Organic Farming gained a widespread popularity during the 1940s, and has grown to over 71.5 million hectares of organic farmland in the world as of 2020, according to IFOAM – Organics International. The number is increasing each year as more people are adopting organic diets, fabrics, and skincare. In India, Ambrosia Organic Farm, one of the pioneers of organic farming, is catering to these needs, but the farm started off with lands that let nothing but grass grow in it.
Carving Dreams in shapes of Terraces
Started by a man from England, David Gower, Ambrosia Organic Farm was a result of his love for the state of Goa, which he visited once in 1978 and kept coming back to. He finally decided to uproot his life in England and planted himself here and started an organic farming initiative with just 10 acres of land belonging to his partner in the company, Baby Phimister who happens to be a native of that area and who is married to another English refugee. Her land, nearly three hours away from the coastal belt was nothing but a very stony hillside that gave just a single crop of grass each year.
The only problem was the land was a mass of infertile, hilly soil full of rocks. To overcome this, they created terraces in the hillside for cultivation and built bunds to hold the soil in place during the excessively heavy monsoons. The next few years were filled with attempts to enrich the soil through adding manure, making compost, digging in rock phosphate and calcium from seashells – but all of this provided only limited success.
David started the company as Ambrosia Dairy in 1995, then went on to grow rice but only obtained a meagre amount of crop owing to the poor quality of the soil in 1998. It was then when he experimented with something that shaped how salads looked like in India: Lettuce, that he found greater success. The “new” vegetable attracted various cultivators and government officials to the fields that were surprised to know that this plant with the looks of a foreign flower was in fact a vegetable eaten raw.
Friend of a Farmer
They hit the jackpot in 2005 with David’s construction of a vermicompost production centre and he says, “This investment paid off handsomely and soon the unit was yielding in excess of 10 tons of high grade fertiliser per year.” That was an inspiration for all the farmers around them to start organic farming, as vermicompost needs nothing more than the biodegradable waste created at home, along with some air, moisture and labour. Many of them also studied the installation to replicate it on their own farms.
“As the vermicompost is transferred to the fields, eggs and tiny baby worms also get transferred and become part of the soil outside, where they also start to work their magic directly in the field, where it is most needed. Earth worms, in addition to turning organic matter into water soluble fertiliser also ventilate the soil as they burrow though the earth leaving behind them shafts and tunnels that carry air and water down to the roots of the plants,” the team at Ambrosia says, as they tell us that earthworms are farmers’ friends.
David went on to introduce new products in the organic market like Rice Cakes, making Ambrosia the first company in India to produce them. Ambrosia has played an important part in revolutionising organic food since the early 2000s. The company now deals in numerous pantry items and Rice Cakes, Peanut Butter, and more: all of them organic and produced by farmers who have partnered with them.
Organic rice cakes
Ambrosia’s rice cakes are 100% gluten-free which is lighter on the body to digest and works as a great snack in between the meals.
The brand makes a variety of organically grown rice cakes, using Dorga rice, Mysore RD Rice, Trishul Brown Rice, Sona Massori and Koti Rice. The farm makes sure to use the rice grain along with its skin and not the polished or hybrid one, to maintain the uniqueness of its taste. Ambrosia’s rice cakes are made in whole rice grain, which marks its inimitable taste. The rice cakes are mixed using at least two to three varieties of rice with the addition of millet. These rice cakes are Amaranth, Ragi, Quinoa, Spicy, and Buckwheat.
The multigrain cakes come with a blend of two rice types along with Amaranth, Buckwheat, Bajra, Ragi, and Barnyard Millet. A fine combination of these grains together enhances the taste of the multigrain rice cakes and also promotes weight loss. The consumption of these cakes is extremely healthy for children as well. Amaranth grain rice is packed with proteins that work as the powerhouse of nutrients.
Along with rice cakes and multigrain cakes, Ambrosia also offers low in gluten wheat cakes prepared from Kapali wheat rice which is extremely rare to find these days. Finding its origin in Emma wheat in Persia, Kapali is one of the oldest varieties of wheat which has been a source of great nutrition and is trusted for the betterment of health for more than 2000 years.
Preserving the “Desi”
Presently, Ambrosia Organic Farm Pvt Ltd based in Bardez, Goa, owns a farm of 35 acres with 10 associated farmers from the same area cultivating another 95 acres. It uses its resources to encourage farmers to grow indigenous varieties of rice and wheat, keeping alive the traditional foods while bearing the lower yields and longer duration to mature. These seeds are kept in use and grown annually so that the coming generations get to taste and value them. Ambrosia is linked to hundreds of farmers across the country so as to be able to access all of India’s wonderful bounty and making it available to the people of Goa.
