Living a toxin-free and eco-friendly life can be very hard, especially for people living in an urban setup.

However, Pune-based Pallavi Patil has been embracing this life for the past eight years with her family.

After working as an engineer for more than six years, she quit her job to raise her two daughters in a toxin-free, agro-based lifestyle.

In Pallavi’s home garden, she grows all the food one could need. The garden has fruit trees such as banana, papaya and pomegranate, seasonal vegetables like brinjal, bottle gourd and tomato, and spices such as ginger and turmeric.

Additionally, to be more eco-friendly, Pallavi has let go of her refrigerator. “Not only does this help the environment, but it has also improved the overall quality of our health,” she says.

She does not have any air conditioning at her home as the place is designed in a way that natural airflow keeps the home cool.

For cooking, she uses a box-type solar cooker that has an insulated square box, a glass lid on the cooking tray, and a mirror on its underside.

The food is placed inside the box and cooled using the heat absorbed by a blackened surface.

“Our gas cylinder used to last us two months, but using a solar cooker helps me save 15 days’ worth of gas and half the labour. The food is cooked at stable temperatures and doesn’t require dedicated stirring,” she says.

Taking her toxin-free lifestyle to another level, Pallavi makes her own agro-based home cleaners using dried papaya and pomegranate peels to make soap, detergent and even toothpaste.

Now, she also wants to help people who want to live a toxin-free life. She has a YouTube channel where she has started a weekly series titled ‘Cooking Under the Sun’ featuring how-to videos on preparing snacks using a solar cooker.

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