Photography & phone
Composition, light and the farm at golden hour. Bring any camera, or just your phone.
HomeExperiences
Make something with your hands
A rotating calendar of hands-on days, led by us and by makers we invite. Small groups, all materials included, and everything you make is yours to take home.
Best this season
Coming later? Pick your months.
Right nowDecember to January
Bonfire season, and the best birding of the year.
The coldest, clearest weeks of the year. Wheat and chana stand green, the mustard is in flower, and the evenings belong to the fire.
Come for
- Sigri and bonfire: corn, carrots and peas on the coals
- Birding mornings, the best of the year
- Cold, clear, star-dark nights
- Marigold dyeing, and bread at the fire
- The fort and waterfall walk, in the cool
Around the farm
- Mustard in yellow flower along the fields
- Egrets behind the plough, winter birds on the canal
- Marigolds out in the courtyard
- The cows out on the lawn in the sun
Right nowFebruary to March
Harvest weeks: strong sun for sun-prints, flowers for the diary.
Warm days, cool nights, and the harvest: chana comes in first, then the wheat, and the chakki runs on the new grain. The last of the winter birds, the first of the summer fruit.
Come for
- Watch the harvest, and take home flour from it
- Cyanotype sun-prints in the strongest, clearest sun
- Flower printing and the botanical diary, with spring flowers
- The last cool birding mornings before the migrants leave
- Evenings still cool enough for the fire
Around the farm
- Chana harvested, then the wheat, and the chakki runs
- Mango blossom on every tree in the orchard
- Gourds, greens, tomatoes and marigolds being sown
- Holi falls in these weeks
Right nowApril to June
Pick mangoes at dawn, sleep after lunch, watch fireflies in June.
The hot months. Mornings and evenings are for the orchard and the fields; the middle of the day is for a cool room and a long lunch. The trees are heavy with mango by May, and the fireflies come out just before the rains.
Come for
- Pick your own mangoes at first light
- Cook a batch of mango jam or raw-mango pickle, and take a jar home
- Cyanotype sun-prints, at their deepest blue
- A chair in the shade of the courtyard, and the AC when you want it
- Fireflies over the fields in June, just before the rains
Around the farm
- Gulmohar and siris in full flame
- The fields rest, or carry a quick crop of moong
- Mango slices and chillies drying in the sun
- Fireflies over the fields before the rains, the first storms in June
Right nowJuly to September
Waterfall weather, and the best weeks for macro photography.
The rains turn the farm green in a week. Soybean and maize go in, the canal runs full, and the insects, frogs and nesting birds make it the loudest, liveliest season of the year.
Come for
- Rahatgarh waterfall at full force, four kilometres away
- A macro day on the insects: these are the weeks for it
- Roast your own corn on the sigri
- Pick karonda, and cook a jar of jam with us
- A walk to the canal in the rain, and the botanical diary with monsoon leaves
Around the farm
- Soybean and maize sown and standing in the blocks
- The canal full and fast, the fields under mist on cool mornings
- Butterflies, dragonflies and chrysalises everywhere
- Nests in the hedges, frogs after dark
Right nowOctober to November
The clearest night skies of the year, and the first bonfires.
The kindest weeks of the year. Clear skies come back in October, the kharif harvest comes in, the fields are ploughed and sown with wheat, and the evenings cool enough for the first fires.
Come for
- Pick custard apples and star fruit yourself
- The Milky Way and the clearest star skies of the year
- Help sow the wheat, and come back in March to see it cut
- The first bonfires, corn from the harvest on the coals
- Perfect walking weather for the fort, the waterfall and Eran
Around the farm
- Soybean and maize harvested; the fields ploughed for wheat
- Egrets behind the plough, in flocks
- The canal still full from the rains
- The first winter migrants arrive on the canal in November
- Diwali falls in these weeks
Through a lens
Birding & bird photography
The farm draws dozens of species through the year. Learn to find them, watch quietly, and photograph them well.
Macro & the insect world
Get close. A macro day on the small lives of the farm, and what they tell you about the soil.
Sun, leaves & ink
Cyanotype sun-prints
Lay farm leaves on treated paper and let the sun print them deep blue.
Flower printing
Hammer and press fresh flowers straight onto cloth and paper, and keep their colour.
Seasonal flower & plant dyeing
Dye cloth with marigold, indigo and whatever the season is giving.
Botanical diary
Press real leaves and petals and build a bound diary of the farm, page by page.
Hands & tools
Painting
Landscape and botanical painting, out in the field or under a tree.
Woodworking & whittling
Carve a spoon or a small thing from local wood, with real tools and no hurry.
Origami & paper
A quiet afternoon of folding, easy for children and calming for everyone.
From the kitchen
Bread at the fire
Mix, prove and bake fresh bread over the wood fire, and eat it warm.
Soap making
Cold-process soap with farm herbs and our own wood-pressed oils.
Jam & pickle making
Cook a small batch of the season with us, and take a jar of it home.
Tell us what your group is curious about and we set a date. Most workshops run a half-day, between meals.
What you'll photograph
Real subjects, a few steps from your door.
Every one of these was shot here on the farm: the birds, insects and flowers you can photograph on a birding, macro or botanical day.
