Do you know where your spices come from? Beej Farms or how to honor farmers.

Discovering Beej Farms nestled in a Farmers’ Market

I find visiting Farmers’ Markets always a treat, and as a bonus, you might find a gem hiding around the corner. I like to walk slowly from booth to booth, soaking up farmers’ products and stories. I love striking conversations with workers and owners alike and collecting precious stories. Several months ago, a spice booth rapidly caught my attention in Laguna Niguel, California. While the owners were passionately discussing their products, glancing at Beej Farms’ pamphlet, I noticed they promote Indian farms using organic and regenerative farming, which is up my alley. Once you make eye contact, you are welcomed to their booth with warm tea made of ginger/turmeric/peppercorn/lemon, and honey. Little did I know I caught them doing what they liked most, educating people about spices and their trade.

In my eyes, owners Nandini Puri and Andrew Bawdon are a power couple. They grew interested in where their food came from and whatever food system currently exists. They stumbled upon spices and were shocked at the current spice trade. After much research and armed with their knowledge of master’s in education and finances, they formed Beej Farms, which is a Public Benefit Corporation. Beej comes from the Sanskrit word बीज meaning “seed”, which in this context is the origin of life with potential growth and transformation.

Born during the COVID-19 pandemic, researching farmers was a challenge, and many video calls happened before they set their eyes on three estate farms. The final step was laboratory testing to ensure the final products had what they were meant to have and for safety. This was not enough in their eyes, so they overachieved with near-zero waste bottling and packaging. In November 2022, after all that hard work, they set sail and started selling their three chosen estate spices.

A Public Benefit Corporation

I was curious to learn about the meaning of a Public Profit Corporation. For example, the popular company Patagonia is one example. This type of corporation is expected to do social good through its business. They also need to present a report of their progress on a regular basis. Beej Farms not only chose one mandatory good, but they settled on three social goods acting as pillars of their company:

-Education: Beej Farms aims to educate the local community about healthy food choices. Due to possible contamination throughout the spice production process, Beej Farms ensures the following is tested: heavy metals, aflatoxins, pesticides, molds, and microbial pathogens. Thus providing us with a safe and clean final product.

-Environment: Regenerative Farming: the spice estate not only needed to be organic, but they also needed to use indigenous growing techniques promoting soil rejuvenation and zero pesticides. Related to their packaging and transport, all is in the details, such as what appears like a plastic seal around their cap is actually biodegradable.

-Fairtrade: there are many intermediates between local farmers and the store you buy spices. Andrew said it could average 7-9 intermediates without exaggerating, leaving less profit for the farmers. Beej Farms decreases the number of intermediates and, in doing so, ensures farmers get up to five times the usual trade gain. Leaving more profit to the farmers directly helps their local community and the projects they are involved with.

Heirloom importance

Nandini emphasizes that this endeavor is not about them but about the farmers growing these spices. Each of their family-owned spice estates has a special story. Indeed, when you buy spices at big stores, all the different regions are mixed, so you are oblivious to their origin or who harvested them. You have a glimpse of the different types of common produce, such as tomatoes and apples, when you shop at your grocery store; however, not much luck with spices. Their estate farmers grow only from heirloom seeds, meaning the varieties have been preserved and propagated over time. The specific region and soil will then feature unique flavors and nutritional profiles.

Another crucial aspect of heirlooms lies in preserving biodiversity, which contributes to the species’ genetic diversity. It increases resilience, thus promoting a healthy ecosystem and bolstering food security.

A note about Turmeric

It is hard to envision where turmeric comes from when you encounter it in the form of bottled powder on a store shelf. It originates from the root of the plant Curcuma Longa. The plant itself reaches up to 3’ in height with large, elongated, and oblong green leaves, which can reach 45 cm in length by 15 cm wide. The roots are branched like ginger, however smaller, and harvested to be processed to obtain turmeric.

You can use the roots (rhizomes) fresh. We are accustomed to encountering turmeric in powder, which is prepared in the following manner: boiled, dried, and ground into a powder. This form has widespread utility as a cooking spice, food and color additive, and health supplement.

