Cooking Archives - Progressive Farmers

A woman who not only dreamed about her goals but also dared to pursue them and achieve success — Jyoti Gambhir

Jyoti Gambhir is a lady who not only had ambitions but also had the courage to pursue them and succeed.
If directed in the right direction at the right moment, your passion can help you reach the sky. Each and every one of us has goals and desires, but not everybody has the courage to pursue them. A person is hindered from achieving their goals by their fear of failing. Nevertheless, there are some who never give up.
One such woman, Jyoti Gambhir from Ludhiana, not only succeeded in turning her pastime into a business and achieving her goals, but also established herself as a role model for others.
Jyoti was always fond of cooking and thoroughly enjoyed it, but she exclusively did it in her kitchen at home. But there always comes a point when it’s time to start afresh.

Cooking was my hobby, and I tried cooking different food items at home for my family— Jyoti Gambhir

As they say, ”Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Jyoti’s daughter suffered from lactose intolerance and would often fall sick after she consumed outside food. Her daughter’s sickness made her resilient, and she started baking fresh biscuits for her daughter, as her biscuits were gluten free and delicious. They were well-liked by her daughter and family, who complimented her.
She became inspired and started working towards her lifelong quest of starting something of her own. She made the decision to prepare additional biscuits to distribute to her family and friends. After an overwhelming response, Jyoti gave her a ray of hope and a pair of wings to fly. She felt motivated and thought she could provide quality biscuits and bakery items for those who suffer from gluten allergies, lactose intolerance or those who prefer organic food items.

I was overwhelmed & excited to see my family’s response to my new venture— Jyoti

Her husband gave his full support to her decision. She was on cloud seven after receiving the go-ahead signal. She was optimistic about it. She thought she had overcome all the challenges and she could see her path steered clear.

Then she considered taking culinary classes. As she began her research, she made the choice to start labelling her products under the name “Delicious Bites”. The ideal choice for her, given that she resided in Ludhiana City, was to get training from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). She didn’t waste a second in starting her training at PAU.

I started my training at PAU and then, later on, worked from home to prepare fresh batter for cakes & cookies. —Jyoti Gambhir

After completing her course, she started working part-time. Meanwhile, she came across Dr. Ramandeep Singh, Marketing Head at PAU, who has guided numerous farmers in finding success and is always willing to assist them in prospering. Dr. Singh was greatly impressed with Jyoti’s work when she gave him a detailed overview of her ambition and her lifelong quest to start something of her own. He saw the determination in her. So, then he introduced Jyoti to the PAU social media team and gave her strategic marketing ideas.

Dr. Ramandeep then considered promoting Jyoti’s initiative on the Apni Kheti app and then the Apni Kheti team crafted Jyoti’s story to highlight her for better reach and support.

Jyoti had countless responses to this, and she soon began to receive calls from customers all over the city who wanted to place orders.

She started expanding her business as she garnered more marketing knowledge, using resources from Punjab Agricultural University amidst this process. After a few weeks, when her business of baking cakes and cookies was well established, she took the decision to produce more products. .

I started my Training at PAU and then, later on, worked from home- Jyoti Gambhir

As Delicious Bites began a new phase of growth, Jyoti began to package and label her products.
She makes 14–15 different kinds of bakery products out of these listed products:

Biscuits
Cakes
Bread
Jaggery
Sugarcane
Jam
Squash

The ingredients required to make biscuits are completely organic. Other goods that include jaggery are cakes, bread, and a variety of biscuits. She took a step forward, then built connections with other organic farmers and started purchasing the required ingredients directly from them.

Dr. Ramandeep made all of this possible by assisting Jyoti in establishing her career.

Currently, Jyoti manages all marketing and promotion of ‘Delicious Bites’ on Instagram and Facebook pages, which she also owns.

In 2019, she was rewarded with Rs. 16 lakhs from The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana-Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) for taking up a great initiative of preservative free products.

Jyoti Gambhir then became a partner with Celebrating Farmers Edge International (C.F.E.I.) PVT LTD in 2021, where she is assisting many farmers in the processing of naturally grown sugarcane into healthy products such as cane jam and alkaline cane juice tea. C.F.E.I. has already established two Farmer Interest Groups (F.I. G) through this company, and their goal is to establish 100 F.I. Gs by the end of the year with the assistance of SBI Coimbatore and IIT Mumbai, their technology partners. These farmer groups support, educate, and help them learn how to market their own products.

“Do not follow where the path may lead.” “Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

We all have dreams, but not many fulfil them. Mrs. Jyoti Gambhir is the proud owner of Delicious Bites and has managed to fulfil the quest of her lifelong dream by opening her first outlet in Maharashtra under the partnership with C.F.E.I. She plans on expanding her business further this year and is opening another outlet in her hometown, Ludhiana.

