Growing organics for Delhi

This week I had the chance to learn more about The Altitude Store, a social enterprise building the limited demand for organics in Delhi and helping small farmers find markets for their produce. Ayesha Grewal, the founder, works with small farmers in the Himalayas to process their crops into high-value organic products like apple juice and marmalade. She has recently started selling the vegetables that these farmers grow as well.

On Wednesday, I hopped out of my auto at The Altitude Store in Delhi's Shanti Niketan Market just in time to see the last of the organic vegetables packed up for delivery to households in Delhi. Then Ayesha and I headed out through Delhi traffic to visit the farm where she gets her organic eggs and poultry. As we drove through the farm gates, we were welcomed by three enthusiastic Rottweilers and a French farmer named Roger. Roger's farm has provided organic vegetables and free range eggs and poultry to Delhi since 1994. After a lovely French lunch–made  almost entirely from food grown on Roger's farm–Ayesha and Roger inspected the growing lettuce, baby carrots, and arugula and discussed the order for Friday's delivery.

Ayesha and Roger discuss the crops growing on Roger's farm.

Although his kindness and commitment to organic agriculture impressed me, Roger isn't the kind of person Ayesha founded The Altitude Store to support. The store's mission is to improve livelihoods for the small farmers in the Himalayas; these farmers, whom I'm hoping to visit soon, provide most of the products Ayesha sells. But selling specialty products like the baby lettuce grown on Roger's farm helps her build a customer base for the products that come from the small farmers.

After bidding adieu to Roger and his dogs, Ayesha and I headed to a green oasis of organic and biodynamic farming: her own family's farm in Rajasthan. Along with Roger's farm, this farm supplements what the Himalayan farmers can grow. This ensures that all the vegetables her customers want are available. Out in the fields, Ayesha showed me how the amla trees planted in the fields provide shade in the hot Rajasthani summer (and are perfect places to hang a net that provides even more shade). The trees lose all their leaves in winter to allow the sun to come through when needed. They also fix nitrogen in the soil. Ayesha is looking for recipes for delicious products to make with the healthy amla fruit, so let me know if you know of any!

A bicycle tire protects the bottom edge of this

 wicker stool (but it got put on a little late).

The amla trees were only the beginning of the interesting natural innovations that keep this farm functioning. Re-used bicycle tires find new lives holding together the walls in the cow shed and protecting the bottoms of wicker chairs. Planting nasturtiums, garlic, and marigolds keeps pests away from the lettuce. As we drank chai made with fresh milk from Ayesha's two cows and sweetened with honey from the hives on the farm, I found myself wishing there were some way we could help all India’s farmers build farms like this. Is there a way to make organic, biodynamic farming work on a large scale?

Although recent reports have shown frighteningly high levels of pesticides and chemicals on fruit and vegetables sold in Delhi, few people are currently willing to pay the extra cost of Ayesha’s organic products. But I think entrepreneurs like her play an important role by providing healthily grown crops to those who can and will pay—supporting organic and biodynamic farms where they do exist—and building greater awareness of and more demand for pesticide-free produce.

Surveying lettuce fields on the farm in Rajasthan.