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Go natural: Organic food in Lahore and where to buy it
Lahore has also recently caught onto the fad of eating right, with many experts suggesting organically grown and produced ingredients as a necessity to good health.
However, finding organic food — cultivated without the use of chemical fertiliser, pesticides and/or other artificial substances — can be a mission if you don’t know where to look.
Here is a list of places where you can buy organic foods in Lahore:
Farmers Markets
Farmers markets are some of the best places to find home-grown and organic foods especially if you are looking for variety. The Haryali Market and the Khalis Food Market are good places to start.
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| Khalis Food Market.—Photo Courtesy: Khali Food Market's Official Facebook Page |
The (now postponed) Shaukat Khanum Fitness Fiesta promises to host a farmers market as well. Meanwhile, the Khalis Food Market is scheduled for February 1, 2015.
Supermarkets
Some places where organic foods are readily available are Al-Fatah, Jalal Sons, METRO, Hyperstar, Pioneer, and the likes. However, be cautious that you will have to be careful about what you pick out. A brand that is available and committed to organic foods is Daali Earth Foods and which stocks in almost all of the above mentioned stores.
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| Daali Earth Foods.—Photo Courtesy: RedAntArmy |
Get In Touch:
- Al-Fatah: DHA Y-Block and Liberty Market
- Jalal Sons: DHA Phase 5 and Main Market, Gulberg
- METRO: ThokarNiazBaig and Main Airport Road, DHA
- Hyperstar: Fortress Stadium
- Pioneer: Main Market
Zacky Farms
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| Zacky Farms.—Photo Courtesy: Zacky Farms' Official Facebook Page |
For farm fresh and organic produce order from Zacky Farms. Their products include milk, vegetables (cauliflower, coriander, lettuce, toriasaag, ghiyya, eggplant, capsicum, green chilies, cabbage, bitter gourd, red onion, okra), cheese, butter and wheat. From February, they will also be offering organic eggs, chicken and fish.
Arammish Spa
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| Spaghetti at Arammish.—Photo by author |
Popular for its focus on wellness, Arammish has a limited selection of organic dishes to choose from. They include spaghetti with marinara sauce, hummus served with whole wheat bread, tuna salad and crispy chicken rolls.
Get In Touch: 66 B, Syed Maratib Ali Road, Lahore
Nadoz Greens
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| Nadoz Greens.—Photo Courtesy: Nadoz Greens' Official Facebook Page |
Nadoz Greens is a treat for organic-food enthusiasts, for its specialised interest in salads, vegetables and herbs. Their products for salad mixes are cut only after you have ordered. The salad mixes include Super Mix (Black Simpson, Little Caesar, Matchless, Salad bowl, Lollo rosso, Royal Oak), Garden greens (Lollo rosso, Black Simpson, Red oak leaf, Red salad bowl), Baby Salad Mix (green lollo biondo, red lollo biondo, lamb lettuce, cress) and Spring Mix (red coral, green coral, baby romaine, marvel of four seasons, green leaf).
Individual salad packets include kale, tat soi and romaine. For herbs they have a selection of dill, cress, basil, holy basil, arugula, wild rocket, flat leaf parsley and curly parsley.
O’s Organic Honey
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| O’s Organic Honey. — Photo courtesy official Facebook page |
O’s Organic Honey should be an essential part of our diet and organic honey is difficult to find. If you are looking then is a good option and offers free for delivery all over Lahore.
Reef’s Organic Box
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| Reef's Organic Box.—Photo Courtesy: Reef's Organic Box's Official Facebook Page |
Reef’s Organic Box offers its customers desi ghee, spices, eggs, wheat flour and sugar.
They also have a variety of organic delights that include a traditional almond and elachi drink, tamarind and plum juice, aloe vera and mint drink, falsa chutney, mango and garlic chutney and aloe vera leaf.
Foha Raza is a journalism graduate who is Assistant Editor at SiddySays. She also works as a publicist.
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Comments (18) Closed
Punjab is an Agri based economy and if you want to have some organic product then give yourself a ride to the nearest village and buy it and it is as simple as that. You dont need to spend too much money on some ventures in Lahore that ask for the exuberant prices and infact they are just buying it from the farmer and bringing the produce to the cities.
Great information. Can we get organic food in Karachi and if yes than from where?
This is very helpful,thank you. You should also do an article on Karachi health food scene as well. We Pakistanis are amazing..we live large, kabobs, makhanis, gulab jamoons and what not, but we also live healthy ! Btw, do they even have organic food stores in other south asian countries ?
Please stop this kind of stunts in Pakistan because most Pakistani produce is organic. These are impractical gimmicks of the consumer societies. I hope my point went across.
I am under the impression that we don't have any Genetically modified Agriculture products in Pakistan. Therefore, all agri products are organic.
Organic food ? LOL - like the other food is made up of all plastics. Mate, the fertiliser, and the pesticides are just like medicine for the vegetables, why do you consume medicine ? To ward of unwanted illness. Why do you deny the medicine for the veggies, which can't get it themselves. If you want to go completely natural, then why do you wear clothes ? Nature didn't invent clothes, why do you use computers ? Nature didn't invent computers. Why do you consume clean drinking water. Nature polluted it for you....
@Mahmood IF YOU MUST, then follow the guidelines in the article. There are several villages around Karachi as well. Just visit them. Or you didn't read the complete article, just the names of the food markets in Lahore.
I would like to know whether any organic produce from these organizations based in Lahore is being exported via air cargo to European markets? Is there a demand in the Middle East market for organic produce from Pakistan? I remember having come across a report a couple of years ago of organic produce from China being flown daily to Europe.
Are there any organically and locally grown whole pulses, peas, & beans suitable for sprouting available in the Lahore market?
@Malik Saab
Not so easy....If you remember some farmers used to grow wheat and vegetable without all the pesticides and chemical fertilizers, for their own consumption. That stuff was the organic food and not ordinarily available for sale.
Here is new research in Canada that there is no much difference between the organic and regular produce. Then why waste your money to make some people richer. Live on a normal regular diet and do not worry.
Become Vegetarian.You donot have to kill animals for food.Nature provides all human vegetarian teeth,mouth,mind ,heart ,kidneys, liver needs and care for.The recent dietry recommendations are moving away from animal based foods,specialy red meats.
@Rev. Eldrick Lal well you are under the wrong imrpession. Most food grown is laden with heavy toxic pesticides. Organic food is only grown if there are no pecticides or hormones used. Problem is in the west it can be certified but in PK no one can say for sure.
LOL - so this 'fad' has started back in Pak too. Sad, i believe it to be a pure lie. I always thought Pak had organic food to begin with. Looks like I was wrong.
@Malik Saab where in Punjab we can get organic food!!! All villages who grow crops and vegetables use a lot of pesticides.. so finding organic food is near to impossible as their yield is much lower and not profitable to farmers.. these ventures are great and paying abit more makes sense..
This is all farce !!!! Being an agriculture research expert, the agriculture sector in Pakistan is going through mass media frenzy now. All these advertisements about organics and Farmer's market is nothing more than than a big gimmick ! It's a platform to fleece peopl
An illuminating piece. Thank you for this much need information.
One basic question: if Yuria fertilizer is used in the field then whatever is grown in it cannot be labelled as organic food. Similarly if GMO seeds are used then the final product can never be organic. We all know that almost 99% of farmers in Pakistan use Yuria...
Having said that, I still think that this idea of selling organic food in Pakistan will be successful (only in high end areas) because of two reasons : 1) this is something new, 2) lack of awareness about real organic products.