Fraction of Yield Supplies N.Y. Temple

NEW VARSANA (Port Royal, Pa.) From our experience over the past year, we're clearly seeing that Krsna's arrangement for "simple living and high thinking" is easily available for anyone who wants it. By Krsna's grace we were able to feed the entire New York temple of over one hundred devotees throughout the summer with only a fraction of the yield from our garden (two acres of assorted vegetables), one acre of potatoes, and our small herd of cows. And there's plenty left to last the rest of the year, too. In fact, the potatoes we harvested from that one acre could supply the New York devotees for five years! It took six devotees only two days to cut and hand-plant one ton of seed potatoes, and when the potatoes were ready, we dug them up with a simple horse-drawn potato digger that worked very well.

Krsna's six hives of honeybees are still busily gathering what will be our third crop of honey. The honey collected so far has been offered to Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha-Govinda at the New York temple, sold at the temple store, and given as gifts to the Deities of other temples. The careful management of Adipati has strengthened the hives, and they should produce twice as much honey next year.

Under the management of Devakinandana dasa, our milking operation is also flourishing. Nineteen Brown Swiss cows give about eight hundred fifty gallons of milk weekly, of which two hundred goes to the New York temple. The rest is sold to a nearby dairy, and the income from these sales helps to cover our farm expenses. Our oxen-training program is also off to a good start. One bull has reached training age and will soon be hauling firewood to heat the new building.

Over five hundred neighbors from around the county came to an open house we recently held. Our guests dined on a vegetarian feast offered to Lord Krsna, saw the Hare Krsna movie, talked with the devotees, and appreciated our cows. Generally they seemed quite pleased with their new neighbors. We've also started a program at nearby Penn State University. It seems that Krsna is providing everything we could ask for to advance in His service.