Her desire to feed people “real bread” forced Priyanka Sirohi to set up her micro bakery.

◊ By Bhumika K

 Visit ORGANIC SHOP by Pure & Eco India

Her seeded sourdough breads are a vision.

The braided babkas are so Instagram-worthy. No wonder a small quiet enterprise in Noida is creating small ripples in the world of micro baking.

Priyanka Sirohi, Founder, Earthy Grains

Priyanka Sirohi learned the craft of baking sourdough bread from ‘The School of Artisan Food’, Nottinghamshire, UK. While working as a baker at a cafe in New Zealand, she explored the local farmers’ markets for various varieties of sourdough bread. Once back in India, the vast variety of grains available inspired her to start a micro bakery of her own. “I learned to make bread in 2015 from the UK. Since then I’d made bread for friends and family. This micro bakery started as my need to feed people with real bread. I stumbled upon the farmers’ market one day and struck a conversation about bread. The next thing I know is that there is a new micro bakery in town and that’s us!” says Sirohi.

A micro bakery, she explains, is a small production unit that makes bread, cakes and other bakery items in small quantities to keep the wastage to the minimum. Everything is usually made on order. “We serve fresh food and promote the ‘shop local’ concept. I had just sold my café back then and was on the lookout for the next thing to bring back my love for feeding people in more imaginative ways.” 

Paprika & Cheese Sourdough

Sirohi hopes to bring back ancient Indian grains like Emmer (Khapli), Pearl Millet (Bajra), Jowar (Sorghum), Ragi (Finger Millet), etc, back into the mainstream through her enterprise. While her products are not certified organic, she says she sources all of her ingredients from certified organic suppliers. Which is why she uses the “100% Natural” tag for her products. “For our sourdough bread, we use only flour, water and salt, along with time. None of the products has additional gluten, additive, colour or preservatives,” she says.

Earthy Grains specialises in making real sourdough bread from wholegrain flour. They also have a lot of artisan bread like Pain de Mie and Ciabatta. “There are a lot of pastry items on our menu that change according to the seasonal fruits available,” says Sirohi. Cookies, crackers, pastries (doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, babkas) and tea cakes (vegan and eggless variants) are some of their other products. The breads start from Rs. 90 and go up to Rs. 550 per loaf (customers can select size).

Earthy Grains was set up in October 2019 and was still in a nascent stage when the Covid pandemic struck. “With our major clientele from Delhi, which is our neighboring state, the Covid pandemic closed all state borders and our delivery system broke down. We are trying to re-build our first year’s work again slowly and steadily,” says Sirohi. At the moment, on an average, Earthy Grains produces 200-300 units of bread a month.

Sirohi envisages keeping the bakery micro, with small batch production to retain quality. She admits she likes the slow-paced working environment and room for creativity.

Soudough Crackers

Oats cookies

Muesli Sourdough

She has regular customers who provide her with genuine feedback. “We try and work on our product constantly. We have a variety of customers, both in Delhi and Noida. Lots of them are from the farmers’ market we frequent. Some of them are seniors who have mostly stayed abroad and are looking for real bread. We also get health-conscious people who are switching to organic preservative-free bread. Our gluten-free bread is one of the most sold items to special dietary requirement groups,” she says. 

Consumers can buy directly from www.earthygrains.in. They are also available with Nature’s Soul – Defence Colony; The Roots, Adchini; and Organicals in Greater Kailash.