Prakash Adhikari, Lazimpat
I sell honey here. We have five different kinds of honey from various districts of Nepal. The first kind is made from Apis mellifera, which is also called the European be. We make raw honey and royal jelly honey from it. Apis cerana is Nepal’s native bee. It is found mostly in the hills and mountainous regions of Nepal. Apis laboriosa is the bee found at the cliff of the Himalayas, and to collect the honey from these beehives is an extremely challenging and precarious task. We send honey hunters to collect honey from there. Apis dorsata is also called the giant bee because it is the biggest bee on the planet and we make jungle honey from it. It lives in the trees of Tarai as well as that of hills. Sometimes these bees are also found in the people’s homes.
Our aim is to sell locally made honey in the larger market. And we have been successful to some extent in collecting honey from the local community, packaging them attractively in small bottles, and supplying them to the customers. This can be of great help to local producers who do not have access to a large customer base.
The farmer’s market has created a platform for local farmers to sell their products. Prior to this, there was no place where a variety of Nepalis goods could be sold at one place. Farmer’s markets like these encourage local producers and give them an identity. Given a platform, even Nepal can produce high quality products and sell them. Without markets like these, locally made fresh products would be lost somewhere in the aisles of big supermarkets.
Suraj Tamang, Tinchuli
We produce cheese in Pokhara and we sell the locally produced European cheese here. The farmer’s market is a good platform to sell our cheese to Nepali as well as foreign customers. Our friends in Pokhara produce the cheese and we help them sell it here in Kathmandu. It’s been five years now and our products sell quite fast. The customers here really enjoy our cheese. We also sell cheese liquid that help to preserve cheese and keep it fresh.
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Pushpa Acharya, Samakhushi
I sell homemade sel roti and aloo ko achar (potato pickle). These are authentic Nepali dishes usually made during festivals such as Dashain and Tihar. This is a part time job and I come here every Saturday. I make these products at home in the morning and come to sell them here. I enjoy cooking, and I always wanted a small platform to display my skills and this farmer’s market looked like the perfect one. The earnings might not be much but it gives me immense satisfaction to be doing something I love and making some money out of it as well.
Christina Kansakar, Dhapasi
I have my own company called the Himalayan Chocolatiers. And I sell these homemade chocolates exclusively at the farmer’s market at Le Sherpa. These chocolates are not sold anywhere else in Kathmandu. We started this business around there years back. In the beginning, we didn’t know where to sell our products. This market seemed like the perfect place to display our chocolates and we started our venture here. Our customers really enjoy the chocolates as they are different from ones you can find at regular markets. Besides that, it’s quite fun to set up shop at the farmer’s market because the ambience is really fun and exciting.
Pushpa Shrestha, Sindhuli
It’s been fifteen years since I have started cultivating organic vegetables. I majorly produce organic avocados in Sindhuli and transport them here. Apart from avocados and other vegetables I even sell local eggs as well. I consider the farmer’s market to be blessing for those who run small-scale ventures like I do because it gives us a cost effective place from where we can operate our businesses. Being able to get a steady customer base through the market has also encouraged me to continue this journey.
Bina Lama, Boudha
I make homemade donuts, brownies, carrot cakes, and many more bakery items. This market is filled with joy, laughers and happiness and that is the reason why I love coming here. Having learnt cooking from Lebanon, I wanted to come back to my own country and do something. This is why I started coming here and my customers really love the bakery items I make. This is a fun environment to interact with different kinds of customers and sell my products.
Bina Prajapati, Bhaktapur
I love cooking Newari snacks and meals. And this looked like a good place to sell fresh homemade food. People who come here really enjoy eating a variety of dishes. I sell authentic Newari snacks such as choyela, chatamari, bara, yomari, bodi, aloo sadeko, achhar, fried egg and the very famous yogurt of Bhaktapur, Juju dhau. This is a good place for budding entrepreneurs like me who want to sell fresh homemade products. Everyone relishes the food I cook and everyone seems to enjoy every moment here. This place is really exciting.
