Aamra Is A Homegrown Brand Recreating The Nostalgia Of Handcrafted Spices and Pickles

As a child, the fragrance of jarred pickles and masalas filled our home, indicating the arrival of a season. Summers in my Nani’s home always smelled like chillies, with everyone around sneezing like R K Laxman's cartoons. Aamra, founded by Jaya Bajaj in 2017 under the Nari Shiksha Kendra, is a brand that packages this nostalgia. 

In 1964, Pushpawati Khaitan founded Nari Shiksha Kendra, a community committed to providing women livelihoods. They made hand-ground masalas, traditional pickles, and chutneys with locally sourced produce and recipes from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan. Aamra is a label launched under the Nari Shiksha Kendra in Ghaziabad, with around thirteen women handcrafting local pickles, regional chutneys and spices the traditional way. All ingredients are matured year-around and result in a melange of well-aged flavours throughout Aamra’s products. 

The spices we use in our homes today — mass produced and machine manufactured — neither have the intensity, nor the fresh taste of hand-ground spices. Pickle making and drying spices brought women of a community together. Meeting at noon to optimally dry the vegetables and whole spices was inevitable whether it was in terraces of North India, or the mithhams and courtyards of South India. It wasn’t just cooking, it was a nod to tradition and community. The magic of home-made pickles and spices lies in their longevity, and the skills of our ancestors who knew ratios by hand, that complemented geographical restrictions — your Nani knew that humidity called for one lesser cup of water. Unfortunately, machines don’t have these intuitions. Aamra has spent years perfecting these recipes to bring that same intuition and magic to our dinner tables. 

This homegrown brand is not only a nod to our age old traditions, but also creates opportunities for women artisans in the region. 

Their product range consists of heritage pickles, regional chutneys, whole and ground spices, herbs and seasonings, sauces, and honeys. Entirely handcrafted and using local ingredients, Aamra is the way local recipes are meant to be consumed. 

You can shop from Aamra here. 

If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:

Manipuri Pork Achar To Andhra’s Aavakaaya – 18 Of India’s Most Unique Pickles To Try

Diaspora Co. Is Taking A Radically New Approach To Spice Cultivation In South Asia

The Manduva Project Packages Andhra Pradesh’s Culinary Heritage In Pickles, Spices & Chips