From Soil to Soul: Cultivating Gut Health at Grove & Meadow

Imagine burying your hands in rich, living soil – it feels earthy and full of life. That life isn’t just a feeling: it’s literally connected to your gut. Decades of agrarian wisdom and emerging science show that the microbes thriving in healthy soil mirror those in our own digestive tracts. We’ve co-evolved with soil, not apart from it, so nurturing earth below us helps nourish the inner world within us. At Grove & Meadow, this soil– gut bond is our guiding story: every choice on our farm and in our kitchen aims to regenerate dirt and delight the gut (i.e. YOUR vitality!) at the same time.

We strongly believe that food is more than fuel. It’s a thread that connects soil to soul, health to heritage, and personal vitality to planetary wellbeing. Food once was and - with a more regenerative food system - can once again be our medicine.  Ultimately food quality matters; we need food with vitality! – meaning real, nutrient-rich food.

Yet have you noticed that so much of the food you eat today lacks flavour? This is the easiest way to know that it is also lacking nutrients or, simply put, goodness. The amount of life in the soil (think nematodes, fungi, worms and other microscopic friends) directly affects the nutritional density of the foods that we eat. Therefore the higher the nutrient density (quite literally the amount of vitamins, minerals, fiber and other plant compounds per calorie) the more flavour the food will naturally hold. 

So what is actually happening underground?

Beneath every lush forest garden, a bustling microbial world is at work, recycling minerals and feeding plant roots. These soil organisms break down organic matter into life-giving nutrients (think nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc) and even produce compounds that boost a plant’s own defenses. A robust soil microbiome spurs plants to make more of their own “medicine” – antioxidants, vitamins and other phytonutrients – which in turn nourish us.  Beyond this, soil microbes also play an essential role in the global carbon cycle by determining how much carbon is able to be stored in the soil rather than released into the atmosphere. 

Simply put, when a the soil teems with microbial biodiversity, the result is food bursting with nutrients. Recent research confirms what farmers have long known: soil rich in organic matter and microbes produces healthier plants. One study found that soil microorganisms can actually shape the human gut microbiome, meaning “a relationship with healthy, diverse soil could positively influence the human gut”. In practical terms, crops grown on regenerative, compost-rich farms show significantly higher vitamin and mineral content than the same plants raised on chemical inputs. Dan Kittredge of the Bionutrient Institute (a leading voice on nutrient density) emphasises exactly this point: nutrient-rich food starts with nutrient-rich soil, and when soil health thrives, so do plant and human health.

Sign in our LIving Food Lab on Campus

Imagine if we all ate a rainbow on our plates

Another key to nutrition is variety. Just as a garden thrives with many plant species, our bodies thrive when we eat a diversity of foods. Research confirms that dietary diversity is “widely recognised as a key dimension of diet quality” and strongly predicts adequate micronutrients. In practice, this means filling our diet with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and legumes of all colours. 

One of the most beautiful outcomes of nurturing the soil is that it allows a “forgotten” diversity of crops to be remembered. In many African fields, grains like millet, sorghum and amaranth – once overlooked by industrial agriculture – are proving their worth. These ancient crops are hardy and climate-resilient, yet also incredibly nutritious. For example, millet is a small, ancient cereal packed with micronutrients, and amaranth (an Aztec staple) yields protein-rich seeds even in tough climatic conditions.

To celebrate this biodiversity, we have devised our innovative Botanical Diversity Index (BDI) for our products. Each item – from biodiverse granola to a fermented nut cheese alternative – is intentionally crafted with long, diverse ingredient lists to make dietary diversity convenient. In other words, every bite includes many plants and superfoods, so you naturally get a wider spectrum of nutrition and flavour.

Our recipes range from probiotic yogurts and fermented condiments to hearty whole-grain sourdough breads and colourful granolas, all made with live cultures and dozens of plant ingredients. Each product is a little ecosystem of microbes and micronutrients – food that literally helps the soil-and-gut conversation continue. We’re proud to share this knowledge at Brown’s Living Food Campus in Tigoni, where chefs and food-lovers gather for hands-on workshops. There, cooking classes and fermentation labs show how traditional Kenyan staples (like heirloom flours, pumpkin leaves and local grains) can be prepared slowly and mindfully to unlock their full nutrition and taste. These communal meals and gardens bridge modern cooking with ancient wisdom, reminding us how our plates connect back to the earth.

Grove and Meadow: food as medicine, as health and heritage

Grove & Meadow’s mission weaves these ideas into everything we do. As a food company, we see our role in restoring biodiversity whilst supporting vitality as threefold. 

Firstly educating and inspiring people about the importance of soil health and both nutritional density and diversity for ensuring their own health. That is why we offer the chance to come on a tour or join a workshop at our Living Food Campus where you can delve into the underworld through composting, microscopes, the wormery and humus rich polyculture farming; engage with patient processing techniques that unlock further nutritional value of foods; and sense first hand the interconnection between healthy soils and healthy guts. Walking away with a sense of intrigue and a calm, connected mind. It is also why we are audacious enough to talk about biodiversity and making nature visible again on all our product packaging. 

Secondly, working hard to support small and medium scale farmers to transition to regenerative agriculture practices i.e. practices that actually bring more life into the soil rather than simply do less harm (think no chemicals, mixed cropping systems including the planting of tree crops, permanent crop cover, composting and a curiosity around why pests might be there to reveal to us!). Our aim is to purchase 100% of our ingredient supply from regenerative farms so that the food that ends up in your belly is of the highest flavour and nutritional value. 

Thirdly, supporting people to remember that their food choices matter. To question beyond their physical plate and ask how the ingredients were grown, how the food was processed and what impact those decisions might have. There is a hidden cost to our food - not just in terms of the environmental impact that goes into making it but also the eventual health costs that will likely be incurred from a life lived eating an inadequate diet. That is why we founded the Food Beyond the Plate movement - a dynamic initiative that redefines consumers as active participants of change towards a more life sustaining, healthy food system. One that supports human and planetary health together; one that sees nature and humans not as separate but as one, as part of a greater interconnected whole.

Caring for the soil, for biodiversity is an act of caring for ourselves too

All of this adds up to one inspiring message: by caring for soil and plant diversity, we care for ourselves. We really are a part of the soil story – and every choice with our forks can help rewrite that story for the better. Our human health is intrinsically linked to the soil. Perhaps now you have an idea as to why we, as a regenerative food company, choose to have a soil lab on our Living Food Campus!

As Grove & Meadow we invite you to join this rich journey. Visit us in Tigoni to peer at the life underneath our feet through the microscope and you will never quite walk the same way again! Whether you’re a chef trying a new recipe with our nutrient-dense stone-ground flours, or a foodie learning fermentation with us, every seed planted and every bite eaten can help heal the earth and our guts together. After all, good food should feed more than just the stomach – it should nourish the soul and the soil too. Let's remember the wisdom of Hippocrates and “let food be thy medicine”.

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Sources:

Unearthing the relationship between soil and gut health https://www.nutritank.com/unearthing-the-relationship-between-soil-and-gut-health

Meet Dan Kittredge — The Bionutrient Institute - Understanding the Science... From Field to Plate. https://www.bionutrientinstitute.org/meetdan

Forgotten Crops: The key to good nutrition & food security https://tastingthefuture.com/2018/04/23/forgotten-crops-the-key-to-good-nutrition-food-security/