Featured Ferment

Posted October 17, 2023 by Addie Rose

Ten Years as a Co-op, Moving into our Future

Happy Co-op Month! We’re proud to be celebrating our 10th anniversary as a worker co-op this year and invite you to check out our story about how we got here. We also share exciting founder succession news as longtime team member Kristin Howard takes Real Pickles into our second decade of co-op ownership as our next general manager!

Becoming a Co-op

“Fermented lettuce … really? I dunno.”

It’s the year 2000, and my future husband and business partner Dan is handing me a mason jar of yellowish-green, algae-like greens with a fork. It smells fresh and briny, but stirring the contents with the fork does not inspire tasting. In general, he could not have found a more willing taster for experimental fermentation. I’d rarely met a vegetable or a pickle I didn’t like. As a child at family picnics I sought out olives, pickled herring, cornichons, bread and butters, and uber-sour distilled vinegar pickles with yellow #5. I loved it all.

I took a small leaf and it was slimy on my tongue. “Um. I’ll pass,” I said.

“Apparently it’s a Russian delicacy…” he started, “but I really can’t see why, maybe there’s a missing ingredient.”

Fast forward 10 years and we’re at the helm of a fast-growing fermented pickle manufacturing company with a committed mission to source regional veggies and sell only within the Northeast U.S. We’ve left the lesser-known delicacies behind for more familiar recipes, crunchy krauts and cucumber pickles. Some folks recognize our ferments as reminiscent of those in the basement crocks their grandparents tended. We’ve just moved into our own facility after years working out of a local business incubator kitchen, and we can’t keep up with demand. The phone rings.

“Hello, Real Pickles, this is Kristin. … I’m sorry, we don’t ship to Tennessee… No, it isn’t about the price of shipping. We make everything with Northeast-grown vegetables and choose to distribute just in the Northeast. We want to promote local and regional food systems, so we like to encourage fermenters in other regions. I can recommend a business in Kentucky for you to try… here’s their number…”

In 2010, interest is growing big-time for fermented foods. Sandor Katz’s Art of Fermentation is about to hit the shelves and people are going crazy for anything fermented (even jackets made of dehydrated kombucha mushroom!). There’s a scattering of small businesses making fermented veggies and we’ve got a small list that we promote when folks call from outside our region. But we can barely keep up with sales inside our region. We start hoping for more regional competitors to absorb some of the demand.

Our production schedule is full, the kitchen is packed with workers, we’re considering a second shift, but we like that everyone knows each other and is on the same schedule. There’s a great culture brewing among folks at our “pickle factory” (tongue in cheek). People are trading books and music, organizing skill swaps, sharing lunches. Folks seem happy to be here despite the hard work and tight quarters.

In 2010 when Dan and I thought about the future of Real Pickles, it was clear that workers were always going to be a big part of our business. It felt special to have a manufacturing business that could also be a supportive and nurturing environment for its workers. We wanted to preserve both our business’ mission AND improve working conditions so that staff would be able and excited to make a career out of their job here.

*Founding members of Real Pickles Cooperative on Day 1: Dan, Addie Rose, Annie, Kristin and Brendan*

With a couple years of pondering and continuing to build a wonderful and committed staff, we invited them to join us in transitioning to a co-operative enterprise. With a small group of interested folks, we began to clarify our vision: a business whose mission is protected by its organizing documents and structure, and whose workers are empowered to protect and improve their own jobs and help create new good jobs within our community. A co-operative structure would also provide a succession strategy for Dan and I when we were ready to retire or pursue other careers.

On May 9th, 2013, after months of preparation and immeasurable support from our community, we made it official and became a worker co-operative with five founding members. We had written our bylaws, raised money through community investments, and signed the documents that articulated our intentions and inscribed our mission and guiding principles for all future employees. We were on our way!

Building Our Co-op Community

Fast forward another 10 years and we’re now celebrating a decade as a worker-co-op! The phone rings.

“Hi, this is Kate at Real Pickles… You are looking for the owner? … Well, I’m an owner. How can I help you?”

It’s 2023, and Kate, assistant sales manager, is one of 16 member-owners in our business out of a staff of 23. The remainder are eligible to join membership within a year. Running a business is not easy – the pandemic was rough, the climate crisis is impacting our farmers, and national competition is now a real thing. But we are making it work!

“I’m excited to be a part of something that is having a positive effect in supporting our local agriculture, local economy and our community. Being a member means that I can help shape the future of Real Pickles,” says Victor, vegetable coordinator since 2020 and member since 2022.

