Natural, green, edible. Sound like something you’d find on an organic eatery’s menu? Or in a bottle under the kitchen sink?

If it’s a bottle of Ginger Clean, a line of all-natural cleaning products made in Elk Rapids, it’s the latter – though slugging down a shot of it (while not recommended, or for that matter, tasty), would do no harm.

“Ginger Clean is truly all natural. Everything we use is literally edible,” says Tammy Kinzel, who, with business partner Carol Renis, recently bought Ginger Clean from its inventor, Ginger Blackmore, nearly two years ago. “You can actually ingest this, and it will not hurt you.”

It won’t hurt your kids either. Or your pets. Or the environment. So what’s in this gentle cleanser? It’s more a matter of what’s not, says Renis.

Ginger Clean contains no Borax – “…that is very poisonous,” she says. It also has no chemically derived or plant-based surfectants, which are present in most mainstream cleaners.

“[Studies have shown that] chemically derived surfactants cause cancer, and plant-based surfactants haven’t been studied enough for us to know if they are bad for you or not,” says Renis, “so we choose not to put them in.”

Appeal has extended far past the boundaries of the partners’ Elk Rapids community, however. In the last 19 months since Renis and Kinzel have taken over the making and selling of Ginger Clean, the line has found its way into 26 stores across the state – no small feat considering the pair are managing the business while holding down their day jobs. Kinzel, a personal gardener, maintains fifty gardens in the local area; Renis works at Pine Hill Nursery in Kewadin. She says she has started to scale back from her full-time schedule because Ginger Clean is demanding more and more attention.

The product is literally homemade, and sales in the last two years have really taken off, says Kinzel. The combo makes home life rather interesting for the entrepreneurs.

“Working out of the house means I can't get away from work on certain days,” says Renis. “My dining room table was missing for more than three months this spring.”

Much to the partners’ surprise, it’s a pattern that seems to be repeating itself more and more in recent months. “In fact, we thought, ‘Oh, this will be something we can do part-time, and five years from now maybe it will take off. It didn’t. It took off right away,” says Renis.

Nevertheless, they aren’t complaining, says Kinzel. “We pray for that second wind at the end of the day. We just know it has to get done, so we just make it happen.”

To view a brief video about Ginger Clean in the owners' own words, click on the photo at top left.