Breath of Heaven Organic Farm Retreat is a completely off the grid project being developed by Yogananda devotees on 34 acres of mature macadamia nut groves in Waihee, Maui, Hawaii. We are on the mountain [at a 400 foot elevation] overlooking the ocean nestled in surrounding acres of macadamia nut groves. It is the best farming area in the state because of the rare balance of weather (not too hot a
nd not too wet or dry), and the deep, rich top soil. It is no surprise that this was previously the land reserved by the King of Hawaii for himself when he divided up Maui for his subjects. We have experienced the healing power of this area first hand with many our fruit trees producing abundantly in just their first year, i.e. star fruit, Meyer lemon, and papaya. The vegetable garden produces enormous organic vegetables in startling abundance. We are in one of the most pristine and quiet areas on Maui even though we are only about 10 minutes from the Whole Foods and Maui’s major shopping. Above us is the largest forest preserve in the state of Hawaii. We started with just tents and water buckets and have come a long way. Through enough miracles to fill a book, we now have two nice living areas, our own large solar power plant, our own water with 2 solar hot water systems, and grow much of our food. We have100+ bearing fruit trees we planted and a large vegetable and herb garden. We have three security dogs named Hanuman, Ram, & Nani who respect and protect our residents and as well as the chickens. The plan is to continue filling in areas of our Macadamia nut grove that are missing trees with more and more variety of fruit and nut trees. We even have an organic cotton tree which is quite interesting to see. The “girls [chickens]” eat out of our hands and give about a half dozen eggs a day. We have already been selling our surplus Kobotcha pumpkins, apple bananas, strawberry papayas, guava, passion fruit, turmeric and okra to local stores and neighbors. After years of the preparation and clearing of our groves, approximately 46,000 lbs of wet macadamia nuts (which means raw and still in the husk and shell) are harvested each year by our neighbor in exchange for his maintaining of our fields. Fortunately for us, he has a world class macadamia nut processing plant on his 1,000 acre property just to the north of us. Although we do not yet make money, the nut sales are a critical step for our project since this establishes us as a working farm which is a requirement for securing future building permits on this agriculturally zoned land. We have two 700+ sq foot construction trailers that currently serve as our base on the land. The lower farm center now has its own water tank, solar hot water system, back up propane hot water, and outside shower and soon its own solar power (currently it is powered by the upper solar system). The farm center trailer has now been partially remodeled. In addition we now have three 20 foot carports with deck floors that hold 3 room stand up tents to house work trade helpers. We are currently designing and planting the meditation gardens but need help with this from someone with both a devotee heart and landscape and drainage experience. Unfortunately no retreat guest accommodations have been built yet. We have decided that we will be using the one Bali Hut (we have a deposit of $10K paid on but need an additional $10K to pay for the other half) for a small meditation temple in the meditation gardens. For pictures of this beautiful structure please go to to:https://picasaweb.google.com/MandalaEcoHomes/DeluxeYurt200SqFt17ftDiameter. We have decided to use earth bag construction methods for all future construction projects so they are hurricane proof. Since Maui imports all its building materials, we felt we needed to be an example of a more sustainable building method and one thing we have plenty of is dirt. Our plan is to host an experienced instructor in earth bag construction and allow others on Maui to join in who have contacted us interested in helping on a project in order to learn this construction method. Road work to pave the .71 mile of driveway is our current priority. This development is all in Master’s time since estimates are in the $80,000 range. We also need money to gravel around the trailers since the duality of our amazing 7 feet of topsoil is incredibly deep mud when it rains. We have the design for a large 10 bedroom, 6 bath farm residence which will serve as additional guest bedrooms and baths in phase two. This residence will be located directly below the meditation gardens and alawai (water way) of continually flowing water from the nearby Waihee River that runs through the middle of the property. We have 3 ALL electric vehicles. There are 2 Polaris ATV’s for the farm with dump truck beds on the back, and a 2013 Nissan Leaf electric car for trips to town. It is great to drive on sunlight since the "fuel" is charging with sunlight coming directly from our solar power plant. We now have a John Deere 26 HP tractor and are looking for a tiller and mowing deck for it. We also have a riding mower which helps considerably with all the grass that grows a foot a week. Our non-profit , Breath of Heaven Sustainable Living Center, Inc has its 501-c3 tax exempt status so we can now receive donations for our project. The long term plan is to have the lower farm center operated by men devotees and the upper retreat center run by women devotees.