Alex joined Real Pickles in 2015 and became a member in 2018, saying, “This is my hometown, so it’s awesome to be a worker-owner of a company with such great values right here in my backyard.” Alex is the kitchen supervisor and keeps things running smoothly in the kitchen everyday. Reflecting on where we’ve come in 10 years of worker-ownership he says, “Our community has grown with folks from all over the globe and we’ve made it through many ups and downs. I’m proud of the way we take care of each other and strengthen the business for future generations of picklers.”

At Real Pickles, we work hard each day to have a positive impact on the world through our mission-driven co-op business. We believe that the food system needs more businesses whose approach builds toward health, justice, democracy, and climate stability. Our hope is that Real Pickles can be a model to demonstrate that it really is possible to make the kinds of choices as a business that move the food system in the direction it needs to go. For us this includes (among other things) producing truly nourishing food, sourcing exclusively from regional farms and selling only within our region, financing with mission-aligned investment, building an equitable workplace, and organizing ourselves as a worker co-op.

Longtime friend of Real Pickles, Joe Blumenthal, owned Downtown Sounds, a retail musical instrument store, for 40 years and was approaching retirement when he learned about our transition to a worker co-op. He says, “I couldn’t help thinking that I might be able to do something similar. I had a group of very able and trusted employees who I believed could take over the store but who didn’t have the money to buy the business. We eventually converted the store to a co-op, and I have been happily retired for four years now while my former employees have successfully survived the pandemic and adapted to retail in the age of Amazon. It all started with that conversation about Real Pickles.”

Many business owners nearing retirement or at a career transition hope to find a founder succession strategy that will retain their mission and employees. We’ve gotten dozens of calls from other businesses curious about our path, and we hope to continue inspiring folks to consider the co-operative model. When we first proposed converting Real Pickles, Dan and I didn’t have specific ideas about how much longer we’d be involved. But the worker co-operative structure felt like just the right one to have in place to ensure that, when the day came for Real Pickles’ founder succession, its jobs and values would be well-protected in the process.

Our Next Decade and Beyond

Now as we’re celebrating our 10th anniversary as a co-op, that day has indeed arrived. Dan has led Real Pickles as its general manager for 22 years and is ready to step down. I am also moving on to a new career opportunity. Over the past year, we have developed a plan to transition from Dan’s leadership to Kristin as our new general manager. Kristin joined Real Pickles in 2008 as our first sales manager and was part of the original team that led our conversion to a worker co-op. Beginning October 30th, she’ll be Real Pickles’ new general manager! We couldn’t be more excited and confident in Kristin’s wealth of experience and time-tested skill.

Kristin says, “I’m excited to be taking on the general manager role at Real Pickles. I believe deeply in our social mission – our commitment to healthy food, a regional organic food system and co-operative workplaces. I’m grateful for the organizational foundation that Dan and Addie Rose built in the years before I arrived and proud of the work we’ve done together since to further develop Real Pickles into a successful, mission-driven business.”

*Co-op members Kate, Katie, Craig, Victor, Kristin and Brendan, 2023*

“I’m so glad we made the decision to turn Real Pickles into a worker co-op,” says Dan. “Becoming a co-op advanced our social mission and protected it at the same time. It also helped us to build a devoted and skilled team that has made Real Pickles a stronger and more resilient organization than ever before. Now, with Kristin as its next leader, Real Pickles is well-positioned for success and positive impact for many more years to come.”

As we enter our second decade as a mission-driven co-op – and now led by its next generation of leadership – we look forward to Real Pickles continuing to make a positive difference in the world. And as ever, we are deeply grateful for the community support that has guided our path over these past 22 years. Thank you and happy Co-op Month, everyone!!

Photos featured in this blog post are by Natalie Conn, Jim Gipe, Kate Hunter and Matthew Cavanaugh

Posted November 5, 2021 by Addie Rose

Thank YOU for 20 Years of Real Pickles!!!

It is hard to believe it has been 20 years since the first batch of Real Pickles was created! This year, through the rainy days of cucumber slicing, now into the season of cabbage coring, shredding and mixing, and looking forward to more beets and carrots in the colder months…. we’re reflecting on the simplicity of that first year and how far we’ve come as a social enterprise. The summer of 2001, Real Pickles was just one young person slicing cukes in the early hours, fermenting in 5-gallon buckets, and driving around the valley to sell a few jars out the back of an old Saab to a handful of willing shops. It was a short-lived season too – the 1,000 jars produced were sold out by Thanksgiving!

However, the simplicity is only in hindsight. Starting a business is NOT a simple task, as many of you know. Real Pickles’ success and stamina have much to do with the fabric of a supportive community, and the many elements that came together to help a burgeoning business survive… and eventually thrive.

