I would like to ask you, if you know any nice vegan recipe from your home country, that you could send me

Of cause I would like to try it out myself ( I always enjoy eating

But I also want to use it for a project:

I am trying to write a children-book, which will show in a gentle way, why it is harmful to consume animal products and at the same time give alternative ideas by showing vegan recipes from all around the world.

The sorry will be about a little girl living happily on a farm, until one day she finds out, that her favourite cow is very said because she is pregnant and can not keep her calf. After the little girl understands the problem of eating milk products, she and the cow go on a journey around the world in order to find a solution.

They find lots of vegan recipes! And the happy end will be that the family is cooking vegan and the cow can keep her child.

I already road the story and started to draw pictures, but I want to ask for YOUR HELP WITH THE RECIPES, because I imagine that there are many ambassadors from all over the world that have knowledge about cooking vegan. So please contact me, if you have a nice vegan recipe from your country.

Thanks a lot in advance,

Liebe Grüße, Mara

From 9.30 am the children poured in, coming from different projects and villages. Some were walking, cycling, in buses, but all really excited and curious to participate in all activities.

First we did an open circle with music and dance, to bring the energy up. There were 300 children in total that made this day very magic. It was so nice to see them in perfect harmony with the environment, feeling at ease, totally at home, in tune with their land.

From 10.30 am till 4 pm the activities were full on, only with a break to have lunch and swim in the mud pool.

There were 25 monitors divided in 7 groups with different areas already prepared to make interesting projects for this special day, with each group having a different colour.

We had the blue; the music group who were making musical instruments with recycled canes, bamboos, coconut rope and stones.

The red group, handicrafts doing dream catchers and jewelers.

The green group, the ecological one, they were making a boat with plastic bottles and creating a recycle area with coloured dust bins to divide paper, glass, plastic, metal and organic.

The yellow group, focused on building a playground, a beautiful teepee (traditional house from the North American Indians) with bamboo, lots of clay, stones and some glass bottles. Also they created some funny games with tyres.

The orange group, the sports area were playing volleyball, football, basketball and everybody was the winner, no score, changing the team formation all the time.

The turquoise group, the clay village was making a village in miniature with small houses, people, gardens, temples, animals, lakes, etc.

The rainbow group, the games zone did many non-competitive games full of fun and joy.

The face painting area didn’t stop for one minute. All the kids got their faces full of colors, flowers, animals and artistic designs and shapes that made them very happy.

Special thanks to all the Sadhana forest volunteers who made this dream come true. We had 80 people helping in all kinds of things, cooking, taking the kids to the toilet, life guards in the mud pool, guides of the place, carrying the drinking water, serving the lunch, the clowns performing around  and everybody interacting with the children in a really harmonious way.

The day finished with more music and dance, with an atmosphere of joy in the air, slowly they started to vanish in the landscape. The mission was complete- with great success in learning how to use all the waste materials that have the name of garbage and combine them with natural materials, all in a very practical way. It was amazing to see the final results, some that will stay in Children’s Land, some they took to their homes, but all will stay in their hearts and their minds and will transform our environment in a place full of beauty and magic.

Thanks to all photographers and a special thanks to Giorgio who came from Auroville and took so many beautiful pictures.

On the 5th of November Sadhana Forest was all light and beauty with lamps lined all along the path and beautiful deepam(oil lamp) mandalas made to mark the celebration of Diwali, the festival of light.
Diwali, which is one of the most important festivals in India is celebrated on the kartika amavasya or no moon every year, usually in October or November. The festival is celebrated to mark the return of the victorious Gods after the destruction of evil. Usually all households leave the doors of their homes open on this auspicious day and decorate their houses with flowers and lights to invite the Gods to all homes to mark the victory of good over evil.

