CHENNAI: Equal parts compost, sand and coco peat mixed with a generous amount of seeds ranging from fennel, fenugreek, mustard, sunflower to bok choy. Over the last year, city-based Pradipa Gubendran has found joy in growing baby plants (microgreens) and spreading the goodness through her subscription box venture – Ayini. “It’s a word that belongs to the Sangam period. It means food, abundance.
When I was looking for a name for my startup, I stumbled upon a Tamizh poem from the Sangam era and took a liking to this particular word. I knew it had to be the name for my venture,” shares the entrepreneur, who launched Ayini in January 2020. Growing and nurturing ‘plant babies’ has been a part of her life. Thanks to her mother. “For as long as I remember, my mother has had a passion for gardening and over the years, she went on to create her green cover at home.
Seeing her plant seeds, water and care for them and harvest its produce has been a regular affair. From custard apple to sapota, she has everything in her garden! So my love for plants and gardening comes from there,” she narrates. In 2017, challenged by her mother to grow fennel at home, Pradipa picked a few seeds, marking her beginning into the world of microgreens. “I was quite aware of how to grow fenugreek at home. But fennel was new and I didn’t know if it would work.
To my surprise, it did and that was the first microgreen I ever planted and harvested,” she recalls. But it was not until 2019, when Pradipa shifted to a new house, did she start exploring its nuances more seriously. “The new house was smaller. So when I decided to tap my green thumb and experiment with gardening by myself, I had to look for options that didn’t take too much space. So I started researching microgreens and tried my hands at growing the basic methi and fennel,” she shares.
Sending portions of her micro harvest to friends, colleagues and neighbours, receiving feedback and chalking a plan, she soon embarked on a bigger journey. “By January 2020, I tried other varieties and grew radish, cabbage and amaranth, among others. I even gave them to local chefs to try out and it was a huge success,” she shares. Eventually, Pradipa started sending out single microgreen boxes and even supplied them for events, and by June 2020, flagged the subscription model.
While the lockdown briefly pressed pause on delivery and other logistics for Ayini, the ‘eat healthy’ mindset which sprouted out of the period furthered the venture’s success in August 2020, notes Pradipa. “Microgreens have concentrated sources of minerals, vitamins and antioxidants. They also give a beautiful colour, texture and aromatic flavour to your food. The shoots of the Indian varieties are extremely healthy and their absorption ratio is high too.
This is one of the reasons why our ragi microgreen is super successful — it has a high absorption rate and is super tasty! It’s amazing how these small plants pack a punch,” she tells. Mung, chickpea, mustard, amaranth, mizuna, flax, garden cress, basil, Swiss chard, radish, bok choy, alfalfa, adzuki, onion, sunflower, cabbage, corn, wheatgrass, clover and kohlrabi are among the 40 varieties that Ayini offers in its subscription boxes.
Since the baby plants can be harvested and consumed between 7 to 21 days of germination, Pradipa also offers ‘Live microgreen boxes’, wherein the plants are sent out during germination for her patrons to harvest it themselves and enjoy the produce based on their needs. Hydroponic basi l , floret versions of broccoli, shoot variants, exotic varieties like red cabbage and red garnet are other variants in Ayini’s line-up.
Subscription boxes are priced from Rs 999. For details,
visit Facebook/Instagram page Ayini Microgreens or call: 9884276948