dehradun the organic food craze is slowly gripping the hill state capital with stores offering the healthy variety mushrooming across the doon valley over the last one year doonites buying groceries can be increasingly seen hovering in the organic section of stores like 365 forever in cantonment area and fresh n easy in crossroads mall trying to stock up on cereals pulses wheat flour grains spices edible oils herbs and even different varieties of organic tea i have come on vacation to dehradun and i am pleasantly surprised that the city has many stores at present for organic food lovers the food is obviously more costly but considering it is chemical free it is a small price to pay said himanshu sharma a hospitality sector student at a citystore meanwhile when toi checked out the prices of organic fooditems in comparison with the normal food items there was a huge gap for instance a 1 kg packet of pulse costs around rs 120 whereas a half kg packet of organic pulse is priced at around rs 118 similarly a packet of ghee costs around rs 420 per kg pack but for an organic pack of ghee the price is around rs 450 for a halfkg packet at one of the cafes tucked in the bylanes towards the end of rajpur road gloraj cafe which has a separate section of organic products on display the owner seema sehgal said doonites are getting more inclined towards organic food items in fact we have collaborated with uttarakhand organics and offer many such items for sale at the store she added however organic items are more in vogue during the winter months we will get our stock of items like pulses from uttarakhand region kulat dal gahat dal in the first week of october i guess organic food items are selling more because youngsters are also becoming healthconscious at the caf many doonites opt for organic button mushrooms organic eggs and organic papaya items grown in the cafs garden while taking their pick from the menu meanwhile one of the leading restaurants haritimathe organic kitchen of uttarahand shut down a few months ago for renovation and is being sorely missed by organic food aficionados i have gone twice to haritima in the past and i am eagerly waiting for it to reopen organic food is not just healthy but also very refreshing and delicious said meenu bajwa a sahastradhara road resident however some opine that there is a still a long way to go for people to completely embrace organic food in the state capital manager of vrttanta organic store pradeep rana says it is true that people are developing a liking for organic food items like products from sanjeevani organics but i would say only 30 of the citys population is going for this stuff there needs to be more awareness about the health benefits of organic products