A farmers’ market and a home delivery scheme help bring fresh organic foods to city kitchens.
In March this year, Farmers’ Market, an initiative where farmers sell locally grown and organic produce directly to customers, debuted in Bandra. Within two hours of its opening, most of the stalls — which sold organic vegetables and fruits, farm produce, foodgrains and organic clothing — had sold out.
Organisers Kavita Mukhi and Megha Rawal understood Mumbaikars’ appetite for organic foods. Mukhi is a pioneer who started an organic food company called Conscious Foods in 1990 and has been part of the organic farming movement for 25 years.
Their Farmers’ Market has given certified organic farmers in Nashik District an opportunity to showcase their produce in Mumbai for the first time. The farmers are certified by the Indian arm of EcoCert, the French agricultural inspection and certification body. Rawal says, “Organic is not an easy label to achieve for Indian farmers, what with the copious records to keep and present to the agency, and having to store and transport produce according to designated standards.”
But such is the demand for organic foods, says Ashish Shinde, an organic farmer and spokesperson of the Organic Farms group of about 3,000 EcoCert farmers in Maharashtra, that over 12,000 acres in the Nashik-Aurangabad belt is being turned over to organic farming.
The organisers of Farmers’ Market charge no fees from farmers, who pay to bring their own produce to Mumbai. “The response has been so good,” says Shinde, “that this October when we open Farmer’s Market again, we will have 40 different vegetables as against just 20 varieties last season. There will also be 16 varieties of fruits.”
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Consumers fork out up to 20 per cent extra for organic, but no one seems to mind. Kiran Noronha, a homemaker and regular Farmer’s Market patron, says, “It’s hard to ignore the signboard behind stalls that advises shoppers, ‘No Bargaining Please. Organic is Priceless.’” But she insists that nothing equals the flavours of organic produce. “The tomatoes taste real, complete with their natural fragrance. And the mangoes that I bought in summer were perfect,” she says happily.
Mukhi and Rawal wisely also turned the new initiative into a weekly summer bazaar. Rawal says, “We realised that shoppers who came to the venue at lunchtime found themselves looking at empty stalls, because women had been queuing for organic produce since eight in the morning.” So, despite her taste for the produce, shopper Noronha’s favourite stall is AngelFood, a health food delivery service in Mumbai that sells vegan quiches and milkshakes. “The bottled garlic-chive dressing and pita sandwiches are worth trying out,” she suggests.
To prove that organic can be accessible, the Mumbai Organic Farmers and Consumers Association (MOFCA), a collective of 12 farmers who grow vegetables without chemical fertilisers or pesticides, have launched the Hari Bhari Tokri scheme in the metro. Ubai Hussein, a member of MOFCA, explains how this home delivery scheme works.
Consumers partner with a MOFCA farmer for a season (three or four months) by paying Rs 500 as deposit. At the end of the season, baskets of fresh, organically grown vegetables — Rs 100 for a small-sized tokri (delivery basket) and Rs 200 for a medium-sized one — are delivered to buyers every week until stocks last. “Each basket will have between four and six vegetables such as pumpkin, eggplant, spinach, beans, cabbage, okra, tomato, bell peppers and radish. If the season permits, the farmers can also include cereals, fruits, pulses and oils in the baskets,” says Hussein, who runs a farm in Bhiwandi. With the next farming season running from November 2010 to January 2011, Mumbaikars who sign up with Hari Bhari Tokri can look forward to their first farm-fresh tokris in the new year.
Farmers’ Market season two begins on October 3 at Nilgiri Garden, Bandra Hindu Association, Linking Road, Bandra (W). If you would like to be part of Farmers’ Market and sponsor a table, contact farmersmarket@kavitamukhi.com.
To know more about the Hari Bhari Tokri scheme, email mofca.consumers@gmail.com