Our Origins
WildStraw began as a seed — not just of a business, but of a way of life. Experiences taught us that for real growth and healing — both personal and collective — we need to rebuild our foundations. That starts with our habitat. With how we grow, eat, and live. We started off practicing natural farming by mimicking the forest — creating tiny, self-sustaining ecosystems that could eventually take care of themselves and, in turn, care for us. This felt like the farming of the future — rooted in awareness, guided by nature.
The seed of WildStraw was planted in southern Tamil Nadu, in an abandoned cashew field that had long been used as a public grazing ground. My partner Rishi and I moved there with one intention: to live simply and sustain ourselves off the land. Rishi began rewilding the cashew grove, while we applied the same regenerative principles to farming in a small area.
As the land healed, it gave more than we imagined — more produce than we could use. Not everything we grew could be consumed regularly — like chilies, which eventually became the base for our signature hot sauce. We had to find ways of preserving this abundance, and that’s how the sauces, pickles, jams, and chutneys began — not as products, but as practical acts of preservation.
We even experimented with growing peanuts and sesame in small patches, but our reforestation efforts were so successful that the wildlife came flooding back. Feral pigs, boars, and peacocks would often harvest the fields before we could. It was frustrating, but also a sign that the land was truly alive again — and we were just one part of a larger ecosystem.
Peanut butter became our pilot product not because it was easy, but because we loved it. It was nutritious, versatile, and a way to understand how our values could fit into the wider food world. From those early jars stirred in a forest kitchen, WildStraw slowly took root.
Today, WildStraw is more than just a food brand — it’s a platform. A space to connect with like-minded people who want to fundamentally change how they live. Every jar you buy helps support our rewilding efforts and enables more people to create wild spaces — even in the smallest corners of their lives.
We’re now in a transitional phase — working out of a small city kitchen — while we prepare to return to the land. But the vision hasn’t changed: to create small-batch, earth-friendly food that nourishes deeply.
