Zizira explorers regularly set out on field trips to visit villages which are off the beaten track – in remote areas - as there is a good chance of meeting farmers struggling to find a market for their produce.
Do you ever wonder how the food you eat reached you? What hard work goes behind it? Who helps you maintain a continuous supply of food? Yes, it's the farmers and their hard work. We often complain about the high price of the crops or vegetables we buy. But hardly do we think about the farmers, their lives, and the conditions they live in.
You love honey. Everyone does. But do you know the way honey is processed? You may not know it but that favourite bottle of honey on your kitchen shelf may have not been processed ethically. Wait a minute, is there even something like processing honey ethically? It's natural food. The bees make it, so there can’t be any foul play, right?
Perhaps you have heard of Lakadong turmeric. And are curious to dig deep and discover everything about Lakadong? Well, you are in the right place. At Zizira, we have partnered with real farmers, in the #LakadongCountry, a group of villages about 90kms from Shillong, that grow the best turmeric in the world. A week ago, we decided to take a trip down to these villages, meet our farmers, and experience their daily work in Lakadong. This blog is a diary of sorts, of our trip.
It's April and spring has arrived. It is the month of planting and farmers are busy preparing their fields to plant varieties of new crops. For Lakadong turmeric farmers the story is no different.
The fear of ageing seems to be getting everyone’s goat. People have wrong notions about ageing. You are as young as you feel you are. Attitude is what makes for graceful ageing.
What was originally developed for NASA in the 1960s to prevent microbiological contamination of Astronauts’ food became the blueprint for the global food industry’s safe food assurance system. In 1971, food companies in the USA voluntarily adopted NASA’s system to develop techniques to guarantee safe food for the public. Thus HACCP or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point protocol eventually took shape. The system is now a recognized food safety monitoring system that food companies the world over have successfully adopted.
The world’s best turmeric comes from the Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya. In their quest for Lakadong turmeric, Zizira explorers ensconced themselves in Lakadong country with one sole purpose, to bring out the best the world can offer in turmeric. Hand in hand with their supplier the team gave their all unstintingly to realise that purpose. All that would not have been possible without the unreserved devotion of Bah Shadap, the soul behind the sourcing of pure, genuine and unmixed Lakadong turmeric with curcumin content upwards of 7.5%.
'Bei' is an endearing term meaning Mother in the Pnar language of the Jaintias, a sub-tribe of the Khasi people of Meghalaya. Bei Bina is one of the retailers of Khasi spices in Shillong. I had an appointment with Bei through my sister Lina who knows her well. I intended to get her story out there for my friends at Zizira.