Our story

Ashokavannam, the name brings together two integral parts of our farm's existence, my late dad's name 'Ashok' and the Tamil word 'Vannam' meaning colour. Our 25 acre farm had been passionately cultivated by my dad for more than 35 years. When I took over the farm in 2022, I decided to cultivate crops as organic and as sustainable as possible. We mainly grow home necessities like Paddy, Groundnut(oil) , Sesame (oil) and Black gram. Our major income comes from our casuarina plantation which is grown for paper production. The 'Ashok' part of Ashokavannam is dedicated to the passion and hard work of my dad which still lives on. I get to walk and glide on the road that my dad so beautifully laid out.

'Vannam' came from my passion for natural dyeing. During Covid lockdown when things seemed the most uncertain, I found solace in making dyes with whatever I found around me. Spent hours dyeing fabric , making upcycled products and clothes dyed and eco printed with leaves , flowers and roots found around our farm. After a year of working for designers, I decided to move back to my farm to concentrate on marketing our produce, to help my dad and get back to natural dyeing. After a month into the decision of my coming back, my dad passed away all so suddenly due to a cardiac arrest. Being a little lost at that time somehow me, my sister and my mother found light and started working on the farm a year later. We decided to continue my father's work and also got opportunities to host and teach workshops about Natural dyeing and Eco printing.

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