through hands-on work in the field. We will seed, weed, harvest, water, mulch, and prepare existing beds. We will learn to make and transplant saplings. We will also practice waste segregation and composting. In this process we’ll learn how we can use our kitchen waste to grow food for ourselves. And how we can reuse most of our kitchen waste to feed out our kitchen gardens. Practical field work – and just a little theory – will help answer seemingly philosophical questions. But, remember, your answers will only be as deep as the mud under your finger nails.

Please bring your own lunch – as this is a programme in Life Appreciation we encourage participants to bring their own vegetarian food, and share it with others at the workshop.