Over 20 young friends of Sadhana forest from Pondichery, invited by long term volunteer Raja and Vikram spent presence with us on this beautiful occasion and arranged for a lovely diwali puja. The beautiful lights, people shining with energy, the pretty mandalas, the special puja, the delicious vegan meal cooked by Raja and friends, the special diwali apple dessert prepared by Jamey made for a perfect start for the bright, noise and smoke free, diwali celebrations. Everyone present, the volunteers and the guests, participated in the puja which led to a magically musical time where everyone opened their voices and chanted and built beautiful harmonies in togetherness.

After a magical toning the gathering moved into the main hut where after dinner everyone present danced to some Indian dance numbers and to some drumming and ethnic music prepared by friends in Sadhana. Towards the end of the evening the main hut was thumping with the rythms and moves of energetic flushed happy sweaty faces.
The full moon that follows Diwali, the Karthika paurnami or Deepam that is considered a very auspicious day is also being marked and celebrated here in the forest by gathering around a big sacred fire, magical voices coming together to chant and some dancing to celebrate the moon and light.
We wish everyone a Happy Diwali and Happy Deepam. We hope to carry this light with us all through the year and hope that many of you will bring your light to join us here in the forest to light some lamps of love, peace and laughter.
Spread Love, Spread Light, Spread smiles,
Niki.

After the selection of the tree, we introduced to our friends here the tree planting technique that we presently use in Sadhana Forest. This technique is an attempt to replicate natural systems. After selecting the area to be planted, a circle with a radius of a meter is marked. A trench is dug along this circle in a way that the depth of this trench is even at all points.

With the soil that is dug out to make the trench, a circular mound with a hollow centre is created in the circle. The empty centre is left for the tree to be planted in.

After the mound is shaped it is filled with water up to the top. As a result of this the moisture content in the soil increases and the water goes into the soil to create a conical shaped water trough under ground to keep the roots hydrated as they make their way into the earth. In this way the trees don’t need much post planting care and attention. The conical water trough serves the tree until the roots get strong enough and is able to fend for itself.

Our tree planting friends from Omkareshwar who were earlier following a different technique of digging holes and planting in one to two feet deep holes were very open to this idea.

The first tree was planted in the presence of several children from the school, Sarabjeet Bharaj, the director of the organisation, and several other members from the ashram and the school.

A Delicious Salad with Radishes from our Garden.

   The international border market is a busy bustling place, every Monday and Friday we have the opportunity to head off to market to buy our food for the week. While the locals load their produce, baskets and bags onto hard-working donkeys, we start to load ourselves with backpacks and bags for the walk to the border.
   The crowded passageways are filled with a diverse mix of people, sounds and smells; floor space effectively organised into crouched purveyors of dried black mushrooms, spinaches and mangoes. Young boys chime the merits of their plastic wares. And shuffling through the crowds we’re often blessed with a smile from a friendly face, a friend of few words, always pleased by our Creole greetings. 
   The market has more vegetables than a vegan could need, gnarled gargantuan roots, sweet smelling fruits and Dominican trucks heaving with coconuts. Loaded we head home to enjoy a delicious week filled with tasty home cooked vegan food.

Garlic bread from Strada, ordered by my assistant because I was working late on a pitch. Very disappointing. It was the only vegan item on the menu as well.

Strada, we don’t like you.

Some vegetable dumplings soup from Itsu. They do a great job on traceability with the detailed lists of ingredients used in every item on their menu, published and updated on their website.

Organic pear and organic peach from Hoxton Street market. Eaten on the kitchen table at Milena and Mark’s. With a cup of Mariage Freres’ Earl Grey French Blue.

Because my commitment is to be vegan on Wednesdays, I’d like to share photos of each of my Wegan Wednesdays meals, with a short explanation of where I got the food and tips on how to find, cook and eat great vegan food (specifically in London where I live).

I will also be updating a Tumblr, just because it’s the blog format that I’m used to working with on my other projects, and also because you can easily connect it with other social platforms and therefore help spread the word.

It’ll be pretty much the same thing but you can have a look at

weganwednesdays.tumblr.com

Hope you enjoy my vegan adventures xx