Spudnik Farms is a Bengaluru-based farming organisation that supports smallholder farmers across Karnataka to grow native and heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables through chemical-free farming. They make fresh, organic produce available to consumers across Bengaluru on a weekly subscription-based system. Having adopted a Community-Supported Agriculture model (CSA), they encourage consumers in Bengaluru to feel more connected to their food, and the people from Chikkaballapur, Nelamangala and Joida villages in Karnataka who grow it. CSA also makes it possible for them to offer fair prices to the smallholder farmers that they work with, and ensure a guaranteed market, especially given how much risk is involved in farming.
Why We Love Spudnik Farms
- The fruits and vegetables which Spudnik Farms delivers weekly to Bengaluru are freshly harvested, and at the prime of their quality. They grow native crops and heirloom desi varieties of tubers like mudali, dhave kon, kate kanaga, and other vegetables like bilimbi, karonda and chow chow that are rare to find in commercial marketplaces.
- Subscribers of the community-supported agriculture (CSA) box can visit and participate in sowing, harvesting, and other activities at the farms near Bengaluru. It allows them to create a relationship with the farmers as well as the seasonal produce.
- Spudnik Farms makes a sincere effort to educate their subscribers on the benefits of the produce they receive. With their box deliveries, they often send recipe cards on Whatsapp that have cooking instructions (and sometimes, even other little surprises). While consumer’s taste preferences are taken into account while getting on the subscription, they push forward the idea that the supply, or what is local and seasonal to those farms, is what should drive the demand of what people consume.
- Farmers who are a part of Spudnik Farms’ network are provided with logistical support, training and knowledge in addition to a steady source of revenue for their produce.
- Besides being chemical and pesticide-free, Spudnik Farms practises regenerative farming which nourishes the soil. They also try to use heirloom seeds that are climate-resilient and less resource-intensive whenever possible.
A Note from the Producer
Spudnik started off small, with a lone patch of organic veggies grown on a tract of unused land near Bangalore. As our subscriber base slowly increased, we started partnering with smallholding farmers around Bengaluru and Chikkaballapur to grow crops using non-invasive, all-organic farming techniques. We now also work with the Kunbi community in the Western Ghats to grow and harvest unique heirloom veggies and native tubers that grow bountifully in the region. We’re hoping to get our produce out to as many good folks out there as we can, and welcome them into our unique community of responsible growers and consumers!
— Sumeet Kaur (Founder) and Sriram Aravamudan (Business Strategy & Growth)
The Locavore Bite
TL Bite offers a glimpse into how a partner producer runs their operations, and reflects their core principles and values. The idea is to provide insights into their practices and highlight their positive efforts descriptively. We have identified seven key areas of assessment – origin and source of ingredients, composition and integrity of the products, workforce policies, production practices, community-related initiatives, approach towards preserving or celebrating traditional knowledge and the materials used in packaging. While this assessment may not be entirely comprehensive, we hope it helps you make an informed decision about why you might want to support them, and the ways in which to.
The information below offers you a snapshot of where Spudnik Farms stands on these parameters. We have put this together based on several rounds of conversation with Sumeet and her colleague Sriram. Click on a piece of the pie below to find out more.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Spudnik Farms, read our interview with them here.
How to Buy
To know more about Spudnik Farms’ subscription boxes that are available to those in Bengaluru, visit their website. Please contact us at connect@thelocavore.in if you’re interested in supporting them in other ways.
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