Addition to the family ...

I know its been a long time since the last update ... but things have been hectic with people running from their summer vacations and demand for milk rising , along with that more and more samples being distributed as some members giving us loads of references to their friends . Though we have lots of members referring , we have lots of them who are not referring any and we hoping that do start to as its them that we relying on to spread the word as much as possible .

In keeping with the rise in demand for milk .. we went out and got some more cows to come join the family . And along with the cows we got some lil ones as well so the gang has really grown . We are now catering to almost 150 odd homes across Gurgaon though our conversion percentage has dropped a bit with us finally coming across a few people who refuse to take our milk and rather stick to the Mother Dairy or Nestle brand .

There has been demand coming our way from Delhi also and keeping in mind our gud friends who reside in South Delhi we have decied to start a pre registration drive along with sampling to see if we can sum up the demand required for us to start delivering in these areas . We are as of now only looking at Saket - Sainik Farms - GK II - GK I & East of Kailash , this is being done as it will help our delivery costs stay low and also allow us to deliver within time . Lets see how it goes in this part of the city ....

There has been work going on at the farm keeping in mind teh upcoming vegetable season ... in which the fields have started to get ploughed and the green cover crop is about to go in so that the soil gets plenty of Nitrogen by the time planting happens in mid - end August . The rains are almost here and we hoping that irrigation set up is not required as of now ... we still have to set that up and hoping it is in place by the time planting happens . We looking to grow Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes , some beef tomatoes , lettuces , zucchini , brinjal , pac choi , red cabbage , cabbage & cauliflower ( not very sure of this as we have heard that they not very suited to this soil ) , carrots , radish , brocolii and a few herbs like Basil , thyme and rosemary . Hope the pests stay away from our fields though we have our neem and cow urine solutions ready to keep them at bay .

Besides this we have started to make paneer at our farm as a lot of members were wanting it .. and seeing the response we feel we did well as its been a HUGE SUCCESS . We have some homes taking in a kg of paneer almost every alternate day . The one mistake that we made is with the pricing and we hoping the revised pricing doesnt hamper the demand -- :-) !! We also starting to look at making curd as a lot of ppl are having trouble in getting the curd to set well with the new milk , as they were used to setting it with the other milk and havn't been able to find the right combination for this milk . We ourselves had a problem at home but the maid has it sorted out and we get some real gud curd these days .

Of late there has been a demand for eggs and chicken also .. a lot of members feel that the chicken they buy from the market maybe injected with hormones and stuff to make it grow faster so wud like it if they could be given an option of getting chicken knowing that it aint injected with anything . As we consume about 7-8 kgs of chicken at home every week , we had planned to keep a few desi murgi's for our own consumption but it seems we may keep a few extra just incase our members would like to take them from us . We will not be rearing broilers but the ' Desi Murgi's -- difference being that the broilers can be prepared much faster though taste wise we prefer the other ones .

We have been having our share of small trivial issues ... specially regarding teh delivery man and all . We have realised no matter how well you treat them and pay them , they one day will turn on you just bcoz they know you need them . We missed out on delivery one day just bcoz of this as at 5 am our delivery man suddenly felt that he needed to be paid more ..... and as we didn't have a back up guy we had to give in for the time being . Its against our principle to treat the workers as workers and we do a lot to keep them to feel that they are not labor but such incidents leave a bitter taste and just makes us wonder if we right in the way we behave with our staff . We hoping that we don't have any such trouble in the future , as we have 2 substitute delivery guys ready now . We also are having to get a second delivery vehicle running around to deliver milk so that all deliveries can be wrapped up as early as possible and not like its happening now -- we do our last delivery at about 10.30 - 11 !!! Just bear with us a few more days .... and all members shall have their milk before 9 am .

Well, I still havn't managed going on a vacation ..... and I don't think its happening anytime soon specially with Delhi as a delivery zone also starting soon . Rest everything at the farm is on control .... hoping that we do reach our target by end August !!!

Will put up some pictures in a few days ... I know its pretty boring reading what I write -- with no pictures to go with it .

More soon ...........

Rest in Peace ...

27th June '07 -- Our friend for ages left us and moved to his next destination . Duke has been with us for ages and given our family so many special moments and the void left by him will be felt for a long time to come . He came to us as a lil pup along with his sister ' Blackie ' and then grew to be a very very special friend .

I don't know how but he learnt a lot on his own and it felt as if he could understand us and what he had to do to make himself a very popular part of the Singha family . He realised that the monkeys were not welcome in our orchards ... so what did he do ?? Come April and once the apples started to form on the trees he would on his own trudge up every morning to go sit where our orchard ended and the forest started so if the monkeys did decide to try and feast in our orchard he would be there to chase them away . He would leave his spot and come back outside the kitchen like a clock at 9 am for his breakfast and after the meal would return to his duty and only to return at 5 pm for his evening meal and then back on duty till it got dark . All this with no training .....

He also had a soft spot for other animals as you can see from the pic above ... that lil kitten on his back was not adopted by us but by ' Duke ' himself . One day we saw him walk up teh drive with a lil ball of fur in his mouth , we thought he had killed a lil kitten and gotten the kill home . When I ran down to get him to drop her , I realised that he hadn't killed her , instead he had gotten her by the scruff of her neck . He gently put her down in front of me and then started to lick her till she started to stir , that moment was a very special and touching moment . Special as his sister ' Blackie ' had also adopted a lil kitten a few yrs earlier and gotten her to grow up on her own milk along with her litter that she had given birth to around the same time . Like sister - like brother !!!

I could go on and on about his antics which would show how smart he was , and how affectionate he was . But all thats gonna change as he finally did decide to move on and go to where his sister probably is waiting for him , and hope he is out there in some HUGE field making merry and looking down upon us .

Duke , you were very very special and we will remember you for a long time to come . Thanx for all the moments that you gave us -- I can't remember one incident where he would make any of us at home MAD at him .

Rest in peace Duke !!!