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COLLECTIVELY
WE WORK WITH
…a thriving group of life-long land stewarding Cacao farmers, in several remote regions of Guatemala.
The Ho.Wo.Co. is honored to co-operate with folks who cultivate this heart medicine with the utmost care- a focus on organic growing, permaculture principles & in many cases, agro-forest reforestation efforts.
WE SUPPORT
…a women’s collective- mostly single mothers- who’ve come together to share in empowerment & resource.
In the Village of Tzununá, these strong Mayan women are cultivating practices once lost in their heritage & are rising up to give their families a different life. We’re checking in often to make sure HWco is an integral part of that.
WE ARE
…two cacao-seduced citizens of Mama Earth who’ve traveled back to the source to pay it forward.
…intentionally in a better way than we found it- as children in the forms of treats- and finally as adults in ceremony. Here is where it changed our lives forever. Well- to this moment at least. Hello! It is good to be with you.
AND PERHAPS, YOU ARE
…with us. To sit with the Holy Wow is to become an integral strand in the web that continues the tapestry. Through medicine, intention and down-right quantum-Earth reality, we truly are connected in this on-going ceremony of life.
We invite you to the Holy W.O.W. (With Out Words) state of being. The place that whispers of how to answer unique & ever-changing calls to make each moment that may pass before us a little better because it did.
WE WORK FOR THE CACAO
This very special plant has courted the homosapien in us.
With it’s undeniably rich & bittersweet healing properties, Theobroma Cacao has courted the human to form cooperatives of farmers who carefully grow her in life-affirming soils the world-wide with distribution to every
single corner of this round planet.
Indeed, this plant-being has- like bosom whoos baby- whooed this world wide open. In turn we propagate & spread her bean the world over. We’ll speak for ourselves to say we’re over-joyed to be seduced to be in service to a suchness so tasteful.
originallY
The short of the long of it- The arrival of these beans, these farms, these regions. & how they arrive to you…
Early on the cacao-scout journey, we learn; just as every region of a place will offer a slight twist of the tongue, every region will offer a unique bean-seed too- say near the Pacific Coast or up in the jungles of the north- each carries variable qualitative profiles such as taste, butter content & more. Diversity of sourcing important, this nature of the-taste-of-a-place proved a guiding helper to the quest at hand.
Little did we know how difficult finding the ideal farms would be…
Those cultivating on criteria such as Organic, Permaculture/Agroforest-based systems, all-the-while operating collectively and taking care of the helping hands. In short, those with reciprocal relations* to all along the way… With whispers in our ears, we wandered in question- do these relationships still exist? Must we compromise?
The answer came not-with-standing a satchelful of set-backs & step-forths.
By way of scrawled-map leads from kind farmers & collectives, speaking on regions best known for quality Cacao growth, etc, we arrived in relation to 3 farms & a collective of small household-sized growers, from 4 regions throughout Guatemala – namely…
rio dulce
Humid, River Nights
Hints of Lime
Rich in Cacao Butter
suchitepequez
Women’s Collective Farm
New Empowered Paradigm
Abundant Labors of Love
alta verapaz
Mountain Jungle
Collective of Family Farms
Infused with Laughter
las victorias
Salty Coastline
Creative Inspiration
Wafting Smokiness
Sourcing secured, we needed to understand processing.
In quest we stumbled upon a willing women’s collective in Tzununá- a nearby town to where we were living in San Marcos, Lake Atitlán. The invitation for collaboration was received with joy and these powerful women quickly proved up for the task, with grace to boot.
( Fast-forward through adventures in shipping )
Roughly one Earth-curtsy later, we are honored to offer The Holy Wow up & out & in a good way- & perhaps- just in time- when this heart medicine is both abundant & abundantly needed. Enjoy & give thanks!
TRANSPARENCIALLY SPEAKING
We’re but beautiful babies here – so we’re taking our baby steps to not step on any toes.
We are 2 men raised working-class white in the states. We are aware of our status & privilege in the world. To the best of our ability, we acknowledge the innumerable hardships the indigenous soul of the planet has endured. To the best of our ability, we honor the lineage of people who’ve cared for this plant medicine for generations by way of reciprocity through profit-sharing & charitable donation.
Feel free to ask us anything, let us know how we might show up better and- where applicable- how we may just be doing an ok job after all.
May we [all] receive what we need & give what we can.
10% of the profits of HWC goes directly to
the beautiful people at The Lake Atitlán Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center.
The goal here is not to just “pick a charity,” but rather, an intentional quest of co-creation in a better life for all, starting right here at the roots of where this sacred plant grows.
We hope to replace one cup (alcohol), with another, possibly that of Cacao.
Let us come together and help each other Remember to Remember.
let's stack it up
NOTEWORTHY
We practice resource sharing- shiny new grinders & etc- with the women’s collective to use in ways however they see fit for their personal & professional needs beyond Holy Wow in an effort to support abundance in their lives.
The dollar goes somewhere around 5-7x further, here in Guatemala. So though it may appear like the farmers and women’s collective are receiving much less of the cut- this boggled us as well- the fact is, they are doing quite well for the local standards of economy and as well are on-par with the portion the HWC team is receiving.
Thank you for supporting complete-circle companies like Holy Wow and supporting many families within the web along the way. It is good to be alive with you.
