Rooted in Cabbage Country
A small kitchen that takes its time.
We're a family-owned, small batch ferment company in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. We know our farmers by name, we ferment the slow way, and we love what we do.
Our roots
From cabbage country to your table
Long before Food & Ferments, there was a simple dream: to run a vegetable stand. Not a corporate brand, but a place where real food brings neighbors together, where what you grow, craft, and share genuinely matters.
For Carly, that dream grew out of Central New York's cabbage country. Raised on an organic dairy farm with her grandfather Ernie's stories of harvesting cabbage as a boy, she learned early how seasonal rhythms, hard work, and good food sustain a family. Across state lines in suburban Philadelphia, Dave was discovering his own love for flavor in his mom's kitchen, reaching into a barrel for fresh pickles at the corner store.
Our paths crossed over a shared reverence for traditional, nutrient-dense cooking. Fifteen years ago, when we first tasted beet kvass at a conference on traditional foods, everything clicked. It was living, nourishing, and deeply rooted in culture. We launched Food & Ferments in 2013, and as our family and business grew, our journey brought us full circle to Central New York, with our kitchen in Cortland, right at the source of the region's finest farmland.
Our standards
What we do, and why it matters
| What we do | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| 90% locally sourced produce | Sourced directly from Finger Lakes family farms we know and trust. |
| Traditional slow fermentation | We let time, not vinegar or heat, do the work. Our krauts are slow-cultured for 4 to 6 months, unlocking deep flavor and creating beneficial postbiotics and organic acids that nourish your gut far beyond basic probiotics. |
| 100% raw & unpasteurized | Never heated, preserving live cultures and vital enzymes across our entire line of krauts, kimchi, pickles, and tonics. |
| Hand-packed small batches | Crafted and packed by hand in Central New York with real ingredients and zero shortcuts. |
What we mean by it
The stuff we won't budge on
Local at Heart
90% of our produce comes directly from family farmers in the New York Finger Lakes Region. Real relationships, real people.
Slow, on Purpose
Functional, intentional, and alive. Our krauts age to perfection over 4 to 6 months, never weeks, to build rich postbiotics and unpasteurized gut health benefits.
Proudly Small
We'd rather sell out than scale out. Every single jar and bottle is hand-packed right here in our Cortland, NY kitchen by our woman-led team, never outsourced, never mass-produced.
From our hands to your table
Whether you meet us at a local farmers market, pick up a jar at your local shop, or order directly to your doorstep, every jar of Food & Ferments is alive with flavor, function, and connection to the land it came from.
Thank you for supporting real food, local farms, and traditional craft.
~ Carly & Dave
From the farm