Craft Fermentary
Much of the “craft” is in the cultivation.
Our soil is the foundation for what we achieve in the kitchen, and it shows.
Growing Food & Making Quality Ferments
Our focus and drive is different than most small-scale growers. You generally won't find our fresh veggies at the farmers’ market. Instead, produce is cultivated and harvested by Kres Farm and delivered to our commercial kitchen for processing.
We think this distinction is a good thing. As grower-fermenters, we aim to strengthen the local food system by broadening year-round access to healthy preserved foods. Our nourishing sauerkrauts are available at local markets and keep well in the fridge for six months or more.
Our Story
Between regenerative agriculture, food preservation, and healthy communities; we’ve mobilized our passions in Kres!
We’re two women who made the intentional decision to pivot careers to put our time and resources into local food. Our aspirations unite food cultivation and food preservation in a model that carries quality harvests well into the off-season. Some call it crazy risky, we see it as coextensive adaptation… an idea whose time has come!
What preceded this decision was a long period of endless mental modeling and many staycations verifying and working through the prospects. Guided by our love of food, nature and science we experimented with vegetable fermentation recipes from around the world. What we discovered was a highly reliable preservation method that transcended geography and ethnic cuisines. Our initial trial was a Slovenian-inspired kraut with garlic, apples and juniper berries; a hat tip to Kim’s heritage. Many more inspirations would follow. A mutual favorite (not yet produced for market) is Meyer lemons preserved Moroccan-style. I can assure you, once you’ve made hummus with lacto-fermented lemons you will crave it forever!
In our early forays, every fruit and vegetable we fermented came from our own gardens. As our research and fermentation trials progressed, a special relationship emerged between our growing techniques and the flavors and textures that ensued during fermentation. With each recipe it became more apparent that microbial diversity drives flavor! Those bacterial communities that thrive in rich biological soils and are naturally found on the surfaces of vegetables contribute immensely to the fermentation process. A business model was conceived.
With that, we leaped into the world of permaculture and regenerative food cultivation. Our learning curve was steep and ongoing but in spite of many failures, we had just as many successes to guide us forward. At Kres Farm we’ve expanded our production space considerably with a heated greenhouse, high-tunnel, orchard, raised beds and row cropping. Throughout this expansion, we stayed true to our original vision and core values:
Expand and protect native biological soil, boost intrinsic plant resilience, avoid synthetics fertilizers and pesticides, and always be working to advance ecosystem diversity.
Today Kres Kitchen prepares unique recipes using seasonal fruits and vegetables grown on our farm. We process and ferment in a commercial kitchen that is quality inspected. We pride ourselves on using organic and naturally-grown ingredients in our products because this is where our biological co-creators, lactobacilli and others, thrive. We source first from our own regenerative farm and then supplement (primarily cabbage and fruits) from other local growers. We are committed to minimizing waste by composting all of our kitchen scraps and garden debris back into our soil. As part of our path to sustainability, we launched a glass recycling program with clearly-defined mechanisms to share the savings with customers who participate.
A socially conscious business; we give back!
We enjoy sharing our thinking on the many benefits of lacto-fermented vegetables with our community of fellow processors, foodies and individuals/families. We are so grateful for YOU, our supporters - learning with us, collaborating with us and enthusiastically exploring the complex flavors and range of nutrients that wild fermentation offers. We listen carefully to your comments and critiques; valuable info as we work to become better fermenters. Thank you for your kindness, for your generosity, and most importantly, for your TRUST. We feel privileged to produce foods that intersect both culinary enjoyment and lifestyle health! It is important to us that our krauts are locally accessible to all who want them; this is the beacon for our business moving forward.