Photo: Michelle Magdalena
There’s a lot to see in these rolling hills of Cachagua: bright green grass, wildflowers blooming everywhere, stately oak trees, a neighbor’s donkey grazing peacefully in a distant pasture. But Jordan Champagne is searching for something more elusive: her two cows.
“Gayatri! Malati!” Champagne called out again and again, to no avail. The cows were nowhere to be seen that day, likely grazing and napping in secluded spots on the warm afternoon. But it was the perfect day to soak up the atmosphere at Bhakti Farm, a passion project for Jordan and her husband, Todd Champagne, whose mission is to nurture the land, the animals and the people.
“It’s all about simple living and elevated thinking,” Jordan tells me as we walk the narrow paths around the property, searching for cows and guiding me along the way.
“We let go of the clutter of everyday life,” she says, pointing to Sunrise Bench, a meditation area dug into the hillside. It’s her favorite place to start her day. Colorful wildflowers bloom along the trail, including shooting stars, lupines, and baby blue eyes, changing color as the ground warms for summer. Spring rains keep seasonal streams flowing freely, and the occasional bird song wafts through the silence.
The Champagnes are well known in local food circles as the founders of Happy Girl Kitchen, a popular jam brand, and the namesake of a vegetarian cafe in Pacific Grove. Now, Jordan and Todd are developing a non-profit farm that will become a unique education center and gathering space in the rolling hills of southern Carmel Valley.
The Champagnes have long been advocates and mentors of the DIY food lifestyle, dedicated to preserving food the old-fashioned way, as seen in their line of bottled pickles, jams and jellies. They learned these techniques decades ago while working on small farms in Norway, Sweden and Vermont, where short summer growing seasons made food preservation essential.
The two founded Happy Girl Kitchen in Aromas in 2002, a Pacific Grove cafe that serves organic, simple and sustainable foods and also serves as a place to teach food preservation. Jordan continues to spread her knowledge through workshops for all ages, her longtime Edible Monterey Bay column, “The Preservationist,” and her 2020 cookbook, “It Starts With Fruit: Simple Techniques and Delicious Recipes for Jams, Marmalades and Preserves” (Chronicle Books, $29.95).
Cows are sacred in Hinduism, so naturally, a lot of love is showered on the cows at Bhakti Farms.
Now, Champagne works to re-nourish the mind, body and soul.
Five years ago, they purchased 26 acres of land along Cachagua Road and began the long process of removing thousands of pounds of crushed metal, old carpeting and construction debris from the long-abandoned property and revitalizing it as a farm.
The couple renovated an old farmhouse there and made it their home, and with the help of the few employees who now live on-site, they’ve continued to improve the property, constructing buildings like a brand new dairy for milking and processing, a 30-foot-tall yurt, and a glamping platform. Plans also include planting an orchard and combating French broom, an invasive plant that plagues much of the Central Coast.
Bhakti Farm became a nonprofit last year with the goal of being a land-based learning community that combines the Hindu bhakti tradition with the principles of sustainable living. Jordan is a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Silicon Valley and has studied the philosophy of bhakti yoga, a spiritual practice centered on loving devotion, for 25 years.
“In some ways, I feel like my whole life has been connected to this,” she says. “I’ve been very fortunate to have found a lot of healing in my life through meditation, food choices, spending time in nature, and other lifestyle choices. I’ve had to heal from generational trauma, so I’ve gathered many tools to do that and use them regularly. The most important tools come from the ancient Vedic wisdom of the Bhakti tradition.”
Vedic philosophy teaches us how to transform qualities like anger, jealousy and greed into gratitude, compassion and non-violence, and meditation and other practices are needed to find ways to serve others, she said.
Cows are sacred in Hinduism, so as you’d expect, the cows at Bhakti Farms are showered with love. “I’ve been very content with them ever since I started keeping them,” says Jordan, who lavishes love and affection on his animals, often giving them pets and cuddles. In addition to grazing on the farm, the cows also eat fruit and vegetable pulp left over from the daily juicing, as well as vegetable scraps and day-old scones from Happy Girl Kitchen.
The cows are raised according to ahimsa, the practice of nonviolence. “We care for them their whole life,” she says, adding that she would eventually like to host workshops on making cheese, yogurt and buttermilk. She would also ideally like to add rescued farm animals to the herd and create an animal sanctuary.
The educational aspect of the farm manifests itself in many ways: Currently, the farm is used for ISKCON community gatherings and workshops, including meditation and yoga retreats, held primarily in the yurt and its surrounding deck.
The Champagnes also plan to host monthly farm days to open the farm to local residents of Cachagua and Carmel Valley, and they are inviting summer school students from the Carmel Unified School District to take part in farm tours and pickle-making classes.
“Whether it’s going outside and hugging a cow, pulling out an invasive plant, moving a rock, putting a kid on a swing overlooking a valley, playing in a creek, eating something delicious, anything can be therapeutic, inspiring and empowering, especially for kids who are disconnected from nature and food,” Jordan says. “Groups of kids are getting outside and starting to experience impactful, life-changing moments. I’ve seen this for years at Happy Girls summer cooking camps, and it’s so exciting to see it now on the land.”
Jordan says it’s important that Bhakti Farm be a resource for these communities because modern people can benefit from reconnecting with nature and the land.
“In a recent interview that was featured on Dr. Chatterjee’s podcast, Dr. Gabor Maté said, ‘Play is so important, joy is so important, and we can play in the enchanted forest all the time,'” Jordan points out. “Why has that attracted so much attention? We’ve forgotten how to play in the enchanted forest! I hope BhaktiFarm will remind people of that.”
Bhakti Farms • bhaktifarms.org
Katherine McKenzie, who grew up in Santa Cruz and now lives on a Christmas tree farm in north Monterey County, writes about the environment, sustainable living, and health for numerous publications and websites. She is co-author of “Humbled: How California’s Monterey Bay Escaped Industrial Ruin.”
