Feeding the Farm’s Foundation

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Welcome to our new series where we’re taking you on a journey through daily life on Carissa Farm, showcasing the people, practices and passion that make our organic skincare products truly special. At Cinnabar Green, the health of our soil is the basis of our skincare products so let’s start with a look into how we’re nurturing a healthier ecosystem through cultivation.

Today Mwangi and his team of field workers are taking the steamed plants from our recent distillation of tea tree essential oil and they’re spreading them back on the aromatic crops. They work like a tasty blanket, protecting and feeding the soil at the same time. It’s a simple but powerful cycle — plants grown in healthy soil are harvested, their oils extracted, and the remaining biomass returned to enrich the same soil. Nothing is wasted.

Rose, Esther and Jennifer mix this organic waste with compost which has been maturing over the past six months; it’s made from cattle manure carefully collected from our neighbours’ small herds of livestock. It is then mixed with green waste and aged for several months under the Grevillea trees which shelter the fields at the top of the farm from the bitter winds which the mountain blows down on us in the ‘winter’ months. The compost is turned regularly by hand, aerated and monitored until it reaches the perfect state — crumbly, dark, and full of life.

The organic compost is now vintage, full of accessible goodness and another tasty, nutritional treat for the soil. When spread between the rows of lavender, rosemary, and lemon verbena, it does exactly what nature intended: nourishes the roots, retains moisture, and encourages the kind of microbial life that turns good soil into great soil. We call it feeding the farm’s foundation.

Mount Kenya’s geological history has blessed the area around it with nutrient-rich soils but these nutrients get gobbled up really quickly even when you’re farming organically. Fast-growing herbs are hungry, and essential oil production is demanding, so we have to give back what we take. This natural cycle — growing, harvesting, distilling, composting — is the perfect way to do it, ensuring that our land remains fertile, our farm resilient, and our herbs consistently deliver the pure, potent essential oils that are the heart of Cinnabar Green’s natural skincare products.

By feeding the soil, we’re not just nourishing our plants — we’re investing in the health of the entire ecosystem, from the smallest organisms underground to the people who use our products. Sustainability isn’t just a word for us — it’s work done every day by hands in the earth, and by minds committed to doing right by the land we call home.

We’re excited to share more stories from the farm with you. Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll dive deeper into the art of distillation. Sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest updates from Cinnabar Green or shop our range of organic skincare products today.