The monastics here at Kauai Aadheenam are now enjoying the hard work of the farsighted monks who planted our property with countless fruit trees many years ago.

After a hot and dry summer, the first signs of our wet season are beginning to show themselves. Consistent, light rains have begun to fall and the weather is beginning to cool, ever so slightly. Another sign that the seasons are changing is the ripening of our star fruit, as well as many of our citrus trees. Avocados are abundant and many varieties of guava are producing. And for those who know what they are, our Longan trees have just started to produce their sugary fruits.

We don't know for sure but this may be one of the biggest papayas ever harvested here. The Siddhidata Kulam has been carefully collecting papaya seeds from the most successful varieties for many years and slowly developing a strain that does well here in our environment. This one was about the size of a basketball.

When Gurudeva made Sannyasin Yoginathaswami the Talaivar of the Siddhidata Kulam, two of the commissions Gurudeva gave him were to make a "no tractor" garden and also to keep our water streams flowing. Anna Purna garden is composed of an enclosed area with raised beds surround by fruit trees. The team recently added another 12 beds to the garden. We also we up to inspect the reservoir yesterday, which feeds our stream and also vents into the Wailua River just about 1/4 of a mile above Iraivan.

Here is a recent Siddhidata Kulam harvest report from the last week of May. Just imagine what it would cost to buy all this! And this does not include the fruit harvest of Bananas, Papayas, Chiku and others

Over the retreat, some of the monks went over to Himalayan Acres, our agricultural land across the river. The small group made their way to the noni field where thousands of pounds of noni fruit were ready for harvest. Noni has long been prized as a medicinal plant by the native Hawaiians and other cultures. After the fruit was harvested, it was brought back to the monastery to be washed and stored in barrels for fermentation. The fruit will sit for another 40 days before it is ready to be juiced. Eventually we plan to produce enough juice to be sold. Many monks at the monastery drink a few table spoons of noni juice every day.

Noni juice is extremely healthy, treating everything from pain and high cholesterol to stroke damage, cancer and much more.

In one study scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture found one of the secrets to Noni's amazing health building power. It is endowed with a greater number and variety of health giving phytochemicals than just about any plant known.

The power of phytochemicals to promote good health and control cancer is so impressive that the University of Illinois has created a whole new department with 63 scientists and professors to specialize in phytochemical research. Senior Science Advisor to the U.S. Public Health Service, Dr. D.L. Davis states, "Phytochemicals can take tumors and defuse them. They can turn off the proliferative process of cancer." Based on clinical practice and numerous animal studies, it is widely believed that the polysaccharide-rich substances found in Noni fruit juice attack abnormal cells and abnormal growths by stimulating the body's immune system. In animal cancer studies, Noni juice treatments reduced the formation of abnormal cells in the heart, lungs, liver, and kidney and prolonged the life span of mice by more than 75%.

Here is a list of medicinal properties taken from nonialoha.com
Phytonutrients: Natural chemicals found in Noni juice that provide nourishment to cells, tissues, and organs, fight free radicals, ward off disease, and may even reverse the effects of aging and pollution. They are also believed to block the processes that lead to cancer. Learn more...

Polysaccharides: Important compounds that stimulate and modulate the immune system and its response to cancer. Profoundly influences anti-cancer activity on the molecular level.

Selenium: An important anti-oxidant and trace element found in Noni juice that preserves the skin's elasticity, thus slowing the aging process. Selenium also increases oxygen flow to the heart and may prevent blood clotting and hypertension.

Anthraquinones (Damnacanthol): Important antiseptic and anti-bacterial plant chemicals found in Noni juice. They have been shown in laboratory tests to kill pre-cancer cells, Lewis Lung carcinoma, and prevent DNA damage. It stimulates the immune response to cancer by activating the body's T-cells, or "Cancer Killers." T-cells are extremely important for people suffering from cancer, AIDS, or other diseases which compromise the body's immune systems.

Glycosides: Newly discovered compounds that prevent cancer and scavenge free radicals.

Scopoletin: A little-known, but hard-working chemical component of Noni juice with many wonderful health benefits. It is anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial. It regulates serotonin, the body's "feel-good" hormone, which helps to ward off feelings of anxiety and depression, and may be why people who drink Noni juice often experience a sense of well-being. It is a vasodilator and lowers blood pressure. It binds to melatonin and helps to regulate sleep, hunger, and body temperature. As if all these were not enough, scopoletin is also an analgesic.

