Winter is the season of abundance at Aanandaa. As the sun filters through our trimmed trees, the vegetable beds come alive with cauliflowers, cabbages, broccoli, peas, tomatoes, leafy greens, radishes, carrots, turnips and more.

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I talk about the peculiar logic of the winter vegetable garden—shorter days, the need for more sunshine and space, and crops where one whole plant may give us just one vegetable. Yet the sheer diversity of the winter harvest is astonishing.

From crucifers and greens to roots and peas, winter reminds us what seasonal eating really looks like. I like to think of fruit as cleansing and vegetables as healing—and winter is certainly the season when the garden invites us to eat our vegetables!

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

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We once had a lively flock of geese at Aanandaa—until bird flu swept through and left us with just two survivors. We didn’t know whether they were male or female, but when they began laying eggs, we waited hopefully for goslings. Year after year, they made their nest, laid a clutch and sat patiently on their eggs. Nothing ever hatched.

Eventually we realised the simple truth: both our surviving geese were female.

What followed was my surprisingly difficult search for a gander, and a growing awareness of just how much these birds seemed to miss having a larger flock and the opportunity to raise young. I never managed to find them a mate, and eventually we lost them too.

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I recount the story of our last two geese—and reflect on what keeping animals teaches us about companionship, instinct, responsibility and loss on a farm.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

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Growing wheat taught us far more than how to produce grain. It taught us that farming is not just about soil, seeds and rainfall. It is also about markets, logistics, relationships and trust. If we truly want regenerative agriculture to succeed, we cannot only teach farmers how to grow better crops. We must also help them build better ways to sell them.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

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In October 2017, I lost my father. He chose to spend his final days at home, surrounded by the people he loved, and to leave this world with dignity and on his own terms. It was a deeply personal experience that changed my understanding of life, death, acceptance and what it means to live intentionally.

And then, almost unexpectedly, another chapter began. Soon after his passing, my work in permaculture started finding a much wider audience. I found myself at the International Permaculture Convergence, connecting with practitioners from around the world, and Aanandaa was featured in a Down To Earth documentary.

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I reflect on that extraordinary period when profound loss and unexpected visibility arrived almost together—and how, sometimes, the ending of one chapter quietly makes space for another to begin.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

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Flood irrigation is one of the oldest and most common ways of watering agricultural fields—but is flooding an entire field really the best way to give plants the water they need?

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I explore what actually happens to water after it enters a field: infiltration, runoff, evaporation, deep percolation and groundwater recharge. I also discuss waterlogging, salinity and soil erosion, and why healthy soil may be our most important water-storage system.

Rather than simply asking how much water we give our crops, perhaps we should ask: how long can our soil hold on to it?

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

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I grew three varieties of paddy at Aanandaa—and came away questioning the entire system.

From migrant workers who could distinguish rice seedlings from almost identical grasses, to flooded fields that needed water again and again, growing paddy became a fascinating lesson in crops, culture, water and traditional knowledge.

Why do we flood rice fields? Does rice actually need to stand in water? Where does all that water go? What happens to the soil under anaerobic conditions? And most importantly, should a water-intensive crop be grown in a landscape where it depends heavily on irrigation?

In this episode of Permaculture Living with MLG, I explore paddy through a permaculture lens and ask a deceptively simple question: just because we can grow a crop somewhere, does it mean we should?

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

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Raising hens or chicken was challenging for us. Desi/ native hens would often lay eggs but not sit on them to hatch into chicks. And day old chicks available commercially would have very high mortality on the farm. We were keen to integrate hens into the farm at a moderate scale to get a steady supply of eggs. But, we did not meet with much success. A visit to Kegg Farms in Gurgaon taught us a thing or two about the chicken & egg business.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

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LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/

When we first began harvesting significant quantities of fruits and vegetables from our farm, we faced an unexpected challenge: we had more produce than we could consume, and no easy market to sell it. Living in Gurgaon at the time, we needed a way to ensure that the harvest did not go to waste.

That journey led us into the world of traditional food preservation—pickles, jams, chutneys and preserves. In this episode, I talk about how our surplus produce became a valuable lesson in seasonality, self-sufficiency, reducing waste, and adding value to what the land provides. We discuss traditional preservation methods, the joy of sharing homemade products with friends and family, and why every farm should learn to celebrate abundance rather than fear it. A conversation about food, gratitude, and making the most of nature's generosity.

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For more information on permaculture, visit www.aanandaa.com. You can contact us at hello@aanandaa.com and +91 62838 99456. To take courses on permaculture visit www.permaculture.co.in

Follow us on our social media handles

FB: https://www.facebook.com/farmaanandaa/

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YT: https://www.youtube.com/@farmaanandaa

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aanandaapermacultureproject/