Spice Sanctuary

Founder of Spice Sanctuary Trusha Patel, just back from a trip to India to meet with some of her suppliers, has graciously granted me an interview to chat about cooking, the environment, travel to exotic lands, and of course Spices.

When Trusha moved to Canada from the United Kingdom four years ago, she encountered a challenge that she never expected. She was having difficulty finding spices that measured up to the quality and potency she had found back home. Cooking is one of her great passions, so that was clearly not going to cut it and in June of 2012 she launched her own line of Spices with Spice Sanctuary. Her reasoning, “if you’re spending the money to get organic [spices], you should get the best.”

The mission of Spice Sanctuary is to provide high quality organic spices from the farm to your pantry in 6 steps or less. Quite a lofty goal considering very few spices can be successfully grown in Canada. Trusha has traveled all over, from Greece to Sri Lanka and India, to find the best grades of each spice possible.  She calls it one of her personal benefits, not only being able to meet the farmers who are growing her spices, but explore the beautiful countries they live in.

6 Steps or LESS:

1. Farm – the herbs are grown by small scale farmers don’t often have the resources or ability to sell their products internationally.
2. Processor – a local processing company takes the farmers’ harvests to test quality and prep the spices for international transport.
3. Packaging in Canada – all the spices arrive directly from the processor and are individually packaged in Alberta, supporting the local economy.
4. Delivered to Retailer/Restaurant – The spices are sent out to retail locations (like Green Earth Organics) and directly to restaurants.
5. You – You purchase the spices, all that’s left is for you to use them. So, get cooking!

Response to her products has been fantastic. In just eighteen months her spices are now carried in 55 retail locations across Canada, as well as served directly to your plates at top restaurants. The spices are picked to have the highest amounts of volatile-oil possible so that they retain their flavor longer. This allows the cook to use less of the spice in order to achieve the flavor they want in their dish.

Trusha “want[s] to spread the word to encourage [cooks] to use the spices when they’re potent and add them to every meal no matter what the cuisine.” She occasionally teaches classes in Calgary on using spice in cooking and is currently writing a cookbook with simple every day recipes that are designed to expand the average person’s use of spices. Some of these recipes can already be found on her blog and we have featured one in our newsletter as well.

She is also giving back to the environment and helping to restore biodiversity by supporting Afforestation in Northern Alberta on behalf of her customers. Spice Sanctuary, in partnership with The Carbon Farmer are planting trees from profits of purchases of their spices. As the forest expands and matures, the carbon capture in the region will increase and improve the biodiversity of the natural habitat.

Trusha is a big believer that businesses should be responsible for their own carbon foot print and is seeking every day to minimize her own impact on the environment. Green Earth Organics is thrilled to know that our purchases from Spice Sanctuary are helping to support our mutual goal of a "Green Earth".

Buy Spice Sanctuary products from our Calgary location and our Vancouver location.