The JhaJi Story: Authentic Handmade Pickles from Mithila
Welcome to JhaJi Store. We bring the traditional taste of Mithila, Bihar, straight from our home kitchen to yours. Each jar is handmade with love, patience, and age-old recipes passed down by our nani and dadi.
This clip from our Shark Tank India pitch tells the story of how my sister-in-law Uma and I, two homemakers from Darbhanga, decided to turn our family recipes into a business. It was a dream to do something for ourselves and share our heritage.
This is Poonam Mishra's story. Inspired after seeing our journey on Shark Tank, she joined us and is now a leader in our production unit. Her hard work helps her support her family and her children's education. This is the power of women supporting women.
At JhaJi Store, we are a family. When women uplift each other, we all rise. This picture shows the incredible team of women who are the heart and soul of our kitchen, making every jar of pickle with care and dedication.
I believe every home should have an 'udyog' (enterprise). At a Lallantop event, I shared my vision for empowering women to turn their skills into a business. It is about giving 100% to your craft and creating a product that people will love and appreciate.
It was an honour to meet Union Minister Chirag Paswan and share the journey of JhaJi Store. From a small home kitchen, we now deliver over 1 lakh kilos of achar annually across India, providing employment to over 50 people in Bihar.
This video shows our journey from the very beginning. From our small backyard setup to being loved by over 1 lakh customers, it has been a journey of love, hard work, and your blessings. Thank you for being a part of our family.
This is Yashoda Devi, one of the strong women on our team. Her dedication helps her achieve her family's dreams. Every jar she helps create is a step towards empowerment for her and her community.
I believe in making food you can trust. In this video, I talk about the 'Label Padhega India' campaign and our promise to you: we only use fresh, local ingredients and our own roasted masalas, with no preservatives. The same achar I feed my family is the one I send to you.
We recently visited the farm of actor Rajesh Kumar in Barma, Bihar. This video captures our day exploring the fields and connecting with the roots of Bihari agriculture and cuisine.
A day at Rajesh Kumar Ji's farm, preparing Litti Chokha in the open air. There's a different 'swaad' in food cooked close to nature. This experience reminded us of the simple, pure joy of our traditional food.
About The JhaJi Story: From Our Home to Yours
When you open a jar from us, you won't find vinegar or artificial preservatives. Instead, you get vegetables and fruits sun-dried for up to 15 days, mixed with spices we roast and grind by hand. Because we work in small, seasonal batches, the flavour is intense and raw—the way achar used to be before it became an industrial product.
Every jar reflects our commitment to the traditional parampara of pickle making. We do not use machines or cold storage. Instead, everything happens in our Darbhanga kitchen, where over 70 women from our community work together to clean, chop, and spice our ingredients.
Our Process
- Sun-Drying: Ingredients like mango, kathal (jackfruit), and amla are dried in the intense Mithila sun for 10 to 15 days. This is crucial for developing the depth of flavour.
- Pure Ingredients: We use kacchi ghani (cold-pressed) mustard oil and fresh, local produce straight from the fields of Bihar.
- Small Batches: We roast and grind our own spices. We never use artificial colours, vinegar, or preservatives.
How to Enjoy
Our pickles are meant to be a companion to your daily meals. Whether it is a simple dal-chawal, paratha, or even just bread, our achar adds that missing comfort. Since we follow the seasons, some varieties like our fresh Kathal or Oal are only available when the harvest is ready.
When you order from us, you are not just getting food. You are helping us provide livelihoods to women in our village, giving them a chance to turn their skills into an enterprise.
JhaJi
We are Kalpana and Uma, and we started JhaJi Store to share the flavours of our Darbhanga kitchen with the world. By keeping our process traditional and handmade, we have empowered over 70 women from our community to turn their skills into livelihoods.
Looking for a specific flavour?
Explore our full range of handmade Bihari snacks and accompaniments.
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