‘24 reflections & ‘25 updates
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Last year was transformational at Goodness Tea Farm. In our second season of farm ownership, we applied for and got (!!!) the Local Food Infrastructure Grant. We’re now in process with projects to improve food safety, cooperative development and waste management. We’ve adding a sceptic to the barn so we can in turn a transform it to full-on collective beverage making and bottling space and are adding a room to the farm kitchen with a deck for herb drying so part of it can be 100% dedicated to encouraging new producers.
Construction shot of building the addition on Goodness Tea Farm’s processing facility. Early Spring 2025
Goodness Tea started before we had a certified farm/facility to source from, and teas have to supply from commercial farms. Becuase of that, our oldest blends have a lot of out-of-state sourced ingredients. With a stable future on the land and better infrastructure coming on-line, our newer blends feature local botanicals with the exotics (warm-climate grown) just for flair with hope for local cultivation in hoop-houses.
It's our heart to support local growers; so in the pause between growing cycles we analyzed our products: *What recipes do we love that can be tuned to represent more regional flavors? *Should any teas be discontinued because of growing costs and uncertainty in global trade?
Well, the analysis is in! Over the course of 2025, expect to see recipes get the axe or get retooled to highlight on our areas unique terroir, the taste of the landscape. Some changes are small, like replacing the Rooibos in Femme Infusion with more ginger. We retooled some recipes to partner with producers we love, Sleepy Sails transforming into Sleep Abundance with Big Black Tea, and mixing up ZAP! to highlight traditional North American teas and tonics, Catsprings Yaupon and roasted roots (Yaupoin now showing up with Olympic Dawn shifting to Yaupon, then all 100% local camellia when we have the space for it). We combined Silver Fox and Cocoa Raccoon to eliminate the palm sugar and blend the two the way most of our customers did anyway. And sad to say RIP Happy Tummy! We will love dearly you as long as you last. If there is something you miss, let us know! We plan to share the recipes of all discontinued blends via Creative Commons as posts throughout the year as they go off line. If there is something you just can’t live without, we can sent it to you right away or put it top of the “to-share” list.
Farmer Shae stands in blooming valerian patch
The big revelation is that stoke is sustained when working with others who share our values (and are fun!) All these recipe-adaptations lead to more of that. It’s a big YES!
You see it show up in our chocolate, now roasting in-house with Ingemann Beans and supporting the awesome initiative of Cocoa de Oro in Nicaragua. Our botanical highlights are sourced from our land, plus Chis Farm (chili’s), B&B Family Lavender and Jardin du Soleil (lavender), Good Green Earth (Nettle leaf), Spring Rain Farm (ginger), Friends of the Trees Botanicals (plant starts and seasonal dried). Looking forward to a Reishi Chocolate showcasing NW native reishi from Wild West Foods and cultivated Ling Zhi Strait Shrooms! Those two and Maddies Mushrooms provide the lions mane, reishi, oyster mushrooms and shiitake used in our teas and snacks. Some of our medicinal herbs got their start at Flora Farm in Port Angles, at Tampopo Farm (marigolds!), and from herbalist Lauren Morgan.
Thank you for being on this journey with us! If you want to say hello and get a taste of what’s fresh this season, stop by - check out the Calendar on Find Us to see what events we’re poping up at. Always with free samples, cheers and plant talk.
