Business with Purpose - no compromises
A CIRCULAR APPROACH
SUSTAINABLE FARMING
We want to give back more than we take from the planet, and therefore believe in a full-circle, impact driven and holistic business model. This means that Consumption With Purpose is more than just using potent, high quality ingredients, but prioritises the health of the planet and the farmers as well.
Conventional mono-culture farming most often results in soil degradation and biodiversity loss. We therefore stress the importance of sourcing our ingredients from forest gardens and regenerative farming communities, and have been doing so right from the start.
The underlying concept of forest-gardening is to mimic the ecosystem of Sri Lanka's ecosystem to create a highly productive landscape for human use that doesn't harm nature. Instead of mono-cultural farms, planted with neat rows of annual spices and vast orchards of a single fruit species, the forest-gardener aims to plant a diverse forest. Beneficial relationships between plants, site and soil are developed to create a garden where ground-hugging perennial vegetables grow among herbs and soft fruit bushes, which in turn are sheltered under the shadow canopy of trees yielding nuts and fruits.
It also has a successful economic outcome for farmers as they can harvest additional produce to sell and eat.
WHERE ARE OUR INGREDIENTS GROWN?
Since the beginning, Wunder Workshop has sourced directly from family and community farms from the heart of Sri Lanka. We have now expanded our sourcing network and have found further home gardens and farms in line with our ethos. Our process remains the same, sourcing regeneratively grown ingredients, organically certified where possible, free from palm oil and directly traded with farmers.
United Kingdom
We work with organic and biodynamic farmers in the UK who grow native European herbs for our tinctures and tea blends.
Sri Lanka
Our single origin turmeric, invigorating tea blends, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, ginger and coconuts are all sourced directly from Sri Lanka, disrupting the traditional spice trade by working directly with small community and family farms.
Afghanistan
We are working directly with a smallholding farm and social enterprise in Herat, Afghanistan, to promote and create sustainable value chains for their exquisite, high-grade Golden Saffron.
This project is working in partnership with The Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), which is a flagship programme of the International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization that is funded by the European Union.
Our Golden Saffron grown in Herat is proving a vital source of legitimate employment in the country by replacing the cultivation of lucrative but illegal opium poppies - in particular for women, who typically have fewer opportunities to earn an income in these rural areas.
India
Our extracted Ashwagandha root powder stems from India, where it is traditionally harvested and extracted.
Peru
Our raw cacao is sourced from the
Our beautiful maca found in Golden Glow is sourced from forest garden farms in the very cold fields of the Peruvian puna in Huancayo and Junin.
China
Our organic mushrooms are sourced from traditional Chinese mushroom growers, and our wild-harvested Superior Chaga is sourced from birch trees up in the Greater Khingan Mountain Range, which is a volcanic mountain range in the Inner Mongolia region of Northeast China.
Spain
Our organic liquorice in Golden Balance is wild harvested from local farmers of the Zaragoza region in northern Spain.
Our biodynamic olive oil found in our CBD oil is from Mallorca, where it is grown and harvested in tune with the cosmos and the earth supporting principles of biodynamic farming.
We hand-picked wild orange leaves in Mallorca, to create a beautifully fragrant orange leaf essential oil and hydrolate spray.
Austria
Our organic CBD is sourced from a beautiful organic hemp farm, that supports the soil and the environment by being a earth loving crop.
FOREST GARDENING
The community-run farms use a technique known as Forest Gardening, which imitates the native biodiversity of the region’s ecosystem, by planting in the shade of tree canopies to assist in replenishing the nutrition and moisture of the soil. This farming style goes beyond the conventional monoculture techniques and even beyond our Organic logo. Besides guaranteeing pesticide and chemical free production, Analog forestry helps to rebuild a sustainable ecosystem and empowers rural communities.
“Analog Forestry is a system of ecological restoration that focuses on increasing biodiversity by imitating natural forest systems in order to create economically productive and environmentally mature forests. The methodology is based on traditional forest gardens, which are human-created analogs of the natural forest that serve needs such as food, fiber, timber, medicine, and water.” (International Analog Forestry Network)
In conventional farming, flora and fauna struggle to survive on the land used for production, which has a far-reaching effect on the local ecosystems. High-demand for a crop throughout the year puts stress on conventional farmers to use more land and thus reconstruct more of its natural vegetation for agricultural use. In choosing organic or Analog forestry, one is helping to limit further damage to the ecosystem.
ORGANIC FARMING
At Wunder Workshop, we work within the natural cycles of the earth, using farming methods that humans have been using to grow and harvest plants and animals for millennia, which highlights specifically the importance being organic. Organic farming sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people.
SOIL HEALTH
We’re beyond the point of sustainability and we need to focus on regenerating the soil that supports and nourishes us, and the farmers and workers that feed us. The farming techniques we support, sustain a full-circle approach.
A healthy soil is key to biodiversity, food security and plays a fundamental and an often overlooked role in fighting climate change. Organic farming, in particular, sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people.
"Carbon-rich soils are like sponges absorbing water during floods and releasing it during drought. Yet when soils are damaged, they release CO2. Organic farming puts carbon back into soils by keeping them covered with plants, increasing crop diversity, composting and carefully planned grazing." - IFOAM
ENERGY USE & WUNDER OFFICE
Our Wunder HQ is 100% powered by solar energy, something we are very passionate about. We use a paper and printer supplier who is powered by wind energy and only uses recycled paper and vegetable inks. We send our orders out in kraft boxes, filled with home-compostable packing peanuts and recyclable tape.