Growing

• Our Damson are not sprayed.
• Our orchardist does however spray weeds that sprout around the base of the trees. 
• Our trees are rigorously pruned annually and the cuttings are used to grow more trees. 
• Irrigation water comes from the orchards bore. 

Food Waste

• At harvest, waste product is returned to the soil beneath the trees to decompose
• In the kitchen, all plum waste from frozen whole plums post cooking goes to a local pig farmer to be used as stock food

Ingredients

• Purchasing, is done as seldom as possible; we do this to reduce the product packaging involved in each order (packaging to ingredient ratio)
• Packaging (boxes, bubble wrap, brown paper etc) is reused, where possible, and recycled otherwise (this is why you may see our suppliers branding on some of our wholesale orders - often Arthur Holmes or Gilmours)

Cardboard Shippers

All of our cardboard shippers are:

• FSC certified 
• Made from 100% recycled content
• A high enough standard to re-use or repurpose (we actively encourage retailers and online customers to do this)

Product Packing & Labels

Glass is one of the most environmentally friendly materials used in food packaging. The manufacturing process is often closed loop, meaning the end-of-life material can be used to remake the exact same product - in this case, another glass container. This process can be repeated over and over again, therefore, glass is referred to as, infinitely recyclable. 

• All of our glass is recyclable
• Food jars and bottles are made by Arthur Homes 
• Liqueur bottles are made by Saver Glass in France

Energy Use

• We turn off all power when we leave our warehouse (most companies leave printers, computers and a light or two on overnight).
• We use low energy consumption bulbs.
• We monitor power use very closely.
• We have invested in low energy consumptions electronics (computers, printers, fridges and more)

Transportation

• We have chosen to centralise our distribution in Auckland in order to respond more economically to our biggest market.
• We send our products out in the smallest practical box (usually about .007m3 or smaller), even though our contract with NZ Post allows up to .03m3 - this saves space on the truck and allows the same truck to take more product with each trip thus reducing our overall carbon footprint.

People

• All of our employees (contract or otherwise) are paid well above the Living Wage. 
• We are a certified Living Wage Employer.