Eating Organic With Vnya

Food. It’s one of the most simple joys of life. It can turn any frown upside down and instantly transport you to a better place. The beauty of the power of food is that it doesn’t need to be a fancy dessert or a flavourful curry, it would simply be your favourite fruit! Imagine biting into a fresh juicy fruit on a hot summer day, it’s simply delicious! Sadly, in the past few decades, the food that we have been eating hasn’t exactly been good for us. Sure, we still buy from the same kiranas and grocery stores, we follow the same recipes that our grandmothers and mothers used, so what changed? Well, the produce did.

Everything that we now consume has traces of chemicals in it thanks to the pesticides and fertilizers added to the soil. None of these chemicals are any good for us, and that is why we can see a rise in so many diseases. The best way to cut out these chemicals from your life is by switching to organic fruits and veggies, and if you’re living in Mumbai, the best place to get your produce is Vnya.

 

Vnya, pronounced as one-ya, is a family-run organic kirana based in Juhu, Mumbai. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word vanya and translates to ‘of the forest’, which is very apt for this organic store. The passion child of Supriya and Tilak, Vnya is home to every local fruit, vegetable, pulse, grain and edible product that one can think of, and it is all sourced directly from farmers across India.

Supriya’s and Tilak’s journey into the world of organic products began years ago when their furry baby Leo was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. They went pillar to post, desperate to find a way to help their four-legged love and finally came across a holistic healer who advised them to eliminate chemicals from their life, from their floor cleaners to their food.

It became increasingly difficult to find products that were organic back then, and Supriya, as she likes to say, is very suspicious about the products that she purchases if she doesn’t know the source. So, to put their minds to ease and also help other people do the same, Supriya and Tilak decided to started sourcing organic products themselves. In August of 2020, as the world was slowly starting to heal from the catastrophic first wave and looking towards a more holistic lifestyle, Supriya and Tilka decided to share their love for organic produce with all of Mumbai and thus Vnya was born.

When Supriya and Tilak would visit her parents in Uttarakhand, they would frequent the local government farmer’s markets to buy groceries for themselves, and that is how they were introduced to most of their current suppliers. Team Vnya visits each of the farms and farmers to see how they function and asks them a series of questions to ensure that the products are actually organic. Supriya’s parents, brother and nephew are in charge of onboarding new farmers and coordinating with the older farmers in Uttarakhand, while she and Tilak coordinate with the farmers in and around Maharastra.

Supriya and her whole family are obsessed with raw honey and homemade ghee, so it’s no surprise that a few months after they opened up their shop, Vnya launched their very own range of Organic Honey and Desi Ghee. Being animal lovers, their Vnya Honey is ethically sourced from an old friend who has a PhD in Apiology and works with farmers and apiarists in Uttarakhand. Since Supriya was a child, even though she grew up in the city of Agra, they used to get their milk straight from a small cowshed, and they would make hand cultured ghee at home using the Bilona method. They now produce 3 types of Vnya Ghee using the milk from Desi cows, 2 of them are sourced from the North East and one is sourced from Uttar Pradesh. Their ghees are highly nutritious and traditionally hand-churned in mitti handis. Vnya hopes to expand its range of products in the coming future.

As a brand, Vnya tries its very best to be sustainable. “It’s difficult to be 100% sustainable, but I’m trying,” says Supriya. She admits that it’s tough to stock only zero-waste products, especially since they deal in perishable and organic products, but each of their Vnya products are sustainable and eco-friendly. To give back to the planet and curb the amount of waste out there, they have started a cleanup organization known as Waste-Less By Vnya. The team hosts garbage collections every Monday at Vnya, where people can drop off their waste and the team will ensure that it is disposed of in the correct manner. Since Surpiya comes from an advertising background, she knows the amount of waste produced during shoots. So, Wasteless by Vnya also works on ad film sets to help the production with waste management by collecting and disposing of all of the garbage accumulated during the shoots.

“I want to highlight that organic isn’t just good for your system. It’s good for the environment and the system that you live in. If that is not healthy, then you will never be healthy,” says Supriya. So, if you’re looking to switch to an organic diet, check out Vnya in Juhu. It is the perfect place to start!

Written By Jessica Albuquerque,

Week 37, September 2021