Breakfast With Champions 3rd Edition – Urban Leaves
Finally the day arrived, early-morning excitement for another much awaited Breakfast With Champions. The set up, cameraman and Team LBO were ready to begin. Being the 3rd edition, and one with a twist, we were looking forward to treat our champions and the audience to an event with a twist. If you missed it, here are the highlights of the event.
A Garden Welcome
The Don Bosco Provincial House Av Room was all set. One by one, the audience started filling in and by 9am we were a full house! Diipti kick-started the event with a little introduction about our champions Preeti Patil & Premila Parera. Preeti has been making food forests in Mumbai city for over 15 years. She has literally seen forests grow in spaces you cannot even imagine. Her green fingers have created vital biodiversity hotspots in the city – which we all know we desperately need. And when Premila joined the core team a few years ago, the vision got even stronger. They shared how Urban Leaves came into existence with the urge of converting waste into resource. From here on, as is the tradition of Breakfast With Champions, the interactions and questions with the champions and the audience started off.
Preeti, Premila And The Audience
One by one Preeti and Premila shared their learning’s at Urban leaves. “Urban Leaves farm is our second home. I was the catering officer with Mumbai Port Trust since 1992. Every day at work I noticed waste food in the canteen and the quantity was quiet high. I was disappointed and there the search begun for solutions. I was inspired by Dr R T Doshi’s research and took my first step by converting waste into resource via composting. We now have farms where we grow veggies, we make compost, and we also make soil called Amrit Mitti.”
‘How do you make soil?’ came a question from the audience. Premila chipped in now. She asked, “Have you visited a forest?” What is spread all over the land in forests? Everyone answered in chorus, ‘dried leaves.’ She continued, ‘Yes dried leaves, but did anyone notice what is beneath those dried leaves?” All responded in chorus again, “Soil.” Premila stressed and repeated only soil? The audience was quiet now. Premila shared, “Yes there is soil, but there’s life in it. You can see living organisms and soil full of nutrients. This soil is alive due to which trees grow well. It takes over 5000 years for such top soil to form. We try to replicate the same, only within 4 months and that’s what making Amrut Mitti is.
Tokens, Breakfast And Farm Visit
The session ended with Diipti presenting a terrace-grown Bottle Gourd plant as a token of love and affection to our Champions Preeti & Premila. They liked it a lot as Diipti grew it at her home and shared it with them as it was her first harvest.
All headed to the dining hall for the yummy breakfast. Breakfast served was delicious Rava Vegetable Upma and refreshing Kokam sharbat. Everyone continued their interaction with the champions and each other; sharing their views and thoughts. Team LBO is only too happy to have made our place in everyone’s hearts and minds.
Lastly, everyone headed over to the terrace to experience the Urban Leaves farm first hand. It’s truly beautiful and worth spending a whole day. The farm is full of plants, veggies, colourful butterflies, squirrels and birds frolicking around.
Thanks to the champions for their valuable time, audience too for attending and making the event a successful one. Let’s Be Outdoorsy will be there with the next Breakfast With Champions in the coming month of November.