Sunrise Organic Farm · Hansa Ceylon

Sunrise is its own small farm, separate from the roastery, high on a mountainside with no road to its door. It isn't set up as a place to visit, so the best way to know it is through what it grows. Sunrise Organic Farm puts soil first. We grow without chemicals, rebuild the soil season by season, and keep heirloom crops going. The farm is verified under a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), where local farmers and buyers check each other's organic practice.

The farm's greenhouse and terraced growing beds on a hillside — The greenhouse and terraced growing areas of the farm

A jar of calendula salve among calendula and lavender

Jars of plantago salve beside fresh plantago leaves and flower spikes — Plantago salve, made from fresh plantago leaves grown on the farm

Salves made the slow way

Each tub or jar takes several days. Most salves on the market are a plain base with a few drops of essential oil stirred in for the smell. Distilling a plant into an essential oil captures only its scent, and much of what makes calendula, plantago and comfrey so soothing stays behind. So we use the whole fresh herb instead.

Day one
Flowers and leaves are picked fresh, left out for a few hours so any insects can leave, then washed three times and spun dry.
Low and slow
The herbs dry at just 40 to 45°C for 8 to 12 hours, then go straight into an airtight jar.
A day of rest
We grind the dried flowers and leave them for a full day to open up.
Into the oil
The flowers are blended with oil, ground again and strained slowly through cheesecloth.
Set with beeswax
The golden oil is warmed gently with beeswax and poured into our jars and tubs.

A glass jar of dried calendula flowers — Calendula, dried low and slow

From the farm

A table of freshly set salve jars, outdoors at the farm — A fresh batch, set and ready for labels

Calendula & lavender salve

Plantago salve

Calendula & plantago salve

Comfrey salve

Grapefruit marmalade

Our salves are cosmetic skin care, not medicines. Do a patch test first, and use comfrey on unbroken skin only.

Life on the mountain

We grow (and eat) a lot of greens. We share the farm with a lot of dogs, and with moths, frogs, lizards, jungle fowl, birds and other little creatures we can't even name. And we love to make a lot of compost.

A ginger dog looking out over beds of kale, chard and lettuce — Keeping an eye on the greens

Vani, our senior roaster and baker, holding an armful of freshly picked kale and parsley — Vani, our senior roaster and baker, with an armful of kale. She hates eating it.

Six palm-leaf plates of freshly picked beans, from speckled purple to pale yellow and green — One morning's beans, six kinds

Two large heirloom tomatoes, one red and one orange, held in a hand — Heirloom tomatoes, kept going season after season

A small hairy tarantula sitting on a broad green leaf — One of the neighbours

A small stone-edged pond surrounded by plants and trees — The pond, for the frogs (and the dogs)

Teas and books

We read a lot of books on herbalism and cooking. We make (and drink) a lot of herbal teas, and we make everyone else drink them too.

Bunches of fresh herbs and clover flowers laid out on a wooden table — Herbs we cut fresh and brew into tea every day

A glass jar full of dried root slices — Dried slowly and jarred for the teapot

Three books on herbal medicine laid out side by side — A few from the reading pile

Built with clay and sand

If Romayne can't be farming, you'll find her building. Under her guidance, Murthi, the tough guy on the team, has learnt to make adobe bricks, clay and lime plaster, coloured lime plaster waterproofed with soap, rock and cob benches, a cob oven and even two tadelakt bathrooms. No cement, no paint, no tiles.

Murthi standing over rows of freshly moulded adobe bricks — Murthi with a fresh row of adobe bricks

A wall with fresh coloured lime plaster beside a section of old stone and adobe — New coloured lime plaster beside the old wall

We inherited a 70-year-old adobe house. Instead of breaking it down, we built on top of it with our own bricks and plaster. Old traditional ways of building, mixed with some new skills and knowledge from around the world, have given us a house that stays cool in the hot months and warm in the cold ones.

The old white-washed adobe house with a tin roof, before the rebuild — The old house when we got it

Two men laying new adobe bricks on top of the walls of the old house — Raising the old walls with our own bricks

The finished adobe house with a green roof, surrounded by trees and plants — The house today

The oven and the stove

Now we bake amazing pizzas, bread and cakes in the cob oven, and we've spoilt ourselves for life. We've also just finished a three-burner rocket stove, so we can cook all day without smoke or fire hitting our bellies. Vani bakes all kinds of things, from bread and pizza to buns, and so does Romayne, who digs out the crazy recipes.

The cob oven being shaped by hand, with a clay lizard on top — The oven taking shape, lizard and all

A tray of pizza going into the glowing cob oven — Pizza going in

A new clay rocket stove with clay cooking pots on top — The new three-burner rocket stove, freshly plastered

A golden sesame-topped star bread fresh from the oven — Star Bread, the favourite with everyone

Learning on the land

The farm runs training and apprenticeships in organic, regenerative growing, with a focus on women in the hill country.

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