Inspiration-Here’s How This Woman Grew Her Own Food Organically and Fed Her Family of 14.

An organic wave is sweeping through Pune, as people increasingly buy food grown without the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

However, Sujata Naphade is far ahead of this wave – she grows enough organic vegetables and fruits to feed her family of 14, sells what they can’t consume and connects farmers who grow crops naturally to enthusiastic consumers.

Sujata isn’t a farmer and her plot isn’t in rural India. She is a city woman in Pune – the second largest city in Maharashtra – and her 3,300 square feet plot is right in the middle of an affluent housing society, surrounded by concrete buildings and bungalows.

To avoid exploitation, she uses only dry leaves to form compost and for mulching. The leaves are buried under the plants, and covered with a layer of soil. She sprays the land with jeevamrut, a culture of beneficial microorganisms which can be bought in Pune. Jeevamrut is a mixture of cow dung, cow urine, jaggery, buttermilk and any flour. It increases soil fertility and structure.

She has fond memories of gardening with her father in their house in Akola, but that was the extent of her life as a cultivator. Her degree in Bachelor of Technology in agriculture too didn’t give her any chances to produce food.

Sujata walks through the plot announcing names of the plants of the season. Ghosavli, bhopla, karli, karand, kanghara, alu, arbi, adrak, halad, kapoos, papai, draksha, 3 types of vaal, and the list goes on.

By the end, she has listed 34 vegetables, 9 fruits, 3 herbs, cotton, and she is sure she has missed 2-3 plants. She fondly refers to the plants as though they are sentient beings.

Her list also includes herbs used in continental dishes, like thyme and basil, fruits like mulberry and strawberry, and vegetables like broccoli. The non-indigenous varieties are mostly for her son who enjoys his pastas and pizzas over the uber-healthy fare that his parents prefer.

Sujata makes seasonal juices of lemon, amla and passion fruit, which last her the whole year with the sugar acting as preservative. And again, she distributes the excess that she makes.