Meet the Farmers: 40km From Farm to Pass
Winter radish, heirloom tomatoes and ghee from Kukas village — our hyperlocal winter sourcing
04 Jul 2026 · 5 min read · By Priya Singh
Every Monday at 5am, Priya drives to Kukas, 40km north of Jaipur. The farmers there don't have a website. They have a field, a cow and WhatsApp.
We met Sunita and Ramesh in 2019, when our heirloom tomato trial failed — supermarket tomatoes were too watery to roast. Sunita grew a variety her mother had saved seed from, smaller but denser, sweeter after a day in the sun. We bought 5 kilos. The next week we bought 20. Now we buy everything she grows in winter.
What we get in winter
- Long white radish — wood-fired with honey and nigella, or shaved raw with blood orange
- Heirloom tomatoes — late-harvest, charcoal-roasted for the burrata salad's cousin in December
- Ghee — churned from gir cow milk, transported in steel dabbas, still warm when it arrives
- Methi and bathua — for the saag that folds into our kulchas
Why 40km matters
The radish you eat at lunch was in the soil at dawn. That isn't a story for the menu — it's why the radish still snaps when you bite it. Distance isn't romance, it's texture.
"If it doesn't grow within a day's drive, it has to be exceptional to get on the menu." — Priya
We pay 30% above mandi price, collect at the farm gate and bring it back in the same crate. No cold chain. No plastic. Just a morning drive and a cold towel for the driver.