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The recent years have opened up our eyes to the fact that breaks and vacations need not always call for luxury. Sometimes, it is also fulfilling to feel closer to nature as well as culture.
Choosing to spend your days in a homestay or a heritage home opens up newer avenues to spend your down time, and perhaps, will do more for you than any run-of-the-mill hotel room. A whole new experience in itself, it is possible that these places convince you to stay back for far more time than you initially intended on.
Farmstays are also one such destination where the proximity to nature (physical, emotional, maybe even spiritual) does us good. Permaculture farmstays are those where most or all of the processes for functioning (food or otherwise) is organic and as close to sustainable as possible, or also work closely with local communities and take into account their lives and needs.
They almost create their own mini ecosystems and live sufficiently. A lifestyle that is leaps and bounds away from that of the city, these permaculture farmstays make for an enriching experience, and we’re here to give you a few suggestions for the same.
I. Konyak Tea Retreat, Nagaland
Run by Phenjin Konyak, great-granddaughter of a headhunter named Ahon, this retreat exists in tandem with the Konyak tribe through food, textiles, and even tattoos. Phenjin also works toward the documenting and preservation of this tribal tattoo art.
Visitors may participate in the farming or farmhouse work here too, whether that be in the paddy fields or in the barn milking cows. Spread over 250 acres, this retreat is home to tea plantations and also orchards that produce beautiful seasonal vegetable and fruits.
Find Konyak Tea Retreat here.
II. Off The Grid, Goa
For an experience that calls for straying away from worldly pleasures and responsibilities, Off The Grid is the place to be. Stripped of technology, this place is bountiful in nature and all its wonderful aspects such as as forests, streams, and waterfalls.
It is situated on the Western ghats and they use natural energy as resources, including solar power for electricity, water from a waterfall, and the wood from the forest plays firewood. They also grow some of their own food produce.
Find Off The Grid here.
III. Oyster Opera, Kerala
In Kasargod, Kerala, by the Valiyaparamba backwaters exists the Oyster Opera Resort. A little to the left of centre, this resort capitalises on mussel and oyster farming. This sustainable venture began with the host Gul Mohammed, who shared his farming methods with the local farmers and was able to provide employment to 6000 of them. Oyster Opera involves the entire local community in its workforce.
The farmstay has several types of huts to choose from.
Find Oyster Opera here.
IV. Rainforest Retreat at Mojo Plantation, Coorg
Combining eco-tourism, sustainable agriculture, and environmental education, the Rainforest Retreat is located in Coorg. They sustainably cultivate vanilla, pepper, coffee, cardamom, and more. Surrounded by hills and the forests of the valley, this location is as close to nature as it gets.
One can make full use of this region by trekking and bird watching. The retreat is also dedicated to organic farming and biodiversity conservation.
Find Rainforest Retreat here.
V. Tieedi Forest Garden, West Bengal
Situated near Darjeeling, this permaculture farmstay practices forage farming and harvests food produce from their organic forests. One can go on walks and learn about their processes they use to enrich the soil and thereby make production effective and sustainable, including sheet mulching and companion planting. This is also a zero waste establishment.
Along with staying here in structures made from local resources, you can also volunteer or partake in workshops like yoga and bamboo weaving.
Find Tieedi Forest Garden here.
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