“Taste this,” says the unusually named Soviet Taludhar, passing me some lettuce leaves.
Eating Nepali salad is normally nerve wracking due to the food poisoning risk – but this time it was a pleasure. All the fruit and vegetables grown on this groundbreaking farm are organic, and this in a country where excessive localized fertilizer and pesticide use is damaging the land.
Taludhar is the head of the farm owned by the Help for Children Beilngries’ home, which supplies all the fresh food eaten by the 39 children and 19 staff. The children are orphans and semi-orphans, mostly from poverty-stricken families in the remotest parts of the country, like Jumla in the far northwest.
With support from its parent donor organization, Nepalhilfe Beilngries of Germany, the home switched to organic farming, which at least doubled the cost of production.
