Nature Is Best
Farmers come first in Ginger Elizabeth’s kitchen
By Gabrielle Myers
September 2026
Pastry chef Ginger Elizabeth Hahn grew up in the Camino foothills. As a young girl, she walked with her dog and picked blackberries. When her mom came home, they made blackberry pies.
“That’s where I really fell in love with pastry arts,” Hahn says. “I realized you could create something in 5 minutes, like you’re an alchemist. But the fruit had to be perfect.”
Hahn’s commitment to perfect local ingredients continues today. She shows her passion for Northern California fruit, nuts and oils at her Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates shops in Midtown and Folsom.
Almonds from Alison’s Organics in Orland turn up in Hahn’s almond pralines, almond rocher bonbons and almond rocher chocolates. Alison Ryan runs 24Carrot Farm in Placerville. Says Hahn, “I love everything about their farmstand.”
Hahn buys fruit and nuts from Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley. She notes, “They’re brilliant, amazing, beautiful people.”
Other farmers in the Ginger Elizabeth supply chain are Lodi’s Mt Moriah Farms for cherries, Yolo Press for olive oil, Stillwater Orchards pears from Courtland, lavender from Araceli Farms in Dixon, and Saeturn Farm raspberries and boysenberries from Oroville.
This summer, she used Saeturn boysenberries for a lavender boysenberry pavlova ice cream and boysenberry jam.
Hahn collaborates with Good Humus, a Capay family farm. She uses Good Humus citrus in desserts such as Eureka lemon bonbons and ice cream. Fifteen cases of Good Humus apricots are going into Hahn’s French-style jams this year.
Hahn uses fresh fruit for jam because the pectin is higher. She says, “When you do a French-style jam, you really want fruit that’s ripe on the tree with high pectin because we rely on natural occurring pectin to make our French-style jams. Little to no pectin is added. It is normally just a 30- to 40-minute cook to evaporate moisture and condense flavor. Our apricot jam has almost a pound of fruit per 6-ounce jar.”
Hahn’s love for farmers comes through as she talks about fruit and how Ginger Elizabeth uses it.
“I never want to haggle with farmers,” she says. “That’s probably one of the rudest things that you could do. These people are royalty. They’re growing food for us to eat. They’re some of the most amazing people on the planet. They’re heroes. These people are right up there with nurses and doctors because they’re growing our food. A lot of the farmers I use are saving our soil too, so you have to be grateful.”
Ginger Elizabeth is one of the few California companies with house-pasteurized cream for soft-serve ice cream. Hahn secured a dairy plant license from the California Department of Agriculture to maintain control over the cream. She buys from Clover Stornetta Farms in Petaluma.
All soft-serve is not equal. Many companies use “some scary stuff in there,” she says. “When you’re trying to sell a high-end product, you can’t rely on a middleman to make part of your product.”
Hahn’s philosophy comes down to three words: natural is best.
“As a pastry chef I have nothing on Mother Nature,” she says. “Right now, the apricots are hanging on my trees and getting warmed by the sun. They’re like gold, the most valuable thing.”
For information, visit gingerelizabeth.com or call (916) 706-1738.
Gabrielle Myers can be reached at gabriellemyers11@gmail.com. Her latest book of poetry, “Go Forth: Lose Yourself Into Life,” is available at finishinglinepress.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