Terpene: Rejuvenates cells and rids the body of toxins.

Limonene: A bitter cancer-fighting compound commonly found in Noni juice and citrus fruits.

Adaptogen: An adaptogen is a substance that has a global balancing effect on all body systems. There are only 12 known adaptogens; of these 12, Noni Juice is said to be the "premiere" adaptogen.

Alkalinity: Tissues degrade and disease thrives in an acidic environment. Noni Juice promotes an alkaline body chemistry, the optimal state for good health.

Anti-Oxidant: Anti-oxidants, such as green tea, pycnogenol, and vitamin C, among others, are important in neutralizing "free radicals", or particles that cause DNA damage that can lead to cancer. Noni Juice has recently been found to be the most effective of all known anti-oxidants.

Low Glycemic Index: A 3:1 ratio of carbohydates to fiber in Noni Juice helps balance blood sugar levels.

Analgesic, Anti-Inflammatory, and Selective Cox II Inhibitor: Unlike typical pain relievers and anti-inflammatories, Noni Juice decreases pain and inflammation while protecting stomach, kidney, and liver cells.

Humectant: As a humectant, Noni Juice helps tissues retain moisture.

Immuno-modulator: Noni Juice intelligently supports the immune system, not just by boosting it, but by regulating it to suppress the allergic and auto-allergic responses.

So make sure to drink your daily dose of noni juice!

We keep a record of the weight of our garden harvests and how much we use. Our daily monastic consumption of vegetables has been increasing while the consumption of rice and other starches and carbohydrates has decreased. We find that often people who eat a lot of processed food and starches will not appreciate the taste of the vegetables, but as they switch over to eating fresh vegetables the more they discover and appreciate the rich taste.


This Day's Harvest:
Swiss chard 16 lbs
Green beans 16 lbs
Chaote 39 lbs
Purple long eggplant 48
White eggplant 9
Luffa gourds 8
Kang kong  6 lbs
Pakwan 9 lbs
Broccoli 2 lbs
Cabbage 10 lbs

Over the past few weeks the Siddhidata Kulam has been working to create forms for the twelve new garden beds which are being added to the monastery's vegetable garden. The wooden forms are almost finished, which will allow for one big cement pour. Making it all happen in just one pour will allow a truck load to be ordered, saving the kulam countless hours of hand-mixing cement. Once the beds are finished, they'll have the potential of increasing the garden's production by roughly 20% or 30%.

For one day every phase, the Siddhidata Kulam spends their time in the Monastery's gardens. They've worked out a wonderfully thorough system, by which they plan ahead and keep track of all the garden beds, making what could be a very difficult job, much easier and efficient. Though the rain on this garden day made for a soaked morning for the monks, the plants sure loved it. The Garden provides all of the monastery's vegetables, all organic and all picked fresh, just hours before they are cooked.

Sharing the beauty of our island and Kauai Aadheenam is challenging. A normal camera can only begin to capture what the eye sees. Aerial photography is famous for giving us big dynamic views of the world. In the old days it would cost a mini-fortune to hire a helicopter, professional photographer just to go up for a few minutes of video or still shots.

Well that's all changed in the 21st century. For a few-hundred dollars anyone can buy a small drone and send your camera up. The monks only realized this recently when a local man showed us amazing footage he was taking with a small helicopter only about 18 inches across! We decided to invest in this ourselves instead of paying big bucks for professional photographers. Now Sadhaka Mayurnatha and Siddhanthaswami are taking the lead in our aerial photography initiative.

Today we bring you some ove views of the land we have across the river called Himalayan Acres, which is an agriculture endowment for Kauai's Hindu Monastery. Pan around to see everything.

The Monastic garden is quite abundant this time of year, filled with kale, okra, eggplant, lettuce, cabbage, ginger, bush beans, peppers, green onions, sweet potatoes, basil and much, much more. As always the SK does a wonderful job of maintaining the garden beds, which happen to hold some of the richest soil on our clay-covered island. Recently the garden team has been working with small amounts of plastic mulch for the new plantings which reside outside the main garden. Without good protection these small plants would be encroached upon by the surrounding jungle and tenacious grasses.

Each year the Kauai Farm Fair is held in Lihue. The fair draws thousands of people, and is the largest annual event on the island. This year Acharya Arumuganathaswami and Sadhaka Jayanatha took our taskforcer Tirtadeva to experience the festivities. The fair included many stalls who were selling their produce and wares, carnival rides, games, food and of course the produce, flower, and bonsai tree competitions.