प्रकाशचित्रे · the gallery

57 photographs, none of them staged

Our product pages make claims — named origins, no polishing agents, a fair price paid at the farm gate. This page is the evidence: the family's own fields, the boiling and drying, the containers going out, and the farmers and students the Captain spends his weeks with.

कुटुंब · who we are

The family

The people the name belongs to: the twin sisters who run THE2WINS, and the Captain who built the farmer-facing side — a brand built in a Sangli kitchen and a business built after twenty-five years at sea.

Twin sisters Ashwini Khochare and Avanti Raut side by side outdoors, an arm around each other — Ashwini and Avanti — the twins the name is for, and who run it today.

Captain Mahesh Khochare (Retd.) in Navy dress whites between the Naval ensign and the tricolour — Captain Mahesh Khochare (Retd.) — twenty-five years in the Indian Navy.

Captain Khochare in dress blues beside Ashwini Khochare in a gold and black saree — Ashwini Khochare, who started the brand, with the Captain.

Ashwini Khochare and the Captain at the edge of a sugarcane field at dusk, palms on the horizon — At the field edge at dusk — before the sugarcane became turmeric.

शेत · where it grows

The fields

Turmeric on the family’s own converted land and on partner farms across the Sangli belt — the black soil the whole business rests on.

A man in a turmeric field, broad-leafed rows stretching back to a palm horizon — Standing in the family’s own turmeric field.

A man standing in the family plantation, broad-leafed turmeric rows behind him — Walking the plantation mid-season.

A farmer standing on the path beside tall broad-leafed turmeric at dusk — A partner grower beside his crop at dusk.

Two men standing on the earth path between turmeric rows near Sangli, palms on the horizon — Out in a partner’s field near Sangli.

A freshly lifted turmeric clump with fingers and roots resting on dark soil — Raw turmeric, straight out of the ground.

A hand holding freshly dug turmeric rhizomes over the soil — Graded by hand from the first minute.

A harvest crew kneeling to lift and sort turmeric at a field edge, sugarcane standing behind — Harvest — the season the whole village works.

Three men standing behind a large heap of freshly harvested turmeric at the field edge — Procurement at the field edge, before it moves.

Two men examining a single turmeric rhizome by hand in a harvest field, the crop mounded behind them — A rhizome snapped open in the field — colour and core read by hand.

A turmeric field standing under rainwater after heavy monsoon rain — Water logging after heavy rain — the risk the grower carries.

A drainage channel cut along a turmeric field after rain — Draining a field by hand to save the crop.

उकळणी आणि वाळवण · how it is made

Boiled, dried, packed

The steps between the field and the sack, done the way this belt has always done them — boiled whole, sun-dried, cleaned and bagged by grade.

A worker tending steaming heaps of boiling turmeric at dusk, smoke rising against the sunset — Boiling at the farm in Wai, worked into the evening.

Long windrows of boiled turmeric spread on sheeting to dry in the open — Spread out to dry at Wai — sun, and nothing else.

Workers cleaning dried turmeric under a pink and white canopy — Cleaning under the canopy before grading.

Filled and stitched sacks stacked under a canopy at the farm — Packed at the farm, lot by lot.

A large mound of boiled turmeric beside filled sacks at a collection point — A collection point mid-procurement.

प्रतवारी आणि निर्यात · checked by hand

Grading and export

How a lot is judged and how it leaves — finger grades, sealed sacks and stuffed containers bound for buyers abroad.

A panel comparing several grades of dried turmeric fingers in bowls and sacks — Finger grades, compared side by side.

A dense full-frame carpet of bright dried turmeric fingers — Graded fingers, spread out edge to edge.

Six people around a desk at night grading dried turmeric fingers laid out on a yellow tray — Grading a sample tray at the buying office, worked into the night.

A man beside white sacks stacked high inside a covered truck — With a consignment loaded and counted.

The procurement lead at the mill yard in front of stacked filled sacks — At the mill yard, lots waiting to move.

An open printed export sack filled with bright dried turmeric fingers — Checked at the sack mouth before stitching.

A man standing in front of sacks stacked to the roof inside a container bound for Malaysia — A Malaysia consignment, stuffed to the door line.

