When one thinks of Mumbai, the words that immediately pop into mind are “concrete jungle,” “slums,” “polluted,” “congested,” “overpopulated,” and “bursting at the seams”. Of all the words associated with this metropolitan city of dreams, “green” and “farming” are not the ones that you’d come up in a jiffy. Adrienne Thadani and her partner Karen Peters are making an effort to change this perception.
Thadani has started an initiative in the green-starved city of Mumbai. Aptly nicknamed Urban Farming, this program is meant to spread knowledge and encouragement about growing food and herbs in your own house. Thadani and Peters have created a terrace garden at the Bombay HUB (a social network forum) and they also conduct courses that take you through the basics of Urban Farming. If you thought growing food would be a back breaking enterprise, you’ll find these sessions to be an eye opener. As Thadani puts it, “For most people, the idea of growing food in the city is hard to imagine. Once they see the terrace at the HUB and realize that it’s possible, they want to start doing it too.”
Growing vegetables and herbs on your terrace
There are more than a few reasons for you to start cultivating a green thumb. You can vouch for the quality of herbs and vegetables grown at home. Not just that, you have a steady supply of fresh grown stuff in your own house, saving you the frequent trips to the market and back. It also keeps you a little more immune to the fluctuations in price and gives you the luxury of laughing at inflation on its face.
Greens peeping out from different parts of the apartment
Besides, home grown food has a unique taste to it. It might just be a psychological effect but people swear that home grown stuff tastes a lot more flavorful and delicious compared to the commercially produced food items. Finally, there’s nothing that quite soothes they eye like plants growing in full swing, be it on your terrace or in your balcony. They help increase the oxygen content in your surrounding atmosphere and cool down your living space as well.
City farms on their way to changing the urban landscape
With so much to gain at such less investment (both in terms of time and money) it is no wonder that more and more people are taking to Urban Farming to better their standard of living. And those who are keen on the idea, but simply do not have the time to indulge in it, can buy fresh, organic food straight from Thadani’s terrace garden at the ‘HUB Harvest’. Alternatively, you can also check out Mumbai’s Farmers’ Market for locally grown food. It won’t take you long to convert to a healthier lifestyle.