Curcumin is the primary bioactive constituent of turmeric, giving its deep yellow, orange color (and it stains too!).

Estates

Hennali Jungle Pepper

Grown by couple Merwin and Regina Fernandes, they practice forest regenerative agriculture deep in the Western Ghats mountain range.  The soil is the spotlight of this estate. This humble couple recounts elephants penetrating their estate and eating some of the trees. They came up with: ” Well, they were here first”. This couple shows how deeply they are one with nature. Everything in their estate is interconnected as a vital part of this engendered ecosystem.

The pepper plant is a vine that can reach up to 30’ tall if left unkept for cultivation. Peppers are a drupe, meaning they have flesh with thin skin and a unique seed in the middle. Instead of using artificial trellis to support their pepper vines, the Fernandes utilize mango and jackfruit trees, which their canopy protects these crops. 

The final product is a pepper with warm, pine, heaty, and sharp tones.

One of my clients of Indian origin uses up to 14 different types of black peppers in his cooking. His father, a farmer in India, used to grow black pepper aside tea and told me you could taste the tea influence in the black pepper.

Santosh Turmeric

Clocking at 4,1 % curcumin, this turmeric is grown amidst sugar cane in the Belgaum district of Karnataka. Nandini is of Indian descent, and this turmeric was sweetly named after her grandmother, who lived in the Belgaum region for many years. This estate is grown by Suresh Desai, a farmer at the forefront of promoting regenerative agriculture and founder of the Organic Club of Karnataka, which has over 400 members.  He is heavily implicated in agriculture research and teaching; among other things, he published in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations a research paper on a way to reduce water usage by 75-80% compared to conventional methods sustained by reduced irrigation, waste composting, green manure, and soil conditioning.

The final product produces earthy-sweet, floral and peppery notes.

Lakadong Turmeric

This turmeric contains a whomping 7.3% curcumin grown in the Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya in northeast India. An all-woman cooperative leads this estate, which possesses no easy road access. The turmeric from this region grows on rich soil drenched by the wettest place on earth, receiving an average precipitation of over 450”. Nandini mentioned that if you grow the same plant in other parts of India, you get a lower concentration of curcumin. Now, what’s that for soil importance? As a matter of fact, Lakadong turmeric received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2015. A GI tag is allocated when a product grown in a specific geographical origin possesses qualities or reputation due to that origin. It helps create awareness about the state’s rich cultural heritage, protects it from imitation, and ensures its authenticity.

The final product, which is very sought after, has floral, earthy notes with a citrus background. If you compare the Santosh turmeric, you can even see how much more vibrant the color of the Lakadong type is.

Moving forward

It will be interesting to see which other spices will come on deck for Nandini and Andrew. When asked about the future, they do not have a planned map. However, it would be to continue looking at other spices, maybe even some native ones grown on US soil. Maybe tea? I can’t wait to see what else this couple will add to their amazing collection.

Seeing their hard work paying off with the increasing number of small and large stores stocking their spices and embracing their story is heartwarming. Their spices are available through their website and also at several stores listed on their website: https://beejfarms.org/ . While navigating their website, you will be able to access more in-depth stories about their farmers and the techniques used.

As for Beej’s Farm tea recipe:

To boiling water, add:

– Small amount (quarter inch piece) of ginger, sliced. Ginger powder is also fine.

– 1/4 tsp of Beej Farms Turmeric

– 2-3 crushed peppercorns

– Squirt of lemon juice

– Honey, or your preferred sweetener, to taste.

To this day, Nandini’s tea recipe tastes better than the one I can concoct. It’s a good reason to keep meeting them for a warm drink and a chat at the local Farmers Market. I hope you make the same trip. After all, Beej Farms’ goal is to continue sharing a rich cultural heritage through their kitchen to yours to keep it alive for all future generations to benefit.

Quick note: pictures from India were used with Beej Farms permission.