It all started with a home bakery, baking cakes and cookies and delivering orders. She gradually learnt about the various types of preferences people have and began baking vegan and gluten-free products. She went from selling 15 units per day to selling 1,000 units per day and launched her own brand. As they say,

“Dreams don’t work unless you do.”

In 2021, Delicious Bites, a preservative and chemical-free bakery, was the only bakery from Punjab selected by the Govt. of India to showcase their products in the Dubai Expo India Pavilion.

FUTURE PLANS

She wants to grow her business to the extent where she can afford to package and be able to market her own products under one roof.

MESSAGE

Every woman should chase her dreams; there are no limits to fulfilling those goals if a person is fully determined and passionate.

How A Woman’s Fascination towards Creativity Led Her to Be a Successful Entrepreneur

It is said that, when you have the passion, then take the action and magic will happen. Well, this is a very true saying. A woman with the same attitude, followed her passion and today she is running a successful business.

Maninderjeet Kaur – a usual woman who always was fascinated with the creative handwork from her childhood, and later on, in her teenage, stitching and embroidery became her hobby. As her passion for creativity and her hobby grew more steadily, it made her feel like she should learn this skill professionally, and this ultimately led her to pursue Diploma in Stitching after her education (10th passed).

After marriage, generally, women think about spending a good time with their better half, getting settled with their family responsibilities and spending time with their kids. But this was not the case with Maninderjeet Kaur. It is not that, she hasn’t fulfilled her responsibilities, but at the same time, she also gave equal importance to her interest also. Currently, she is living happily with her family in Zirakpur and also running her business.

Twenty years ago Maninderjeet Kaur started Maninder Silayi Center and later on gave a label name to her business called Kohinoor, which today has prospered to a very successful business cum workshop. And to reach every big thing you have to start from small. Maninderjeet Kaur started by teaching stitching and embroidery to few girls at her home. Soon, she got recognized in the locality and many women and girls started visiting her for tailoring lessons. Finally, her degree came to work, she rented an area where she started giving tailoring lessons. She taught her students to stitch designer suits, bed sheets, pillow covers, kitchen cloth bag, grocery shopping bag, mats and many more things. Today there are total 60 girls under her, some of them are trainers and the rest are students who are still learning.

In her stitching centre, she has 15 stitching machines from which she teaches around 10 courses- stitching, fashion stitching, quilt making, bed sheet making, painting, embroidery (machine/handmade both), cooking, and different types of bag stitching. Her tailoring centre and classes are so popular that even educated women who are working as a doctor, engineer, and nurse take out time from their busy schedule to learn from her. Usually, she charges Rs. 500 for stitching course and 600 to 1000 for painting course to normal students. But sometimes she doesn’t charge to girls and women who are from a weak financial background and don’t have enough money to pay for the course. Moreover, she provides stitching material from her side to them, so that they can learn the skill and earn for themselves.

In the beginning, when she started her business, her quality work bring her a good customer (a shop in Chandigarh called VIVCO) and she partnered with them. She purchases clothes in bulk from VIVCO, wash them, make different items from it like bed sheets, pillow covers, bags, suits in her workshop and send all those products to VIVCO so that they can further sell it in the market. This whole process was generating good profit to her business. But around three years ago, in 2014, VIVCO closed their business, and it impacted Maninderjeet Kaur’s business severely. Till then she is facing hindrances in running her business smoothly because she doesn’t have a proper commercial platform to sell her workshop produce in the market. Despite all these hardships she never felt demotivated, and even today is she gets any opportunity or chance, she actively participate in it and gives her 100%.

Today Maninderjeet Kaur is in her mid-60s, but her inner passion has not diminished yet. She still teaches her student with full of energy and enthusiasm. According to her, she is still growing and learning which is helping her to add more products to expand her business. She attends every type of exhibition or event to make her brand more popular and gain the ideal audience.

Maninderjeet Kaur has been stitching clothes and doing embroidery since her teenage but never had she thought that this would someday turn into a full-fledged business for her. She is tailoring her way to success and the identity she has earned today is because of her zeal to continue her interest. For now, she is focusing on improving her revenues to maximize the profit and also to take her business on greater heights.

Message by Maninderjeet Kaur
“A woman should never suppress her skills and interest because of other reasons. Because those skills and interest can help her earn livelihood tomorrow in difficult times. Moreover knowing an additional skill is never a disadvantage, sometime in future that skill will definitely come to work. And whenever you get the opportunity, never miss it and always take advantage of it.”