We write today to say, “THANK YOU to our community for supporting Real Pickles for the past 20 years!” We mention here just a few of the organizations that made our path viable, though there are countless individuals and groups who have supported us over the years. We can only trust that offering a colorful and nourishing line of ferments – combined with an ongoing commitment to making positive social change – is an acceptable return.

Local Farms, Local Heroes

When the idea of Real Pickles was first conceived around a kitchen table in Somerville, MA, founder Dan was working at Iggy’s Breads and I was finishing up my last college semester, ready to embark on a career in geology. Dan had taken a workshop at the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) summer conference, a convergence of practitioners and students engaged in organic farming and homesteading. NOFA has built a culture of knowledge sharing, skill-building, and advocacy; it was a fitting atmosphere for a future entrepreneur to find inspiration in the near-forgotten art of lacto-fermentation. As a couple, we were wondering, “where to next?” To start a fermentation business, we knew it had to be a place with strong organic agriculture and appreciation for local food and economies. Western Massachusetts fit the bill better than we could have imagined.

Cabbage at Red Fire Farm — Cabbage ready for sauerkraut (credit: Red Fire Farm)

Not only does this area have some of the best farmland in the country, it is a training ground for skilled organic farmers. The growers from whom we source our vegetables bring deep expertise to cultivating the highest-quality vegetables with top priorities of improving the health of the soil and surrounding ecosystems and supporting the workers that grow our food. That first year, we bought cucumbers from Chamutka Farm and Red Fire Farm and have continued to buy their vegetables every year since, while expanding our network to include a half dozen other local farms. These partnerships are integral to our business, especially given our commitment to 100% regionally-grown and organic vegetables.

The Connecticut River Valley is also a hub for community appreciation of local and organic food. Full of food co-ops, farm stands, and independent markets, there were many shops that were ready to take a chance on a tiny food business producing an unusual but nourishing product. The first day of deliveries included stops at Leverett Food Co-op, Green Fields Market, Foster’s Supermarket, and Brookfield Farm. All are still important partners for us, and we deeply appreciate their early and continued support. In a valley with sweeping farmland views, this community is invested in the success of food grown and produced here. Much of that appreciation stems from the important work of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). Shortly before our arrival, CISA had launched the Be a Local Hero, Buy Locally Grown marketing and education campaign that grew our community’s appreciation and commitment to local food. Local Heroes are the farmers, food producers, and consumers who choose locally-grown products and support our local agricultural economy. CISA has continued to be one of our most important community partners in spreading awareness of the benefits of a vibrant local farming and food culture.

FCCDC’s Western MA Food Processing Center, circa 2004

That first summer of pickle production we relied on generous offers from local business people, such as an Amherst restauranteur who loaned her commercial kitchen in the early morning hours for our production and a Greenfield ice cream maker who lent refrigerator space. We greatly appreciated these critical opportunities and soon found that we needed a new option to scale up production. Luckily, another crucial partner in the Real Pickles story, the Franklin County Community Development Corporation (FCCDC), was about to unveil their brand new Western MA Food Processing Center in Greenfield. For the next seven years, we made excellent use of this incubator kitchen, plus the lending and technical assistance provided by the FCCDC to grow our product line, hone our business skills, and develop relationships with other food and small business owners.

Thinking back, it is hard to imagine that Real Pickles could have lasted long without these initial community partnerships.

Community with Big Hearts and Know-How

Addie Rose and Dan with Real Pickles — Addie Rose and Dan at the 2011 Peck Slip Pickle Fest, NYC. (credit: Paul Wagtouicz © New Amsterdam Market)

Over the next few years, I jumped in and together we grew the business at the Food Processing Center with help from a network of informal advisors and advocates. These included other small business owners who had experience with manufacturing, accounting, sales, marketing, and growing pains. We attended food and farming events to introduce our products and talk to people. In our social time, we went to contra dances where the community readily embraced Real Pickles and spread the word across New England. The late caller-fiddler David Kaynor would frequently hold up our bartered jar to a crowd of 200+ dancers and wax eloquently about the flavor and benefits of fermented pickles. We feel so privileged for this community of enthusiasts and spokespeople that helped to garner support for our products across the region.

And then there are all of the eaters of fermented foods. Thankfully, this area is full of people with adventurous palettes! We had the added challenge of trying to build consumer awareness of fermented foods, which 20 years ago was not the trending natural products category that it is today. There were only a handful of producers across the country making products like ours, and in many stores ours was the only line. An effervescent thank you to all our early customers willing to give fermented vegetables a try!

