Showing posts with label Chandigarh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chandigarh. Show all posts

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

Grow pesticide-free veggies indoors, without soil

A lot of ‘safe’ green leafy vegetables and fruits that form a part of your regular palate have an unnatural pesticide residue clinging to them despite being washed multiple times.

Imagine an opportunity where you could grow your own vegetables and herbs in a completely organic manner.

Sounds awesome, right?

What if you could grow them inside your home?

Pindfresh, a Chandigarh-based green company, offers solutions for growing vegetables and herbs at homes without soil!

Employing the method of hydroponics, where plants are grown using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent, instead of soil, the folks behind Pindfresh believe in scaling down large structures and making small fungible, Lego-like structures that can be installed in a modular fashion as per need.

“We develop hydroponic do-it- yourself (DIY) kits in varying sizes that are supplemented with replacement nutrients, organic seeds and inert mediums—precisely everything that you need to start growing your own food produce,” says Somveer Anand, who is the chief fabricator of Pindfresh.


The story behind the venture goes way back to 2012 when Somveer’s father fell sick. A change of dietary habits as prescribed by doctors, led the family to start growing their own food.

“I had been previously located in the United States but once my father fell sick, we came to the realisation of the life-threatening impact of pesticides in the most of ‘safe’ food produces. For the last five years, we have been growing our own vegetables and fruits,” he divulges.

The family that had been quite efficiently growing vegetables decided to venture out and thought of starting with children, having great grasping abilities.

“It was quite shocking to know that little kids hardly had any idea of how plants grew and basic concepts of nutrient requirement. We reached out to many schools and conducted workshops that enriched children about the facets involved for growing plants and how they could do the same,” Somveer explains.

What started as a hobby for an initial period of six months, Pindfresh today is heart and soul for Somveer, who currently dedicates all of his time to the company.

“We have a team of six members, each of whose contribution is equally valuable in reaching out to our customers. They’re more like a management team from whom I draw inspiration. Honestly, I feel that as a small venture, one’s dedication towards keeping the benefactors happy is the most vital driving force,” he says.

With packages that help you set up minute indoor kitchen gardens requiring only diffused sunlight, Pindfresh also offers installations for inside the house. “In such cases, we offer customised lighting solutions that would act up for the lack of direct sunlight for the plants to grow,” Somveer mentions.

Apart from catering to homes, the company also helps revamping offices into green workspaces.

One of the companies to have its workplace transformed by Pindfresh into a space blooming with petunias and zinnias was Jugnoo.

“One often fails to acknowledge the air cleansing properties that plants possess. This way, not only do we help people have pesticide-free home-grown food but also live in a healthier environment,” he adds.

You can reach out to Pindfresh at som@pindfresh.com or call on 9878733551.

(Source: The Better India)

Wednesday, 19 September 2012

All-veg McDonald's eyes India's holy sites

Fast-food giant is opening its first-ever, all-vegetarian restaurants in India, but could stoke a religious backlash.

Move over greasy burgers, the world's most recognisable fast food chain is about to go vegetarian.

McDonald's has announced plans to open its first-ever, all-vegetarian restaurants in India - a country of 1.2 billion people - where cows are sacred to majority Hindus, and swine are considered unclean by minority Muslims.

The mega-chain - known for its "100 per cent pure beef" - has faced significant culinary obstacles in India, as 80 per cent of the population does not consume the restaurant's main staple.

India also boasts a Muslim population of about 150 million, meaning pork is culled from the menu.

Hence the focus on all-vegetarian outlets. McDonald's menu is already 50 per cent vegetarian in India, and the chain has made a significant effort to adapt to local tastes. On offer are items such as the McAloo Tikki burger, Pizza McPuff and Maharaja Mac - made with a chicken fillet.

"We have always been cognizant of the religion-based and other sensitivities of our customers," company spokesman Rajesh Kumar Maini told Al Jazeera. "We believe this endeavour of ours will also be well accepted." 


Read more here...