Please enjoy their article and Youtube video posted under “Pictures,Communications & Articles”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6z6-GD2POY

His Ghandiji’s 5 principles:

1) Harmonious coexistence for mutual benefit : Do not use artificial means to kill microorganisms

2) Nothing borne out of Mother Earth is a waste

3) Farming is not man’s business. It is his moral duty.

4) All is Nature’s will.We are mere labourers.Our rights are limited.Extract only as per needs.

5) Do not hurry. Nature herself does not.Land is a living being. Converse with your farm.

He reminds us about the simple and concise introduction to the philosophy and practice of natural farming with a sign from the gate to his 14 acre farm that says,

“Cooperation is the fundamental Law of Nature”

His 4 fundamental principles of natural farming reinforces and reminds us of our mission in Moonriver Lodge ie

1) All living creatures have an equal right to live i.e. farming must be non violent.

2) Everything in Nature is useful and serves a purpose in the Web of Life

3) Farming is a dharma, a sacred path of serving Nature and fellow creatures; it MUST NOT be a dhandha or money-oriented business.

4) The principle of perenniall fertility regeneration – humans have a right to only the fruits and seed of the crops we grow that constitutes 5%-15% of the plant biomass yield. The balance 85%-95% of the biomass, the crop residue, must go back to the soil to renew fertility as mulch or manure.

Very inspiring and one of the most outstanding personalities in the organic world.

Check-out date : 28 Jan 2012 (1200 hrs) (Please note half day rate applies for late check out)

Package Rate : RM340/pax) Rm280/pax) Meal Arrangement : 2 Breakfast/ 2 Lunch /2 Tea /2 Dinner

Activities Arrangement : Day 1 – MRL Orientation Trail (45mins-1 hr) – Water-Valley Trek to inhouse waterfall ( 45mins- 1hr)

Day 2 – Gardening for Food Programme – Half Day Visit to Terra Organic Farm

Day 3 – Free & easy, Check out

You can explore this with your children as a home-based activity or together with the school curriculum.

Some experiences with home gardening are: – Even a small harvest eg a handful of chillis, brings joy to the child. – Children enjoy being responsible and important.

If you involve them as food producers, you can count on them to help maintain the garden. – Gardening work and various garden-based activities provide opportunities for fun and learning among child and parent eg garden crafts, seed storage, doing a vegetable calendar etc. etc.

At Moonriver Lodge, the Gardening for Food Programme, is a simple introduction to basic gardening and learning where your food comes from. A chance to get those pretty hands dirty as you play with the soil and gently transplant young plants to the garden beds you had freshly and painstakingly prepared.

Of course, the reward of harvesting of vegetables and fruits is indeed satisfying.

The satisfaction factor doubles up when you even get to EAT the fruits of your labour or your personal harvest!

Phantoms in the air,

Owls on witches’ gateposts

Giving stare for stare,

Cats on flying broomsticks,

Bats against the moon

Stirrings round of fate-cakes

with a solemn spoon,

Whirling apple parings

Figures draped in sheets

Dodging, disappearing,

up and down the streets,

Jack-o-Lanterns grinning

Shadows on a screen,

Shrieks and starts and laughter-

This is Hallowe’en!

- Dorothy Brown Thompson -

Learn about their practices in place and you can also purchase fresh veggies from them.

End your tour with a tea at their farm or back at the Lodge.

Price includes transfer and guide. 
This programme is also included in the November promotion packages. 

others –

I am forced to reflect upon the amount of human energy wasted because of an ancient error

and great sin that disseminated injustice to the very roots of mankind. It is the adult who produces in

the child, his incapacities, his confusion, and his rebellion. It is the adult who shatters the character

of the child and deprives it of its vital impulses. And more than that it is the adult who affects to

correct the errors, the psychological deviations, and the lapses in character that he himself has

produced in the child. So we find ourselves in a labyrinth without an exit.

Until the adults consciously face their errors and correct them, they will find themselves in a forest of

insoluble problems. And children, becoming in their turn adults, will be victims of the same error,

transmitting, it from generation to generation.’

‘the first step in the integral resolution of the problem of education must not, therefore, be taken toward the child, but toward the adult educator. He must

change his moral attitudes. He must divest himself of many preconceptions.’

Maria Montessori ‘The Child in the Family’

‘With the support of the prepared adult, the child with his unlimited possibilities can be the

transformer of humanity, just as he is its creator. The child brings us great hope and a new vision.’

Montessori, Maria. (1949) The Absorbent Mind Clio Press Oxford England 1988 page 60

At Moonriver Lodge we love to create gardens and especially enjoy watching a plant grow from seed or a fruit forming in our fruit trees.