As we began to outgrow the incubator kitchen, it took a broad array of community support to help us make the leap to our own facility. In 2009 we purchased a century-old industrial building in Greenfield and transformed it into a solar-powered, energy-efficient, organic pickling facility. It was a challenging transition to say the least, one that we managed to pull off only because we had community partners who believed in us. A crucial element was the financing, of course. In spite of our already high debt load and a new global recession, our outstanding local bank and two mission-driven nonprofit lenders (Equity Trust, and FCCDC) came through for us just as we began to wonder if it was time to give up on Real Pickles. We are deeply thankful for all of the individuals and organizations who helped Real Pickles make it past that critical juncture.

Multiple bottom lines… into the future

Real Pickles worker owners May 2021 — Real Pickles worker owners, May 2021 (credit: Matthew Cavanaugh)

Since that time, Real Pickles has grown and developed into an organization that relies on many hands to operate. Our growing staff over the years have been an essential component of the business, and we are forever grateful to all those who have contributed by packing sauerkraut, chopping carrots, and building a strong culture. In 2013, along with three other staff (Brendan, Kristin, and Annie), we made the decision to convert Real Pickles to a worker-owned co-operative. This transition offered strong mission protection, opportunity for staff to benefit from owning their workplace, and assurance that Real Pickles will remain a community-oriented business far into the future.

To make this transition happen, we relied on the support of 77 community investors to join us in this endeavor. Folks were excited about supporting a business committed to healthy food, regional agriculture, and workplace democracy. By becoming a worker co-operative, we are building ownership in our community and creating good jobs in an inclusive work environment. We’re proud to be in a place where so many people value these things and are willing to invest in building a better food system.

As we move forward into the next 20 years, we do so knowing we are a community business. Our community partners – farmers, customers, investors, vendors, lenders, and many more – continue to play an essential role in our success. We in turn take responsibility for operating a truly mission-driven business that tracks multiple bottom lines – financial, social, and environmental. One important piece of this is acknowledging the role of social privilege in our founding success and a commitment to applying our resources toward building a more equitable society for the future. Building on the strength and values of our community, we will continue to make the world a better place and we commit to this for the long term.

THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to our story over the past 20 years — we’re lifting a glass of Organic Beet Kvass in your honor!

Posted September 9, 2020 by Katie Korby

Ferment your own vegetables! Part 1: Introduction to Fermentation

Do you have an abundance of cabbage, daikon, cucumbers, or beets from your garden or CSA share? Do you have memories of pickles and sauerkraut bubbling away in a crock in your grandparents’ cellar? Would you like to recreate these in your own kitchen? If you’re brand new to fermentation, you are in the right place! Here is our two-part guide to get you started experimenting with this traditional fermentation technique for preserving vegetables and creating delicious, fermented flavors! In this post we’ll take you step by step through 2 different methods for fermenting vegetables, and in part 2, we’ll talk about developing recipes.

Before we get started, maybe you’re wondering, “what is fermentation, anyway?” In short, fermentation is a process of transforming food by creating an environment where beneficial bacteria can thrive. When fermenting vegetables, we mainly work with a broad category called lactic acid bacteria. They exist naturally on the surface of fresh vegetables (and in many other places too – like our skin, in healthy soil, etc.). The key to a robust fermentation is giving the lactic acid bacteria a warm, slightly salty, and anaerobic (no access to oxygen) environment. We’ll take you through that process below. For more information on fermentation, see a list of resources at the bottom of this post.

For these recipes, you will need:

Simple gear:

Cutting board and knife
Kitchen scale
Mixing bowl
Measuring spoons
Liquid measuring cup
Clean Pint glass jars and lids. You can also use larger jars or crocks (measure the volume and scale up the recipes as needed).
Optional: food processor or mandolin for slicing.

Vegetables: no more than 1 pound for each pint jar (less for the brined method)

Many vegetables can be fermented: cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, radishes, onions, beets, cauliflower, and so many more! It is best to use fresh, local, and organic vegetables. This will ensure that plenty of fermenting microbes are present.

Herbs and spices: 1 tablespoon fresh herbs or 1 teaspoon dried herbs or spices.

Completely optional, but fun to experiment with! These amounts are a starting point, but you may want to use more or less, depending on what you are working with.

Non-iodized salt: Iodine is anti-microbial and will inhibit the fermentation.

Sea salt, kosher salt, and pickling salt are all ok to use. Best if free from additives.

