Our newest venture: Faluma Coconut Oil, rooted in ancestral wisdom.
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New York City — the cultural crossroads of the globe to many, and a hub for unique natural products. From local nut butters and plant milks to specialty imports like chocolates and syrups, it’s a great place to connect with community through sustainable, human‑scale commerce. This is what makes Goodgrow…good! Nothing feels more satisfying than going to a local market, or meeting a friend—or a new acquaintance—who’s started a sustainable natural‑goods venture.
In the spirit of the holidays, and with a hope to help some awesome people land in your gift baskets, here are 8 brands that we love.
A large part of our mission at Goodgrow is uplifting other mission‑aligned small businesses. We’ll periodically feature brands we love and recommend to our customers. These brands are all working to solve a component of our broken food system—whether that’s through nutrition, sustainability, employment, or access.
The first brand we’re featuring in our Brands We Love series is Sourmilk. We were introduced to Sourmilk through a friend and knew at once that this was a brand we needed to partner with. Sourmilk was founded by friends Kiki Couchman and Elan Halpern when they were searching for a way to bring the benefits of supplements into whole, healthy foods.
They’re on a mission to help Americans improve their health and heal their guts through real whole foods, one spoonful at a time. They believe the easiest way to make the biggest impact is by meeting people where they already are in their habits—at the breakfast table. We love how they’re using food instead of supplements to help people heal their gut. You can find Sourmilk in a few stores around New York City. Sourmilk
Lover’s Rock Sea Moss was started by Rich Williams, a first‑generation Jamaican‑American who grew up eating sea moss as part of his regular breakfast. As an adult, he realized all of the health benefits associated with sea moss and how Black and Brown communities in the US could use it to combat many diet‑related illnesses that disproportionately impact them. From there, Lover’s Rock was born.
Lover’s Rock is on a mission to decolonize the health and wellness industry—an industry worth around $500B in the United States alone. Sea moss is a superfood rich in nutrients often missing from Americans’ diets, including potassium, calcium, and iodine. Lover’s Rock is helping improve the health of communities who lack access to healthy food options by providing these key nutrients in an easy‑to‑eat format.
You can find Rich and Lover’s Rock Sea Moss on his website or at farmers markets around New York City.
https://loversrockseamoss.com/
When we first spoke with Arsh and Utsab, founders of Stesh Butter, their passion was unmistakable. They left comfortable careers in finance to build something they believed was missing from the CPG world: a pistachio butter that’s indulgent, clean, and genuinely better for you. That kind of leap takes guts—and the product shows why it was worth it.
At Stesh, the philosophy is simple: you should be able to enjoy something by the spoonful without compromising your health. Pistachios—nutrient‑dense, naturally vibrant, and seriously delicious—are the heart of everything they make. Using just five all‑natural ingredients (plus a lot of care, love, and a bit of whimsy courtesy of their mascot, Mr. Turtle), they’ve created a pistachio butter that feels both nostalgic and next‑level. It’s the kind of staple that quickly becomes part of your daily ritual.
Stesh is on a mission to share their stash with the world—and trust us, once you try it, you’ll get why people keep going back for more.
When we first met Helena at the market in Cali, Colombia, we made an instant connection. She told us about her process creating homemade artisanal jams, and the love and hard work she puts into each jar is evident upon first taste. Her incredible jams needed to be shared with the world, and with the ability to scale her business into new markets, we were the people to help.
We brought a few jars back to our local market in NYC to see how customers would react. The response was immediately positive—hunger for more. As people sampled her freshly made tropical fruit jams, they were transported directly to Cali. Not only did customers resonate with the product, but they also resonated with her story and how perfectly it aligns with our mission of uplifting small businesses ethically producing artisanal, high‑quality natural goods. You can find Helena’s jams on our website—we recommend stocking up for the holidays!
Sustainability is a core component of our business, so when we find other brands equally committed to the environment, it’s usually an immediate connection. That’s how it was for us with Nuthatch, an NYC‑based company making plant‑based milks and upcycled food products. Traditional plant‑based milks can generate a lot of waste, but Nuthatch found a way to use every component from the plant‑based milk production process. Their products aren’t only vegan and sustainable, but they’re also delicious! We’re fans of their almond and oat milks in our morning coffee.
You can find Nuthatch in select cafes around NYC and on their website. https://nuthatchlocal.com/
Sol Cacao is revolutionizing what it means to make chocolate. Started in the Bronx by three Trinidadian brothers, they import the highest‑quality cacao from small family farms around the world. They’re a bean‑to‑bar operation that incorporates sustainability, ethical sourcing, and community impact into the business. They bring rare flavors of chocolate to market and are working to establish the Bronx as a chocolate destination.
They also give back in a big way, offering apprenticeships to local high school students to inspire the next generation of chocolatiers. You can order their chocolate bars directly on their website.
Okay, maybe we’re a bit biased here—and for good reason. Faluma is one of Goodgrow’s first products. This project was born from a simple but powerful idea: what if we could source and produce our own coconut oil?
Faluma began with a $1,000 crowdfunding campaign and a partnership with Martir—a dear friend and Garifuna artisan I met over a decade ago. He’s one of those rare people whose integrity and cultural pride are immediately felt: a true ambassador of Garifuna heritage and a connoisseur of its foodways. Together with local producers along the Caribbean coast, he helped shape a model that puts community power at the center.
Instead of building a traditional supply chain, Faluma created something closer to a cultural cooperative. We invested in processing equipment and coconuts, ensuring that the impact of our funds and profits stays in the community. The Faluma brand is rooted in Garifuna identity and ecological stewardship—every jar of coconut oil represents shared ownership, ancestral knowledge, and real economic opportunity.
Today, Faluma reinvests each sale into new equipment, training, and expanded micro‑processing capacity—scaling participation, not extraction. This product exemplifies how regenerative commerce can start small and grow in a way that strengthens cultural heritage rather than erasing it.
You can support Faluma by preordering their next batch or contributing directly to their community‑led expansion.
Motif was created by Michael Zabar, a fourth‑generation member of the family that founded the iconic NYC deli, Zabar’s. Michael’s first job at Zabar’s, scooping coffee beans and proudly serving customers, laid the foundation for his passion for coffee. He learned firsthand what goes into making a great cup and the importance of quality ingredients.
However, Michael recently discovered that most syrups used to flavor coffee lack that same dedication to quality. The syrups at many coffee shops in the US are usually full of sugar, artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes. So Michael started Motif to offer clean‑label syrups that:
It turns out many people avoid syrups because they want cleaner labels. Motif is launching their naturally flavored syrups in January 2026 on brewmotif.com, with updates about the launch on social @brewmotif.
