• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Real Pickles

Northeast Grown, 100% organic, fermented & raw pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, kvass, and hot sauce

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our Farmers
    • Our Co-operative
    • Our Story
    • Our Facility
  • Products
    • Online Store
    • Store Finder
    • FAQ
    • Recipes
  • Fermentation
    • Fermentation Process
    • Health Benefits
  • What’s New?
    • Ferment Blog
      Voices from Real Pickles
    • News
    • Press
Home / Farmers / Old Friends Farm

Old Friends Farm

Location: Amherst, MA
Farmers: Casey Steinberg and Missy Bahret
Supplies Real Pickles with fresh garlic, ginger, leeks, turmeric

Old Friends Farm. Jim Gipe photo / Pivot Media

Casey (2nd from left, standing) and Missy (right, sitting) put their agricultural talents to work at Old Friends Farm, a beautiful organic farm up on a hill just one mile outside the center of Amherst, MA. In business since 2003, they are best-known for their top-quality salad greens and flowers. But they also produce a variety of other delicious foods, including garlic, ginger, turmeric, sweet potatoes, husk cherries, and onions. They have started a new line of specialty products too, including ginger syrup and dried turmeric and ginger powders and spice blends. Old Friends Farm’s certified organic offerings are sold to restaurants and natural foods stores in the area and can also be found at farmer’s markets in both western Massachusetts and the Boston area. At farmer’s market, their breathtaking flower arrangements make the Old Friends Farm booth easy to pick out!

A particularly unique aspect of Old Friends Farm’s operation is their cultivation of fresh ginger and turmeric, crops traditionally grown only in much hotter regions of the world. Casey and Missy are pioneers in the production of these tropical crops in the Northeast. With the help of USDA sustainable agriculture research grant funds, they developed methods for growing organic ginger in a temperate climate without reliance on fossil fuels for heated greenhouses, and then applied those methods to growing turmeric as well! Using unheated hoop houses during the hot summer season, they are able to produce delicious, high quality ginger and turmeric for the Northeast without the significant carbon footprint that comes with importing these ingredients from the tropics.

We are now buying all of our ginger and turmeric from Old Friends Farm to include in our Organic Ginger Carrots, Organic Kimchi, and Organic Turmeric Kraut. We are incredibly excited for this opportunity to use Northeast-grown ginger and turmeric in our Real Pickles products!

< Back to all farmers

Primary Sidebar

It's Friday and time for another round of Meet the It's Friday and time for another round of Meet the Picklers! Today we would like to introduce one of the newest members of the production team, Madeline! Joining us recently from Asheville, North Carolina, Madeline brings with her many awe-inspiring stories including tales of bicycling across the country with her sweetie, Drew. The two of them biked 4,200 miles from Bar Harbor Maine to Astoria, Oregon making many new friends along the way! These days Madeline's adventures are mostly centered around her new rescue pup Luna and exploring New England. She loves working at Real Pickles and being a part of a mission-based business that is supporting local agriculture. We love that she has chosen Real Pickles as a place to call home! 

#MeetThePicklers #RealPickles #PackedWithAMission #fermentedandraw #fermented #peekbehindthemask #organic #pickles #kraut #coop #workerowned #fermentation
Looking for an easy way to add a little color and Looking for an easy way to add a little color and flavor to your morning? Try mixing in some nutrient-rich fermented veggies with your cream cheese or non-dairy spread! 
Bagels by our neighbor @riseabove_413 
Photo by @clarebarboza
#RealPickles #PackedWithAMission #WorkerOwned #fermented  #naturallyfermented #fermentation #organic #raw #kraut #pickles  #beets #carrots #cabbage #bagels #northeastgrown #recipe #breakfast
It is with great pleasure to introduce to you a Pi It is with great pleasure to introduce to you a Pickler you can’t help smiling around, meet Jess! Jess came to Real Pickles after years of doing seasonal work on vegetable farms and piecing together winter jobs. They loved the farm work but when they found Real Pickles 4 years ago they decided this was the place for them! 
Jess is a worker-owner with many important roles across each department at Real Pickles. In addition to being on our board of directors and working as a production assistant, they are also responsible for the seamless success of our shipping department, a job they make look effortless. On top of all that, Jess is also the assistant bookkeeper and a huge asset to the sales team!
If there is a birthday or an occasion to celebrate at Real Pickles, Jess makes sure to provide delicious treats that everyone can enjoy, no matter what their dietary needs are! When Jess is not at Real Pickles they are working hard at mastering the yoyo, learning to crochet small animals and collecting VHS tapes and other forms of obsolete media.
We love working with Jess and appreciate all that they bring to the Real Pickles family! 

#MeetThePicklers #RealPickles #PackedWithAMission #fermentedandraw #fermented #peekbehindthemask #organic #pickles #kraut #coop #workerowned #fermentation
YUM! 😋@wheelhouse.farm has paired our Organic G YUM! 😋@wheelhouse.farm has paired our Organic Garlic Kraut with some pork belly pastrami and rosemary on top of one of our favorite bakery's sourdough! 
Reposted from @cisa_localhero:
When #localrestaurants use hand-made ingredients from other #localfarms and #smallbusinesses, that’s a win for our community and our taste buds :) 
Bread by @riseabove_413 Photo by @wheelhouse.farm

#RealPickles #PackedWithAMission #fermented #raw #organic #garlickraut #repost #beautifulfood #hyperlocal #eatlocalfood #naturallyfermented #kraut  #fermentation #northeastgrown
It's Friday which means it's time to introduce you It's Friday which means it's time to introduce you to another member of the Real Pickles team! This week we'd like you to meet Fermentation Manager and worker-owner Katie Korby. In 2011, Katie was farming and looking for a part time job that she could feel good about. She knew she had found her people when, on her first day as a production assistant, folks broke into song while sweeping the floor during cleanup! Katie took some time off when her daughter was born and to help her husband, Stoneman, of @stonemanbrewery , start his brewery in their back yard. When she returned to Real Pickles she took on the role of Fermentation Manager. Katie oversees all aspects of our fermentation process; she tests each batch, develops new recipes, and implements food safety practices and certifications. 
When Katie isn't at Real Pickles she can be found tending her gardens, raising pigs and chickens, knitting, or hanging out and probably baking something with her 6 year old daughter Maggie. Katie is also one of the musicians on staff that play live music to our fermenting vegetables on a weekly basis! Maybe that is one of her secrets for producing such wonderful ferments! 

#MeetThePicklers #RealPickles #PackedWithAMission #fermentedandraw #fermented #peekbehindthemask #organic #pickles #kraut #coop #workerowned #fermentation
@nofamass presents “Food Security for the Common @nofamass presents “Food Security for the Common Wealth” 
Friday JAN 8 - Sunday JAN 10, 2021 
Virtual workshops, intensives, keynote speeches and an online auction with amazing items (including a Real Pickles sampler) to bid on! 
Event registration: https://cvent.me/ZQZ8Nm
Auction: https://go.rallyup.com/wcauction2021

#organicfarming #organic #northeastgrown #nofa #foodsecurity #workshop #auction #fundraising

Footer

Contact

311 Wells St
Greenfield, MA 01301
(413) 774-2600
info@realpickles.com

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Join Our Email List!

Co-operative Enterprise Logo
USDA Certified Organic
Good Food Awards Winner

Site Design by Ajitate · Photography by Valley Lightworks, Clare Barboza and others · Artwork by Emi Lynn Holler
Real Pickles® © 2021