Burlap & Barrel - Ground Green Giza Fenugreek

Category: Spices

Our ground Giza Green Fenugreek is an exceptional, slightly sweet, vegetal variety grown by a family of farmers in an ancient agricultural community in Fayoum, Egypt, on the Nile River floodplain. Most fenugreek is yellow, but ours is green and intense, showing another side of this ingredient that has been used in dishes since ancient times.

Use this convenient powder with ground cumin, coriander, chilis and turmeric, or add to bread doughs for an herbal, nuanced flavor unlike anything else. Fenugreek is also the essential ingredient in hilbe, a Yemeni paste that accompanies soups and breads.
Origin:

Fayoum Oasis, Egypt

Process:

Sun-dried and ground

Ingredients:

Green fenugreek seeds (Trigonella foenum-graecum v. Giza green), ground

Tasting notes:

Parsley • Green Almond • Maple Syrup

SOURCING

Our Giza Green Fenugreek is grown and ground by an extended family of farmers in an ancient agricultural community in central Egypt, on the Nile River floodplain, where spices have been cultivated for many, many years.

We connected with the farmers through our partnership with Zaid of Norwich Meadows Farm. Every year, Zaid works with a crew of highly skilled Egyptian farmers who come to his farm in upstate New York to grow organic vegetables using a specific system of high tunnels and intercropping. The vegetables that Zaid grows with this group of farmers are stunning, and these same farmers have their own farms in Egypt, where they grow ancient varietals of desert-adapted spices that rely on seasonal flooding from the Nile River as the primary source of water.

$9.99

2.70 ounces

PRODUCER

Burlap & Barrel

Burlap & Barrel is a Public Benefit Corporation building new international food supply chains that are equitable, transparent and traceable.

A single origin spice company, Burlap & Barrel buys spices from farmers around the globe, who they call partners. They’ve eliminated the intermediaries who have traditionally bought and sold spices multiple times before any jar of spice lands in a U.S. customer’s kitchen cabinet. This means their spices are fresher than what you can find from the big spice companies. Spices so potent that they suggest new customers use just half a serving at first, as they sometimes get feedback from customers that the spices are too strong. It's not that the spices are too strong, but rather we are just accustomed to cooking with old spices! Did you know that supermarket spices sometimes have been in transit for three years?!?!?

Another benefit to eliminating spice brokers is that Burlap & Barrel can pay the farmers more for their crops while offering quality spices to the public at affordable prices.

SUPPORTING SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

Burlap & Barrel is working towards ending inequality and exploitation in food systems that disenfranchise skilled farmers.

They do this by:

Connecting smallholder farmers to high-value markets
Educating consumers about the impact of product traceability on human rights
Sourcing unique foods with terroir that are grown biodynamically and organically using traditional techniques

REDEFINING SUSTAINABILITY

Mainstream conversations around food sustainability rarely consider the people involved in growing, harvesting, transporting, processing and cooking food. Sustainability is discussed in terms of environmental impact, or the comfort of livestock providing meat, dairy or eggs.

The folks at Burlap & Barrel believe that the standard measures of sustainability must evolve to consider the conditions in which the farmers who drive global food supply chains earn their livelihoods. Single origin ingredients draw attention to the unique environments in which incredible ingredients grow and to the farmers with the expertise and commitment to grow them well.