Featured Fermenter: Beyond Pickles
. Beyond Pickles fermenter making umami onions
Fermenting vegetables is a very ancient art that is still relevant to today’s food. No longer just for preservation, although this is handy, fermented vegetables are a healthy way to add more flavor to your meals. Each producer creates their own version of age old favorites as well as creating their own new products. This is such a diverse (and tasty) art that I never tire of talking to fermenters about their flavors and how they achieve them.
Your name is Beyond Pickles, yet you don’t make traditional (cucumber) pickles. Why is that?
Wow, this is a great question and I’ll attempt to keep it simple – although this is hard to do because we are so passionate about our name! The word ‘pickle’ has a complicated history among languages and places around the world. As we know, in the U.S. and Canada, ‘pickles’ typically refer to a dill-flavored cucumber preserved in vinegar, but in many countries of the world, ‘pickles’ refer to anything edible (primarily vegetables) preserved in an acid (see Wikipedia to learn more!). At Beyond Pickles, our goal is to demystify ‘pickles’ by taking our customers on a taste exploration of exotic new flavors created by the transformative magic of natural fermentation – flavors that simply aren’t possible with a vinegar-preserved cucumber (although we do love our cucumber pickles, yes we do!!!). Our company has had great success since we launched in spring 2018 and due to high demand of the products we’re currently producing, we simply haven’t yet had time to bring our cucumber pickles into production – but we hope to find some time soon because simply put, fermented cucumber pickles are out-of-this-world tasty!
What made you start a pickling business in Washington?
We started our pickling business in the Tri-Cities because it is in the heart of one of the largest vegetable growing regions in the U.S. and pickles always taste best when they are made with the freshest, locally grown produce!
What products do your produce and what is your favorite?
Currently we produce 7 products: our classic cabbage-only “PureKraut”, a sweeter-tasting Eastern-European inspired sauerkraut we call “CrunchyKraut”, our napa cabbage based “KoreanKimchi”, our sugar snap pea “KimchiPeas”, a unique Mexican-inspired red onion condiment called “UmamiOnions”, a ferment with red beets (both the roots and greens) we call “TheWholeBeet”, and our can’t-keep-it-on-the-shelf “GarlicSambal”, an Indonesian-inspired condiment made with red-ripe jalapeno peppers. Do we have a favorite? Truthfully, we could not choose a favorite because we love them all, but we’ve found that people can’t stop talking about our KoreanKimchi and GarlicSambal – and kids love the CrunchyKraut!
Are you working on anything new?
Oh yes. With a background as a research scientist, Brian, our CFO (Chief Fermentation Officer, ha!) has a cadre of new fermented goodies just waiting to be launched.
Where do you get your ingredients?
We currently work with 4 small family farms in Eastern Washington to supply a majority of our ingredients and are gradually building our network to source even more from local farms.
Do you use a starter culture or wild cultures?
Currently we only use wild cultures.
What is the biggest challenge you face as a small producer?
As a start-up entrepreneur, the biggest challenge is wearing all of the ‘hats’ and juggling all of the responsibilities that are typically divided by many experts at larger companies. However, it all balances out because the many responsibilities and challenges are also what makes entrepreneurship so fun and rewarding!