She loves cooking, and her passion for making a variety of dishes from flowers and fruits available in her backyard has enabled this 58-year-old homemaker in Kerala to build a home-based business earning over Rs 50,000 every month.
When Beena Tom of Marangattupally in Kottayam decided to use her cooking skills to make squash and jams from butterfly pea (shankupushpam), nutmeg, mulberry, jackfruit, mangoes, and guava, she never thought that one day she would be running an enterprise making over 140 varieties of products and shipping them to places across the world.
“I loved cooking and used to make different traditional dishes for family and friends. I made the dishes from fruits available in my backyard. When people appreciated my cooking skills and asked me to make them for them, the idea to create my products as a brand struck me, and I started selling my products,” Beena told “Open Digest“.
Seven years have gone by since Beena launched her products under the brand name “Bees of Beena,” and today, she sells homemade jams, pickles, squashes, juices, and honey to customers across the world.
Beena hasn’t limited her products to just food; she also makes lip balms, face creams, and body creams from beeswax after she started beekeeping to make fresh honey for her food products. “I learned beekeeping, and today, I make fresh honey from my farm. I also have a poultry and fish farm. The eggs are used for making cake and pudding,” she said.
Beena relies on social media for marketing her products and reaching out to her customers. “I don’t use any type of preservatives in my products. People who use my products once become my loyal customers because of the quality of the products,” Beena said, adding that she was surprised by the response received for products like squash and tea made from butterfly pea. “There is a huge demand for products made from butterfly pea, which can be grown easily in our backyard without any effort,” she said. Her products – Idi Erachi (special meat dish) and Mango Thera ( a special sweet dish made from mangoes) – are also hot selling.
Beena, who trains others in bee-keeping and value-added food products, has a word of advice for all women out there who want to start a food business of their own. “If I can do this, anyone can. We need to put in our best efforts to build a business from scratch,” Beena said.
Beena can be contacted at 9497326496.
