Meet Our San Juan Ginger

San Juan Ginger is grown by an organic farming collective in the rainforests of Nueva Guinea in southern Nicaragua. These smallholder farmers use regenerative organic farming practices to reverse soil damage, nourish plant development, and protect farmers from exposure to harmful pesticides. By working with a farming collective, we can trace each harvest back to the farm it was grown on to ensure consistency in quality and yield. The lot pictured here is being sliced before drying and sending off to our factory in Brooklyn to be milled & served this summer. 

Botanical name: Zingiber officinale

Origin: Rio San Juan and Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua

Harvest date: January to June

Processing: Hand harvested, solar power dried

Farm type: Farming collective

Our ginger is grown using regenerative organic farming practices to reverse soil damage, nourish plant development, and protect farmers from exposure to harmful pesticides. The farmers we work with focus on planting diverse beneficial plants instead of monocrops. By working with a farming collective, we can trace each harvest back to the farm it was grown on to ensure consistency in quality and yield. 

Unlike monocropping, which contributes to deforestation by clear-cutting the rainforest, the farmers we source from practice agroforestry and work with the jungle landscape to plant shade-loving crops. Using no-till methods and contour farming, they plant in rows along the natural curves of the hillsides. This style of farming helps to retain water, reduce soil erosion, and prevent habitat loss of the native flora and fauna.

For smallholder farmers in the region, growing botanical ingredients like ginger on small plots of land offers a sustainable economic alternative to intensive coffee farming or raising cattle. They have been able to increase their income with organic specialty crops, and are working hand-in-hand to reverse rural poverty and climate collapse.