Alps Raisins

Our place is out in Village Deshmane, which is part of Tehsil Yeola. If you head towards the Siddhi Vinayaka Temple, you’ll find us nearby. Alps Raisins isn't some big factory with glass walls. It’s mostly open sheds and the drying racks where we lay everything out. The weather in Deshmane really dictates how our day goes. If it’s sunny, we’re out there working the whole time. The post office is just down the road, so we walk there quite a bit for mail. Working with raisins means you’re always at the mercy of the seasons. We spend months waiting for the right time to start the drying process. It gets dusty out here, and the work is hard on the hands. Sometimes the temple bells are the only thing you hear in the afternoon when the village goes quiet. We don't have a fancy sales team. It’s just us and the local laborers who have been helping us for years. We sort the raisins by hand, sitting on low stools and looking for the ones that aren't right. It’s slow work, but it has to be done that way. People in the village know us as the raisin folks near the temple. We’ve been in this spot for a long time, and we don't plan on moving anywhere else. It’s just simple village life and a lot of sticky fingers from handling the fruit all day.