The rows of tall trees in the center of this photo (notice a tiny Yogi Adinatha at the base of them) is a small part of our larger koa planting. This endeavor has been quite successful, and we understand ours to be the largest recent planting of koa in the state. Scientists at the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center have bred these trees specifically to be resistant to the infamous koa wilt disease, which is ravaging much of the island's koa trees.

Since the concept of the greenhouse has gone far beyond what the monastery ever imagined, the decision was made to order another one. A secondary greenhouse, as explained by Yoginathaswami, can help us move out of the labor-intense raised-bed garden and use less manpower to grow more food. Win-win.

More to come as this several thousand piece greenhouse gets built.

Garden fresh tomatoes are a highly coveted and sought-after food, and they're here. The monks in the Siddhidata Kulam have pushed the limits on what is possible for our simple monastery and are bringing in arguably the world's best foods. Local, fresh and full of color, some have even said these are the largest tomatoes they've ever seen. Cucumbers and zucchini are also making themselves comfy around the kitchen and we certainly don't mind them hanging around. Large heads of lettuce, many different kinds, are also part of the daily greenhouse production. Eating healthy, and daily exercise, is numero uno if you want to live a strong and vital life full of sadhana and seva. Thanks Siddhidata Kulam, keep it comin!

Our mahogany trees that were planted years ago are now fruiting their own seed pods. What does that mean exactly? It means that we can harvest our own seeds from our best trees rather than importing them and having less control over the quality. Besides, it’s kind of neat!

The monks celebrate the first vine ripened tomatoes produced by the newest greenhouse. As you can see, the plants are rapidly coming to fruition.

Planting, growing and harvesting our greenhouse produce is now a normal part of the monastery schedule. As the structures for hydroponic farming, aka climate-controlled agriculture, expand and settle in we find new varieties of foods that we never thought could come from our own gardens. The monastery's first successful harvest of hydroponic zucchini barreled into the kitchen just yesterday and became a delectable fare. Our cook for the day sautéed the zucchini in a sage/rosemary and black pepper butter sauce and piled on baked sweet potato, garlic and onion. hmmm good.

Of course this is only the beginning and many more foods are to come. But the real question on everyone's mind is, when do we try our first homegrown tomato-basil pizza? Oh my.

To end last phase with a bang, the Siddhidata Kulam worked all afternoon to create a feast for their brother monks in honor of Thai Pongal. The harvest festival was decorated with a grand shrine in the middle of the kitchen, sugar-cane arch and as many fresh fruits and veggies plucked from the gardens as possible. Of course sweet rice and vadai overflowed in abundance, with colorful dal and veggie dishes as well. We hope you had a sweet Pongal and that your rice boiled over in the auspicious direction.

As some of you may remember, the Siddhidata Kulam built a hydroponic greenhouse that has been producing amazing veggies for the monks sustenance--and saying amazing doesn't do these melt-in-your-mouth foods justice.

The operation has been going so well it is time for a small addition to the building for more challenging varieties of foods! Here we capture the foundational work needed for the floor to be complete.

After several months of trial and error, the monks have learned a system to successfully grow Shitake mushrooms. Shitake mushrooms have many great health benefits as well as being quite tasty!

Jai Ganesha!

After having several of these fascinating cactus plants in the aadheenam gardens for more than a few years, we've finally had one of them fruit. Just recently our monks found this bulky dragon fruit on one of these unique climbing cacti. And it was TASTY! This, usually subtle, airy-sweet fruit was full of tasty natural sugars which several monks were able to enjoy. We hope to see more of these colorful treats next time the plant fruits.