Growing Exotic Produce for the Local Indian Market

Ranjini Rao talks to local farmers growing capers and Yacon, Brussels sprouts, kale and other unusual produce, in response to the local demand for exotics in India.

A bunch of fresh kale pulsed into a velvet green pesto, to go with spaghetti tossed in garlic-butter sauce; a light salad of red radish, broccoli, zucchini, and parsley; a batch of oven-roasted Brussels sprouts; a breakfast bowl of kiwi; a thick, creamy leek soup for dinner. These are a few dishes from my weekly menu. As exotic as the prospect of it all sounds, the ingredients are all grown locally, using organic farming methods, on a farm right outside the city. 

PB Gautham of Healthy Buddha has been experimenting with growing exotic produce for a while now. “The best thing about being an organic farmer in Bangalore is that people are always on the lookout for new vegetables and greens to try. We’ve been growing broccoli, zucchini, Chinese cabbage, turnip, red radish, celery for the past three years, mostly around Bangalore, with a price range anywhere between Rs. 80-250 per kilo. The weather here is conducive for growing exotics for the most part. During the summers, we move to hill stations around Bangalore.”  

Healthy Buddha collaborates with farmers using aquaponic methods to grow various exotic salad greens. Gautham explains that managing weather changes on the supply side and handling cyclical demand changes are the biggest challenges they face. Still, they are always striving to bring nutrient-loaded exotic produce to discerning customers, who are not only health conscious but also keen to experiment with global cuisines in their local kitchens.

Also on the outskirts of Bangalore, on Kanakapura Road, is a small tech-driven urban farm called Shaaka, run Shankar J. and Aravind Krishna, with active participation from their own families. Produce from Shaaka includes shishito peppers, Kamo-nasu eggplant, greens like Komatsuna, Mizuna, and over twelve varieties of tomatoes from around the world, including the Blush tomato. 

“We’re a small urban farm and we don’t grow in bulk for the wholesale market. We are like a slightly big backyard garden, catering to a regular set of clientele,” says Aravind, who believes that their strength lies in using the best seed varieties from around the world, soil-based organic farming, and skilled labour, all of which ensure an efficient farm-to-table supply chain.

Food blogger, and author, Ruchira Ramanujam, who is one of Shaaka’s regular customers, vouches for the freshness of their produce. “I pick up vegetables from Shaaka almost every week, after they wowed me with their lettuce varieties. I especially love their range of peppers, greens and tomatoes. Since they pick the vegetables against confirmed orders, everything is dewy fresh, vibrant and super tasty!”

While exotic varieties are fascinating for food connoisseurs and those with a globally attuned palate, it’s not far from the truth that our own indigenous varieties have been lost to time, lack of seed preservation methods, and even the absence of vendor supply chains catering to customers beyond big restaurants. Food historian, TV producer and owner of Greed Goddess Media, Ruchi Shrivastava agrees, adding that anything that comes to us from far-away lands seems exotic. “But if we consider India's own diversity, it is ironic that many home-grown ingredients are actually exotic to us. Think of the Rugra mushrooms in Jharkhand, which appear when lightning strikes the ground during the rains, morel mushrooms in Jammu, bitter honey in Wayanad, the tree tomato in Nagaland.”

“Mainstream Indian history will teach you we got our tomatoes from the Portuguese. But India always had tree tomatoes growing in rich Himalayan soil, in the North East,” she explains. “The tree tomato, known locally as Sei Bangenuo, has been grown and consumed by the people of Nagaland and their forefathers for generations. Nagaland has even gotten the GI tag for tree tomatoes, in April 2014 and March 2015.” 

Shaped like a plum, with flavour that’s close to passion fruit, the tree tomato is neither too sour nor too juicy. According to the Nagas, the tree tomato was treated as a medicinal fruit since it’s very good for the eyes, and for digestion. Ruchi hopes that someday the tree tomato will be a hero across India, and not just be limited to the North East. “It will also be a juncture in Indian history to recognise our own gems, and see them move from the ‘exotic’ category to mainstream regional Indian ingredients. 

