“It is a perfect blend of sweet choco chips and sour avarampoo powder,” says G Sriram Prasad about Greeny Crunch, a new range of cookies formulated with greens like vallarai, insulin spinach, guava leaves, tulsi and ashwagandha. Sriram, the founder and CEO of keeraikadai.com, was in Chennai recently to receive the Tamil Nadu Startup Grant Fund from Chief Minister MK Stalin for re-inventing traditional greens, and introducing them to the modern diet as value-added products in the form of ready-to-drink soups and meals.
“From over 900 startups, 31 were shortlisted drawn from segments like agriculture, climate action and livelihood. During the TANSEED 3.0 event in Chennai, we had displayed our products and the Tamil Nadu CM visited our stall and inquired about the greeny dips. He later tweeted about it. It was a great moment for us,” says Sriram whose five-year-old start up thrives on the philosophy of ‘food as medicine’ and has revived over 100 varieties of native greens such as aadathodai, thavasi, dill, to name a few. With his roots in Madurai and a farming background, Sriram is inspired by organic farming pioneer G Nammalvar’s natural farming methods and trained as an organic agriculturist at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).