शेतकऱ्यांसोबत · the other win

Working with farmers

The farmer-facing side of the business: crop visits, payment at the farm gate, and the organic-input and biogas work that runs alongside the buying.

The green containers in several of these photographs are organic fertiliser supplied to growers by VAshwini Enterprises. They are an input for the farm, not a THE2WINS food product.

Cash being counted out to a farmer across a desk — Immediate payout — settled at the farm gate.

Two men standing in a turmeric field during a crop evaluation visit — Company representatives out for crop evaluation.

A visiting group inspecting turmeric on the furrows while the harvest crew bags the crop behind — Visitors walked through a harvest, mid-lift.

A visiting group across a harvested turmeric field, one of them holding up a freshly lifted clump — The crop shown as it comes up, not as a sample in an office.

A turmeric farmer near Nanded standing beside containers of organic fertiliser — A turmeric grower at Nanded.

A sugarcane farmer standing in tall cane holding an organic fertiliser container — Cane growers use the same inputs.

A farmer walking through rows of flowering marigold — Marigold — another crop in the rotation.

A farmer standing beside a heavy banana bunch on the plant — Banana growers, same soil belt.

Captain Mahesh Khochare presenting to officials seated around a conference table — Presenting the organic-input programme to a visiting panel.

Four men standing beside a Compressed Biogas workshop banner at Karwar — Compressed Biogas workshop, Karwar.

A lamp-lighting ceremony at the Compressed Biogas workshop banner — Opening the Karwar workshop.

Officials seated at a named-place conference table beneath a SATAT Compressed Biogas workshop banner — At the SATAT compressed-biogas roundtable.

इतर पिके · what else the soil gives

Beyond turmeric

The same soil and the same growers, diversifying: protected-cultivation berries and hill-farm vegetables grown under net and polythene alongside the spice crops.

These crops are grown by farms in the network. They are not THE2WINS retail products — they are what diversification looks like on the ground.

Two women holding just-picked raspberries to camera under a blue-netted polytunnel — Raspberries picked under net — protected cultivation.

A group walking a shaded polytunnel planted with blueberry saplings in white grow bags — Blueberry saplings raised in grow bags under shade.

Visitors standing among lettuce and cabbage rows in red-soil beds on a hill farm, clear blue sky — Lettuce and cabbage in red hill soil, a world away from the black belt.

समाजासाठी · closer to home

In the community

Twenty-five years in uniform left a habit of turning up: school lectures and career-guidance sessions across the district, mostly on farming and the defence services.

Guests being welcomed with a traditional aarti tray on arrival at a college event — Welcomed on arrival at a college programme.

A speaker at a podium on stage with a seated panel behind — Addressing students and staff.

A seated panel of guests on stage at a school event — On the panel at a college programme.

A large group of uniformed schoolchildren and guests photographed on stage — The whole assembly, after the talk.

A career-guidance session under way on a hall stage — Career guidance for school leavers.

Guests being welcomed at a career-guidance event on the defence services — Guidance on careers in the defence services.

इतर निर्यात · the parent firm

Other exports

Beyond food, the family firm ships handicraft: Ganesh idols, carved teak temples and bronze murti made by artisans on the Konkan coast.

These are exports of VAshwini Enterprises, the parent firm, and are not THE2WINS food products. They are shown here because the same family and the same export desk handle them.

A brightly painted Ganesh idol finished and ready for packing — A finished Ganesh idol, ready to crate.

A row of painted Ganesh idols lined up in a workshop — A batch finished together.

Painted Ganesh idols standing in the artisan workshop — In the workshop before dispatch.

The family with local artisans beside finished idols at Kankavli — With the artisans at Kankavli.

Wooden export crates numbered and strapped on pallets — Crated, numbered and palletised.

An intricately carved teak wood temple shrine — A carved teak mandir for export.

A carved sagwan wood temple shrine made by local artisans — Sagwan mandir, cut and carved locally.

A deep-relief carved wooden murti panel — A carved murti panel.

A bronze-finish seated statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj — Shivaji Maharaj, bound for buyers in the USA.

भेट द्या · come and see

Visitors are welcome in season

Everything above is a photograph of our own operation, taken by the family as the work happened. If you would rather see it in person — the fields, the drying yard, the gur unit — say so and we will arrange it.

Ask about a visit Where it all comes from