The Secret Formula to Silk Grass Farms’ Delicious Products
At Silk Grass Farms, we know that every fruit and vegetable is only as good as the land and the process that created it.
Delicious, high-quality crops start from the root and flourish from the ground up. The farmers at Silk Grass Farms are committed to ensuring that our coconuts, citrus fruits, cacao, and other produce are grown in healthy soil and with practices that lead to a nourishing product for both people and the planet.
We accomplish this by planting crops optimal for local soil types; replenishing and protecting the land; and caring for, harvesting, and processing crops in harmony with nature. The result is a high-quality product with peak freshness and flavor that is perfectly delicious on its own — no added sugars or preservatives needed. Silk Grass Farms products are as nourishing for those who enjoy them as they are for the earth that grows them.
Cacao is intercropped with hardwood trees.
A Strong Agricultural Foundation
Located in the foothills of the Maya Mountains in southern Belize, Silk Grass Farms grows a wide variety of perennial and annual crops across 9,000 acres of fertile farmland. These include coconut, various citrus fruits, cacao, watermelon, mango, avocado, ginger, vanilla, and more. We chose this diverse selection of crops because they are best suited to local soil types, microclimates, and the natural contours of the land.
From there, the intentionality continues with a range of techniques employed to ensure crops are cared for in a way that regenerates the soil and benefits the broader environment — all while helping yield a top-quality product.
Take Silk Grass Farms cacao trees as an example of how crop selection and planting methods work together. Indigenous cacao was first cultivated by the ancient Mayans and has been critical to the Belizean ecosystem for centuries. Belize’s unique combination of climate, soil, and topography provide an ideal environment for the crop. At Silk Grass Farms, cacao is planted side-by-side with hardwood trees like mahogany in intentional forests, offering benefits modern conventional farming methods do not. Intercropping the cacao with hardwoods not only provides beneficial shade and wildlife habitat but also improves the health of the soil and allows for enhanced growth and development of the cacao.
Coconuts, citrus fruits, and other crops are processed into juices, purees and other products right at Silk Grass Farms’ state-of-the-art food processing facility, allowing Silk Grass Farms to process produce to the highest quality, flavor, safety, and nutritional standards.
Built in 2022, this 130,000-square-foot facility is equipped with several types of equipment that clean and preserve produce without degrading taste, texture, or nutrient content. Our high-pressure processing (HPP) machine uses up to 87,000 psi of pressure to neutralize microbes and pathogens, extend shelf life, and retain the natural taste, texture, and nutrient value of a wide variety of pre-packaged foods and beverages without damaging proteins and enzymes. Other machines pasteurize using heat, while our IceGen machine converts liquids into a uniformly frozen slurry, preserving the taste, aroma, color, and overall quality of the product for weeks in transit.
Silk Grass Farms coconuts, grown without the use of herbicides and pesticides, undergo cold-pressing, hyperfiltration and IceGen cooling to create the highest-quality coconut oil and coconut water, which are packaged and sold in a variety of sizes, from single serving to bulk.
Natural Flavor and Freshness
What we leave out of Silk Grass Farms products is just as important as what we put into them. Our juices, oils, honey, and other products are made without added sugars, preservatives or chemicals, ensuring they remain pure and natural, making products tastier and healthier for our consumers.
Our cold-pressed coconut water and coconut oil are made without destructive high-heat processes and with no added flavors or chemicals — keeping them 100% pure. Cold-pressed orange, white grapefruit, watermelon, pineapple, and fruit juice blends are also 100% pure, made without additional sugar or preservatives — providing natural, refreshing and healthy hydration. Honey is raw and unprocessed, yet another 100% pure and natural product delivered to our customers the way nature intended.
Silk Grass Farms’ 100% pure juices and coconut water.
What Your Dollar Supports
When you buy Silk Grass Farms products, you support not only a farm that works in harmony with nature, but a business whose entire mission is to support the earth, the natural environment, and the people of Belize.
Profits from the farms and factory are dedicated, in perpetuity, to the Silk Grass Wildlife Preserve — a 24,700-acre, first-growth rainforest that is permanently protected under a Belizean non-profit organization.
Furthermore, Silk Grass Farms places a high value on humanity. Our products represent an entire system that supports Belizean workers, Belizean farmers, and the Belizean economy. We pay our employees a living wage and provide quality housing, education, and healthcare to employees and their families. The factory also processes produce from nearby Belizean farms, serving as a key resource to the country’s agricultural economy.
Like the sustainable agricultural practices Silk Grass Farms upholds, these commitments are built into our DNA. As a certified B Corporation, all aspects of Silk Grass Farms revolve around a commitment to use business as a force for good. When you buy from Silk Grass Farms, you get more than a high-quality product — you support a company that prioritizes people and planet in everything it does.
Techniques such as cultivating native crops and intercropping provide a strong foundation for other regenerative agricultural practices currently underway at Silk Grass Farms:
Fallow fields are planted with cover crops and native grasses to prevent the soil from degrading due to overexposure to sun, wind, and rainfall. These practices also help the soil retain moisture, fix nitrogen, and prevent erosion.
Soil tilling is avoided wherever possible. The majority of Silk Grass Farms crops are perennial and naturally grown without tilling. The practice of no-till farming preserves soil biodiversity and helps keep carbon — which contributes to harmful greenhouse gasses — in the ground where it belongs. No-till or low-till methods are also used for our annual crops, such as ginger and melon.
Common “waste” materials are repurposed into useful products or returned to the soil to boost soil health and sequester carbon. Specifically, Silk Grass Farms plans to process its primary production wastes — such as coconut shells, husks, wood chips, citrus peel, rag, and seeds — into biochar, activated charcoal, wood vinegar, mulch, and animal feed.
We enforce a zero-herbicide policy that relies on manual and mechanical brush clearing. Preventative controls and strategic spot treatments minimize any use of pesticides, protecting the ecosystem and the farms’ 65 bee hives. We plan to multiply these bee colonies into more than 300 hives placed strategically around the farms.
These regenerative agricultural practices sustain and regenerate the land, yielding juicier, healthier, more nutrient-dense produce that Silk Grass Farms harvests and processes into high-quality foods and beverages. Our experienced team of scientists and farmers is continually working to improve and expand upon our farming processes and innovations.
Process Makes Perfect
Once our plants bear fruit or other produce, conscientious harvesting and processing methods ensure that the quality nurtured by the farms’ agricultural practices is maintained in the final product.
When the cacao pods are ready for harvesting, Silk Grass Farms uses a careful, labor-intensive process to protect the integrity of the plants and preserve the quality of the cacao (while also providing quality jobs). Employees harvest cacao pods by hand, preventing the plants’ surrounding flowers from damage. The beans and pulp are then manually extracted and traditional, open-air fermentation and drying methods are used to enhance the flavor of the beans. The beans are then cleaned, packaged, and shipped to expert chocolatiers in France to be used in a wide variety of high-quality cakes, confections, and other culinary treats.
Cacao pods are harvested by hand before they are fermented and dried in an open-air environment to enhance the flavor of the beans.