Filtered water (using any home filtration system)

If you have no filtration system and your tap water is heavily chlorinated, simply boil the water it and cool to room temperature before using it. Heavy chlorination may inhibit fermentation, but boiling releases it as vapor.

Prep: Brine Method

This method mixes salt and water to make the brine for a ferment of coarsely chopped or whole vegetables. The brining method is a great way to ferment veggies like salad radishes, spring carrots, snap or snow peas, beets, and cucumbers. If you want to scale up this recipe for a larger batch, use this ratio:

1 1/2 teaspoons salt : 1 pint water+vegetables.

Choose your combination of vegetables, herbs, and spices to ferment (see part 2 for recipe suggestions).
Coarsely chop your vegetables to yield about 2 cups of cubes, coins, or matchsticks for each pint jar. Or leave them whole if they are tender and smaller than your little finger.
Place the veggies along with any herbs or spices in the jar, leaving an inch of headspace at the top.
In a separate jar, mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt with 1/2 cup of water until the salt completely dissolves.
Add the water and salt mixture to the jar of sliced veggies, then top off the jar with more water, leaving 3/4 inch of headspace. Make sure all your vegetables are below the brine.
Screw the lid on loosely. Shake the jar gently to make sure the salt is evenly distributed.
Put your jar in a warm (66-72’ F) place to ferment. Put a plate or tray under your jar as they often leak a little in the first week of fermenting.

Prep: Dry-Salting Method

This method is best for shredded veggies like cabbage or carrots. Mixing the salt directly into freshly shredded vegetables will draw our their water. Have you ever heard the saying ‘A pint is a pound the world ‘round’? Believe it or not about a pound of shredded/thinly sliced vegetables will perfectly fill a pint jar! If you want to scale up this recipe for a larger batch, use this ratio:

1 1/2 teaspoons salt : 1 pound (16 oz.) ingredients

Choose your combination of vegetables, fresh herbs, and dry spices to ferment (see part 2 for recipe suggestions).
Finely slice or shred your vegetables with a knife, food processor, or mandolin.
Place the mixing bowl on the kitchen scale and tare the weight. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and fresh herbs or spices. Then add your sliced vegetables until the total weight is 16 oz.
Mix the salt throughly into the vegetables, herbs, and spices. Let this sit for at least 15 minutes to allow the salt to draw out juices from the veggies as brine. The vegetables will also soften during this process.
Mix the salted vegetables once more and then pack tightly into the jar leaving 3/4 inch head space. Press down firmly! It should all fit, though you might have a small amount leftover and that’s fine. Pour any brine from the bottom of the bowl on top of the mixture and press the vegetables down until they are submerged. Your vegetables should be covered by the brine. If your mixture is dry, it’s OK to add a tablespoon or two of water.
Screw the lid on loosely.
Put your jar in a warm (66-72’ F) place to ferment. Put a plate or a tray under your jar as they often leak a little in the first week of fermenting.

Checking and Tasting Your Ferments

Check on your fermenting veggies daily. Within a day or two you should notice pressure starting to build up in the jar. Once or twice a day, open the lid slowly to release the pressure. You may need to do this over the sink if there’s a lot of pressure, but try not to lose much of the liquid. By the end of the first week, you likely won’t need to “burp” the jars anymore. If the vegetable solids rise above the brine at any point, push them down gently with a clean utensil. Submerging your vegetables in the brine protects the ferment from yeasts and molds, which need oxygen to grow. If you are fermenting in a larger crock or jar, you may need to skim off any mold that grows on the top surface of the brine.

Start tasting your ferment after about a week. As it ferments, the raw vegetable flavor will fade and a sour flavor will become stronger. The texture of the vegetable will also soften with longer fermentation. If you still taste the raw vegetable, try letting it ferment for a few more days and then try it again. When you like the taste and texture, call it done! Putting your ferment in the fridge will slow the fermentation and preserve the taste and texture for many weeks or even months.

How do I Know if my Ferment is Safe to Eat?

If your ferment was noticeably active in the first few days (bubbly and producing lots of gas), that’s a strong sign. A vigorous fermentation means the lactic acid bacteria are happy and preserving the food.
You might also notice a whiteish, cloudy substance gathering at the bottom of the jar or in the brine. This is a natural by-product of fermentation and is totally safe and normal.
Problems like mold or yeast usually occur on the surface of the ferment where it comes into contact with the air. If you notice a little white mold or a darker top layer with a sweet yeasty smell, you can scrape it off and discard the top layer until the ferment looks fresh and smells pleasantly sour.
If it smells good and appetizing to you, try a small bite. If it tastes pleasantly sour, then it is safe to eat!