As we all welcome the new year and buy gifts for our dear ones, here is a seed calendar for the year 2020 which you can gift your friends, colleagues and family members. This can not only make their table greener but help them create a mini garden at their home. Seed Paper India, a Bengaluru based start-up that specialises in creating eco-friendly products like seed pencils, pen, seed greeting cards, invitations etc has been printing seed calendars since last year.
Roshan Ray, Founder, Seed Paper India, says, "Last year, we printed limited copies of Seed Calendars for the new year and gave them among our friends and family members. The response was positive for the calendars. Therefore, we printed 5,000 copies this year so that anyone can purchase these calendars online through our website."
Unlike others, the Seed Paper India makes calendars out of hand-made paper. "When the paper is in the pulp form, they embed seeds inside it and makes these calendar sheets. The speciality of our calendar is we never use machines for production. Once the sheets are made, we dry them under sunlight or else, the seeds might get damaged," he explains. "One sheet takes seven days time to dry. In case of printing on these sheets, we do only screen printing and not digital printing. Even the colours that we use to print are all-natural colours extracted from green vegetables, fruits and turmeric. For us, seed calendars not only means that the calendar sheets must have seeds. Every aspect of the calendar should be derived from nature and no chemicals must be used," he adds.
But do people still use calendars? After all your phone has one with more features. "Even though our generation has turned paperless and is glued to the gadgets, there are some practices that we can't give up and using calendars is one among them. We collect paper calendars only to throw it away, once we realise the year has ended. But people have started changing their lifestyle also accordingly and adopted eco-friendly practices. This year, we have received a positive response from people for our calendars. Most of the corporate companies and individuals have come forward to buy them from us," says Roshan.
Roshan and his team not only offer seed calendars but their speciality is to customise them according to the taste and preference of the customers. "Some people ask us to change the colour we use for print and some want to mention special greetings or wishes. The sheets used in the calendar also vary for every month," adds the founder. "Sometimes, customers ask us to provide a calendar attached to the stand with a pen and pencil. Customising it according to their needs has been our greatest strength and this way we are helping customers give back to the Earth. Apart from making good gift options, they also give us a chance to have a digital detox without depending on the online calendars," he says.
Aside from all this, Roshan feels that the calendars are not just a fresh concept to make business but to advocate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (2030), "It is all about the future where we want to promote responsible consumption and production. Similarly, people have begun to reevaluate their decisions and show care for the environment."
If you want to have variety in your garden then this seed calendar is tailormade for you
Basil for January
Morning Glory for February
Daisy White for March
Marigold for April
Tomato for May
Coriander for June
Chilli for July
Wild Flowers for August
Spinach for September
Fenugreek for October
Brinjal for November
Carrot for December
