If you haven’t yet heard of millets, you will notice them everywhere around you in the coming years because: 1. They are versatile Gluten Free Supergrains loaded with natural micronutrients; 2. It is a Climate Smart and sustainable grain – requiring just 1/4th the water to grow as several other grains like Rice; 3. The UN as just declared 2023 the International Year of Millets
Motherhood has become a big business online, with many women branding themselves as mums to launch blogs, businesses and social media pages centred on parenting.
Aysha Tanya talks to Shauravi Malik, co-founder of Slurrp Farm, an organic food company that heralded the movement to bring millets back into the limelight.
There’s nothing better than a business partner you can be completely honest with. On Friendship Day, women entrepreneurs share how they went from being friends to co-founders.
“It started very innocently. Meghana and I met. We got along like a house on fire from the first time we met. We had some fun business ideas, which we joked about, but we always went back to our jobs the next day. At this point we were really living in the bubble – we both had that dream job and entrepreneurship seemed too risky."
What’s old is new again. And this is great news. Suddenly, whole grains with ancient pedigrees are being embraced by home cooks and restaurants and are widely available in the supermarkets. And, leading the pack are millets.
Necessity is both mother and father of invention. Ask any of the parent-led businesses that have recently sprung up on the back of a baby.
Do you know that in a country like India, with immense diversity in food cultures, millets are the staple food for some communities and entirely unknown among others? There are efforts being made to resuscitate this amazing grain! Apart from the health benefits in the offering, millets’ revival also reflects a contemporary zeitgeist towards sustainability and return to traditional habits.
Millet is a family of grains and each one of them has their own unique characteristics. Foxtail millet is high in protein and as amazing as quinoa. Ragi is a fantastic weaning food and has 10 times the amount of calcium as wheat and rice. Similarly, there are gaon, proso millet, Kodo millet and so on.
This article features women entrepreneurs who have devised unique solutions to address unique challenges related to motherhood. These include designing fashionable maternity wear, affordable and environment-friendly cloth diapers, nutritious baby food sans preservatives, safe and natural sanitary products, to creating forums for mothers to connect and engage on relevant topics, safe and engaging toys, and more. Here are some fantastic stories of women who have made the journey simple for both parents and their children.
What can you expect when two high-flying ‘pukka corporate-type’ women professionals give up their jobs to launch a nutritious food label for children? Stiff competition to all those greasy, salty, preservatives-laden snacks out there on grocery shelves, for sure.
It was a random discussion between young mothers Shauravi Malik and Meghana Narayan that sparked a thought about introducing a healthy diet for children. What started out as an experiment to introduce millets into their children’s diet soon turned into a food brand called Slurrp Farm.
