Reetsot, run by Richen Youdol, a farmer and agripreneur, speaks about the specialty of Ladakh and the natural things found there. She shares, “I am the founder of Reetsot. We are about a 400-women group who work as farmers. All the things that are seen here are grown in Ladakh or sourced from the mountains and medicinal plants. The wild garlic, capers, and sea buckthorn all grow in the wild. We have two GI-tagged products, which are the apricots, and it is diabetic-friendly. We have sea buckthorn, which has 10 times more vitamin C than orange. It is a GI-tagged product. It was recently sent to Mars; it is the most resistant plant on the planet, so it survives in –40 degrees as well. It has omega 3, 6, 7, and 9 present, which is also found in fish. We have three to four varieties of rajma, apricots, and all dried fruits from Ladakh. Very few places do hand-pressed oils, and we have serum oil that helps your skin. We have all the teas as well. This has been a three-year project to make sure all the women in villages work. Until my mother’s generation there was no education, and now we all are financially independent with this work.”
