Three products. That is the whole list.

01 · Morchella esculenta

Guchhi Mushroom

The diamond of the forest. Prized worldwide for a deep, earthy, umami-rich flavour and a honeycomb texture nothing else quite reproduces.

Guchhi has resisted every serious attempt at commercial cultivation, which is precisely why it costs what it costs. Every cap in this box was found by a person walking a slope in Kullu, Chamba or the forests of Kashmir, cut at the stem so the mycelium survives, carried down in mesh, and dried in the sun for four to six days.

Fifty grams looks like very little until you soak it. It swells to several times its dry weight, and the soaking liquid — which most people throw away — is the most concentrated thing in your kitchen that week.

Species

Morchella esculenta

Ingredients

100% dried morel mushrooms. Nothing else.

Origin

Himalayan region, India — Kullu, Chamba & Kashmir forests

Net weight

50 g

M.R.P.

₹1,500 (incl. of all taxes)

Harvest window

March – May, roughly six weeks

Drying

Sun-dried, 4–6 days — never kilned

Shelf life

12 months from the date of packing

Storage

Cool, dry place. Airtight or refrigerated after opening.

FSSAI

Lic. No. 23326001002346

How to use

Culinary uses: guchhi pulao, morel risotto, cream-and-thyme sauces for game or chicken, Kashmiri yakhni, or simply sautéed in butter with nothing else in the pan.

02 · Oryza sativa, red pericarp

Himalayan Red Rice

Grown on rain and snowmelt, on terraces cut into the oak belt above Shimla that nobody has ever managed to level flat.

The colour is not a treatment — it is the bran layer, left on. Milling it off would make the grain cook faster and keep longer, and would also throw away most of the reason to eat it. Cool nights slow the grain down and set the anthocyanins that give it that deep russet.

It eats nutty and faintly sweet, and it keeps its bite in a way white rice cannot. Give it longer than you think — around 35–40 minutes, or soak it first and cut that roughly in half.

Origin

Shimla hills, Himachal Pradesh — 1,400 – 2,400 m

Farming

Rain-fed terraces, snowmelt irrigation, traditional smallholder

Milling

Unpolished — bran layer intact

Harvest

September – October

Pack

1 kg

Cooking

1 : 2½ rice to water · 35–40 min · soak to shorten

Indicative values for unpolished red rice; the crop varies by season and terrace.

03 · Phaseolus vulgaris, Bharmour

Premium Rajma

A mountain bean from the steep dryland plots around Bharmour, in Chamba — small, thin-skinned, and grown where a tractor simply cannot go.

Bharmour rajma is not the big glossy kidney bean of the plains. It is smaller and it takes a long season — 150 days or more — with cold nights that build a skin fine enough to go soft without bursting. That is the whole trick: it holds its shape through a slow braise and still turns creamy inside.

Soak overnight. Then give it far longer on the heat than you would give a supermarket bean, and do not salt it until it is nearly there.

Origin

Bharmour, Chamba district — 2,000 – 2,900 m

Farming

Smallholder dryland plots, long season (150+ days)

Harvest

October – November

Pack

500 g

Taste

Creamy, faintly sweet, holds its shape

Cooking

Soak 8 hrs · pressure cook 20–25 min · salt late

Indicative values for dried kidney beans; the crop varies by season and plot.

Recipe suggestions: classic rajma-chawal with the Himalayan red rice above; a slow Punjabi-style masala; or cooked plain and dressed warm with onion, lemon and green chilli.