In the Himalayas, Abhimanyu Dhakal, and his brother, Abhinandan, grow the South American perennial tuber, yacon. In 2015, after researching nearly 30 different products that could be grown in the Himalayas, the Dhakal brothers zeroed in on yacon. They were determined to start a farming venture in Sikkim, where they grew up, in order to make mountain farming profitable, and for North-East-based food processing startups to lead the charge. Sikkim, which has traditionally been home to ginger, cardamom, turmeric and pulses, hasn’t had much success with processed foods, as most of it goes out raw. The Dhakal brothers wanted to find a way to reduce logistics, wastage and handling charges so that farmers get paid a fair price. Yacon, the brothers discovered, offered many health benefits, and promised a higher yield. Known especially for its low glycemic index, yacon has been popular among diabetics and the health-conscious as a sweetener for years now. 

Yacon from Earthier, in Sikkim

Capers from Ishka Farms

“We saw that in India, there’s been a sharp rise in lifestyle related diseases in the last two decades, as conveyed by most NCD (Non-Communicable Disease) Surveys. We also saw that people were relying only on medicines, without tangible results. Cut to yacon syrup, which, when taken as a supplement with regular medicines, offers faster and more sustained results, especially for those suffering from diabetes, gut health, heart and obesity-related issues,” says Abhimanyu.

Yacon syrup can be used in desserts, on pancakes and waffles, or as a sweetener for everyday consumption. Priced at Rs. 1599 for a bottle of 330 grams, it is expensive and still fairly new to the average Indian consumer. The Dhakal brothers’ brand, Earthier, is focused on environment-based sustainability, and it is reflected in the way they grow the yacon, from processing, with zero preservatives and artificial ingredients, to packaging the syrup in glass bottles. 

Further south, in the barren expanses of Tuticorin, where groundwater is scarce and highly saline, an entrepreneur couple, Fiona Arakal and Srikant Suryanarayan, wanted to try something new — something that wasn’t being grown manifold in the country. They bought a parcel of land in 2012, and started off with moringa, with the help of villagers in the region, bolstering the local economy. When they later met an Argentinian farmer in St Petersburg who grew capers, they were intrigued. Coincidentally, capers perfectly fit their criteria: it was exotic, low maintenance, low on water consumption, and thus, it could be an open field crop. 

Capers in the current Indian market are mostly imported, and are no match to the produce from Ishka farms. “When it comes to quality, we are definitely giving the imported brands a run for their money,” says Fiona, “If you look closely, you’ll see that the imported varieties are hardly fresh. They’re different in texture and colour: light green, and mushy. For the most part, anything that is not saleable in the European market is sent here. We’re not competing with them on the cost front; purely on quality. Our capers are expensive, at around Rs. 500 for 200 grams (in brine), and with reason: they’re 100% organic. And since we also lose a lot of our crops to pests, we spend quite a bit on manpower, too.” 

Sr. Sous Chef Vidit Aren, at Slink and Bardot, Mumbai, is one of Ishka’s regular buyers. He cures and flavours the capers himself. “For the Snapper Meunière on our menu, the sauce needs to be really fresh: made from browned butter, capers, lemon juice, salt and pepper. We wanted to use fresh capers, and cure it on our own, as it requires a sharper, higher level of acidity,” he explains. In this observation, the biggest chunk of spending population in India is increasingly well-traveled, giving impetus to a boom in food actualism and food awareness. “As a nation, we already have a taste for acidic, pungent flavours, and capers fit right in. Capers have a great potential to behave as an Indianised relish, pickle or condiment. Further, as they’re grown locally now, thanks to Ishka Farms, so they sit well with the present day narrative around food -- local, organic, sustainable.”  

Going by their social media following, it seems like their customer base is growing exponentially. Today, the market has a lot to offer for the conscious consumer, going back to the roots, and taking care to grow fruits and vegetables much like they were grown generations ago. Only difference? Unlike our forefathers, we now have access to ingredients from across the globe — grown locally, organically, and sustainably,

Ranjini is a Marketing Communications Professor and runs the food & travel blog, Tadka Pasta, with her best friend. Together, they have co-authored three books.

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