There are a lot of you out there reading this and I don’t know much about most of you but I know you and I share some values about where things come from and honoring and supporting those people and traditions. I am lucky in this regard to be connected to you in this way.
I have written here in the past about spices and how most of them are low grade industrially produced junk and suggested a company that was doing an amazing job of creating relationships with small farmers growing spices in old ways and paying them more than fairly. You can look up Burlap and Barrel to find out more.
Well, I am really excited to share with you a great company – Diaspora Co – that is doing everything right in bringing spices to your doorstep.
Sana Javeri Kadri is currently running a Kickstarter for bringing high quality cardamom from India westward.
She writes
I first tried to source organically farmed Indian green cardamom in the spring of 2018. I called all my contacts at the Indian Institute of Spice Research and the Indian Cardamom Research Institute (ICRI), and put the word out amongst my network of South Indian farmers and their communities.By summer 2018, I collected samples from several certified organic cardamom growers, but heard a very concerning story from the spice research community. Dr. Vijayan, a trusted resource and the deputy director of research at ICRI, bluntly explained to me how big commercial cardamom growers cheat the organic certification process to sell pesticide-ridden cardamom labeled as organic to the global market. Sure enough, every single lab result for the samples I received came back positive for pesticides.Just when I had given up on sourcing pesticide-free cardamom, I got a call from Mr. Abraham Chacko- a farmer bang the middle of the cardamom hills- the region where commercial and corrupt cardamom agriculture is at its worst. Shockingly, his sample came back 100% pesticide free. I booked a flight to visit him the next day.
I have never met Mr. Chacko but I am really so glad that he is out there in the world growing cardamom in such a way that not only is pesticide free but also not grown in a monoculture for maximum output.
It is this kind of care and compassion for sourcing and the land (and all who live on the land – human and non-human) that might be a tender mercy in a time where so much damaging extraction is happening. This is a value and an approach that we here at Primal Derma share in how we source our tallow and moringa oil and wild crafted essential oils.
Her Kickstarter is live right now and I urge you to take the two minutes and fifty seconds to watch her pitch video below to hear more of her story and the story of Diaspora as well support her venture if you can. Click here to pledge. I don’t get a dime from this but I think this is the kind of approach that is so worthy to support even if you don’t support them financially I am sure you’ll be glad that work like this is happening.
