My Story
We are a family of farmers from Himachal Pradesh. Growing up, I've witnessed the relentless efforts my parents put to nurture our beautiful apple orchard. It's disheartening to see their hard work yield unfair returns.
July 2017,
While living and working in Bangalore, I was taken aback when I saw the same apples my parents cultivated being sold at a significantly higher price than what they received. I was baffled at how cold-storage apples were fetching a better price than the apples I know are farm fresh. It really put things in perspective. My desire to help them remained strong even though I was preoccupied with my first job.
July 2021,
I now had a community of over 10k like-minded enthusiasts with whom I shared gardening and home decor content. That year, I visited my farm after two years of COVID, right before the apple harvest. I saw an opportunity to bridge the gap and take farm fresh apples right to the customers. With the support of my friends, I organised an apple sale under the brand name 'Him2Home'. That one week, was a journey of learning and unlearning and constantly growing through the process.
During the first sale, through Delhi's heavy rains and water-logged roads, my friends took it upon themselves to hand-deliver each box despite getting drenched and having to face their own set of challenges. That kind of support system is what made me think I could do this.
July 13th, 2021.
My first sale went live, and the response exceeded my expectations. We sold out within three hours, and I managed to sell over 300 kg of apples. Over the next few weeks, we conducted three more sales from my farm and assisted two neighboring farmers in direct sales, selling a total of over 1700 kg
Our first sale delivery locations across Delhi- NCR
That’s how a beautiful chapter of my life started!
Through these sales, I discovered a lack of consumer knowledge about apples, with many unaware of the various apple varieties grown in the northern states of India and the significant price difference between what they paid and what farmers received. This was not just about selling my farm apples but also now to educate and create awareness about apples and the farmers growing them, through so much hardship and the lack of proper infrastructure from the government.
March 2022,
Thanks to WFH culture, I returned to my orchard to assist my parents, practice permaculture and natural farming, and document my farm life on Instagram. Witnessing the drastic climate changes impacting farmers across India, I became vocal about the need to adopt sustainable farming practices and found like-minded individuals working and sharing their expertise in this field.
July 2022,
With the overwhelming success of our first run, we had people asking in advance for our apple sales and requesting that we deliver in other cities as well. With some trials and errors, we launched our Second Season sale, but this time also delivered PAN India and managed to cover farthest corners of our country.
July 2023,
We renamed our brand to 'Phal Phool' and improved ways of conducting sales. The challenges faced by apple farmers were relentless this year, from early flowering to hailstorms, persistent rains throughout the summer, never seen before monsoon devastation in Himachal Pradesh and overall production loss of around 60%, we needed your support more than ever and like every year you did not disappoint us. Thank you for your unwavering support.
February 2024,
Taking heed of our Instagram community's input, we're excited to present a selection of flower seeds cultivated on our farm. We trust you'll relish watching them flourish, just as much as we have!🌻
