When we opened Jessie’s over 10 years ago, we wanted a sustainable approach with as little impact on the environment as possible. We began recycling all our bottles and jars we were generating and used those for bottling Kombucha or filled with granola, truffles, salads etc. Then we looked at the huge amount of juice pulp and rather than just compost we looked for ways to utilise it and create nutrient and fibre-rich foods. We have incorporated pulp into our baked goods, at times fed goats with it, and also created a recipe with flax seeds to make an amazing dehydrated cracker that gives you a good clean from the inside if you know what I mean! With all the coffee drinkers we were producing a lot of coffee grinds and have used much of these in our garden to help build soil, or given away to others to do the same.
So it only fit that Jessie went to work at home and has transformed our garden from virtually nothing it into what is now the makings of a food forest jungle! We have papayas, coconuts, bananas, cherries, ackee, passionfruit, bread fruit, limes, mulberries, moringa, various herbs as well as tumeric and ginger, sugarcane, tomatoes, june plums, sweet potatoes, mangoes, grapes, the odd pineapple, and hopefully soon starfruit, guava, soursop, avocados and more, and in time we hope to be able to supply the juice bar with some of the bounty! It’s so important for people to realise the potential to grow food around them no matter how small the space – a windowsill, balcony or even a cupboard with the right light can be turned into a productive garden utilising food scraps and any garden “waste”, and keeping it out of landfill. There is so much great information and tutorials freely available now on the likes of YouTube. Feel free to reach out if you’d like some suggestions, seeds, cuttings, coffee grinds, sprouted coconuts etc to get started, Jessie is obsessed with permaculture and we believe we need to move in this direction as quickly as possible.