AVL - BKT Farms, Off Mumbai Pune, Old Highway Chowk, 410203
+91 96653 83615
+91 982063 1212
info@avlfoods.com
www.avlfoods.com
Welcome to AVL Foods! You have probably landed on our website because you have tasted our products, or you intend to. Let us tell you a little more about who we are, where we come from and what we stand for.
We at Azulverde Foods have our own organic orchard. We also buy directly from farmers in our region whom we help produce their crops and fruits naturally.
We encourage and train farmers to grow without using toxic chemicals. We ensure quality control measures are followed at all stages of growth.
We buy the entire crops from the farmers at better than market price, thereby ensuring their growth and prosperity.
Our system is simple. We deliver foods and produce directly from the farm to your home and farmers markets close to you.
Azulverde Foods was conceived by the husband and wife team Irma Battig and Deepak Asarpota. Irma is a coach and healer and Deepak is a chef and eco-builder. They lived in California and Costa Rica before moving to various parts of India and settling on a farm outside of Mumbai.
Both are aware of the importance of eating pure, non-processed and naturally grown foods from one’s locality for health and wellbeing.
Azulverde Foods’ origins are organic! After living in various countries and places, we settled outside of Mumbai where we built an ecological home on a friend’s farm. What started as an organic hobby orchard began to produce more food than we could eat and give away. Because everything ripens naturally here and we only use expensive organic fertilizers, the fruits and vegetables are sweeter and tastier, not to mention healthier, than what one can buy in stores. We felt it would be a shame to not share our bounty with other people who appreciate superior quality produce and foods. That’s how the idea of Azulverde Foods was born.
Surrounding our farm are other mango orchards that have been left to nature. We source our fruits and guide vegetables from these places that are untouched by chemicals. We also encourage other farmers in the area to follow natural methods. That allows us to buy their crops and sell them directly to the consumer, something the villagers can otherwise only do in the local markets, where organic produce isn’t especially appreciated and doesn’t fetch them a fair price. Collaborating with Azulverde Foods assures them of a better income and livelihood. The soil, the air and water bodies of course benefit too by being less polluted with toxic chemicals.
Irma grew up on a typical small farm in Switzerland, eating apples and nuts fresh from the trees, berries from the bushes and plucking tomatoes from the kitchen garden. Her aunt was a pioneer of the ecological farming movement in Switzerland. Her family traded this traditional lifestyle with industrial scale farming when they purchased an operation in Quebec and moved to Canada. Not suited for life in nature, or so she thought, she went to study in Montreal and then moved to Zurich, where she had a successful career in communications culminating in the top management of a global corporation. At 33, she left the corporate world to devote herself to a more spiritual life. She moved to California where she built her own therapeutic coaching and healing practice. She never planned to live in India, let alone in a village or on a farm. But the Universe does have a sense of humour!..
Our desire to share our oasis with other creatures has led us to adopt abandoned and mistreated dogs and cats and offer them sanctuary at the farm. Our four-legged friends play an important part and add to the shared love and general well-being experienced by living in nature.
We call our foods “beyond organic” because they exceed the standards required to obtain the organic label. In order to survive, commercial organic farmers need to protect their livelihood by spraying trees in the flowering stage as well as in the fruit stage. Otherwise, all it takes is one unseasonal rain and their harvest would be destroyed. Insects that flee the chemicals sprayed on conventional farms can easily invade organic farms. That is another reason commercial organic farmer use some chemical pesticides. At Azulverde Foods, we use expensive natural neem oil instead. Because we follow more stringent organic and ecological measures than the “organic” certification demands, we can in all honesty call our foods “beyond organic”.
Our Raw Forest Honey goes directly from the hive to the bottle. We source it from local Adivasi tribes here in the Matheran region. Thanks to their knowledge of the forest and the bees, we can offer you rare indigenous and pure raw honey! It not only tastes delicious, it is also considered medicinal and can be used for a multitude of health issues. In return for this precious gift of nature, we compensate the Adivasis handsomely for their efforts.
Our selection of fresh produce is seasonal. We dehydrate or freeze some of the fruits and vegetables so that you can enjoy them around the year. We rinse fruits and vegetables in Living Water before freezing or dehydrating them. Living Water is also called structured water. It is a natural antioxidant and preservative; it keeps the molecular and energetic structure of fruits and vegetables intact. This results in produce that remains fresh for much longer and is also tastier than conventionally frozen foods.
We will keep adding new foods to our assortment as we expand our sourcing. Superior quality, organic principles and the general wholesomeness of our products will remain the main standards we adhere to. (Please be aware that organic produce is often not flawless in appearance! In fact, if a fruit looks picture-perfect, it probably has been exposed to pesticides and other chemicals.)
We hope you now have a better understanding of what differentiates Azulverde Foods from other organic brands. Please contact us for delivery in the Mumbai metropolitan area, or if you would like to collaborate with us.
Deepak is a city boy. During his lifetime, he watched the jungle of Bandra, where he and his family lived, turn into the heart of Mumbai! But he always loved animals and had pets. His father was a reluctant city dweller who took his children on mountain expeditions and for swims in the ocean. During his college years, Deepak organized hikes with hundreds of college students to Irshalgad and Matheran, the hills he can now look at from the windows of his farm house!
From a family of renowned architects, Deepak was involved in the construction business from early on. He had an interior decoration firm and also worked for large companies, introducing new construction and interior decoration products into the Indian market.
In his 30ies, Deepak moved to California where he ran his own restaurant and pub and also managed corporate restaurants. Living in the countryside in Northern California, he planted his own vegetable patch and harvested the fruit of his trees. His neighbours called him Farmer D!
The effect of personal care and love on the environment is astounding. Nature thrives! The trees quadrupled and quintupled in size in the less than four years of us living here. Their wholesome fruit ripen naturally on the trees and taste delicious, without any need to artificially make them look better or taste sweeter. They have adopted abandoned and mistreated dogs and cats and offer them sanctuary at the farm. Their four-legged friends play an important part and add to the shared happiness, love and general well-being experienced by living in nature.
Our green-certified Azulverde Living home took three months to be erected and ready to move in! Instead of cement and plaster, it is built with prefabricated MGO panels connected with a sturdy steel structure. It is waterproof, fireproof, termite proof, hurricane proof (we went through an eight-hour cyclone without incurring any damage to the house, although two thirds of the orchard were uprooted!), earthquake proof and mold proof. It also insulates ten times better than brick. MGO is a natural material that is healthy for living beings and can be used as a magnesium supplement for people and animals, as well as a natural soil fertilizer.
“The produce was fresh, delicious and the best part, pesticide free!”
“I just had a mango – absolutely delicious! You can taste the love as they taste so good. I really enjoyed it, thank you!”
“My family and I regularly order from Azulverde Foods and enjoy their naturally grown fruits and vegetables. This is the only place where I can find freshly picked mulberries devoid of any chemical. I happily recommend Azulverde Foods to all my friends.”
“We regularly order fresh veggies, mangoes and jawa apples when in season, and frozen mulberries. My family also loves their honey, jams and other food products they offer.”
