MEET OUR FARMERS

we care about where our ingredients come from; including the people and processes involved in making them

Don eduardo & Don Rafa - Artisan BEESWAX & HONEY

Don Rafa is our neighbor from a beekeeping family of many generations - he began his practice at age 11. He spends most of his earnings on his children’s school books and transportation to and from our rural mountaintop.

Don Eduardo wanted to study medicine, but his family could not afford his education. He left our village for city jobs, but returned to care for his aging parents. One daughter is a social worker, the other a law student; beekeeping paid for their education. Don Eduardo learned beekeeping from Don Rafa, which proved to be an ideal business requiring very little capital or employees. He works with 18 hives deep in the mountain, unspoiled by any kind of human pollution. He loves the patience and experience beekeeping requires.

Don Eduardo and Don Rafa’s honey is extracted via air pressure, thereby retaining all nutrients and medicinal qualities. It is a natural humectant that protects your skin and hair. This vitamin A rich beeswax is a moisture seal that promotes cell regeneration. The honey’s signature fragrance is from Tailipon blossoms and the distinctive greenish tint comes from the Cajete blossoms.

Learn more about the properties of honey and beeswax here.

don max - mayan black salt

Don Max is one of the few people extracting salt in his village. This used to be a thriving industry with national tourists coming to acquire the precious salt – both for the flavor and the medicinal uses. Now, although the ground salt is sold packaged by the pound by the side of the road in the town, what with floods, long and intense labour in days when a much higher salary can be earned its less effort, the younger generation is not keen to follow in the family tradition.

Learning from generations before him, Don Max carries on what he considers a sacred tradition. The house he prepares the salt in has been there as long as he or his mother could remember. The soil he uses to strew over the salt flats has been recycled for the same amount of time.

It is as much of a sacred ritual as it is salt production. The factors have to be just right.

The salt itself is drawn up through and into the layer on special soil laid on the salt flat by the heat of the sun. There are still a few small thermal pools along the stony shores of the river where the locals come to sit for health and therapeutic reasons. It is then collected and passed through his filter to extract only the saline. And then he prepares for the 10 hour cooking session where the water is evaporated over a wood fire in little clay pots that he makes himself. The fire and pots need tending to throughout the 10 hours until they are full of solid black salt.

The job is nothing short of tedious, but it gives him pleasure and satisfaction to be carrying on the tradition and knowledge of this sacred mayan process.

Read more about the properties and skincare benefits of black salt here.

Our Impact: We pay Don Max above market value for his salt to keep this unique tradition alive and to inspire new salt entrepreneurs to improve the economy of Guatemala’s riverside villages.

DoMINGA BO - COPAL

Copal is traditionally used by the Maya in Guatemala for burning during sacred ceremonies and is believed to purify the air and spirit. Copal is a tree resin similar to amber with a smoky, sweet aroma. Modern Mayan incense is often a combination of Copal, Frankincense, Myrrh and Pine resin.

In the Guatemalan village of Uaxactun neighboring the ancient Mayan city Tikal, the main form of income is harvesting Xate (palm tree leaves) which pays $8 per day.  This is what Dominga Bo does when the weather is favorable.  Wild-harvesting copal from trees pays almost double – the result is a 90% raise in income. The capacity and resources exist to scale copal harvests by more than 100 times providing more Uaxactun women with work. Our plan is to increase demand for this powerful ingredient.

Learn more about the properties and skincare benefits of copal here.