Our Story

Farmstead Ferments Fermentaria & Mercantile is located at 330 Valley Street, Scottsville, VA, about 20 miles south of Charlottesville. 

Since 2010, our fermentaria has been processing, fermenting, pickling and preserving a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and herbs into tasty, nutrient dense foods that support the health of the Virginia community while using practices that enrich her soils.

Our fermented foods – a wide array of sauerkrauts, kimchis, pickles, chutneys, salsas, kraut and pickle juices – and our fermented beverages -- water kefir soda, kombucha, V-9, and fermented coffee -- are rich in vitamins and minerals, and are loaded with probiotics, enzymes, and electrolytes.     

The flavors of our products are inspired by the abundance of what is available locally and seasonally, including what is grown on our farm, Free Bird Farm. We also procure vegetables, fruits and herbs from our local farming community, which helps ensure the viability of the community as a whole by increasing local food security while protecting small farms and natural environments. We grow or source locally over 75 percent of the ingredients used in our products during Virginia’s growing season each year. 

This dance with nature, our local terroir, and our neighboring food producers keeps us inspired to create an ever-changing array of small-batch products and flavors. 

About Farmstead Mercantile

The Farmstead Mercantile is the retail storefront for Farmstead Ferments products. In addition to our foods, folks can saddle up for house made soda sampling, get drinks to-go, and refills growler at our Water Kefir & Kombucha Soda Bar. Tasting our ever-changing and wide variety of soda flavors has become a favorite customer pastime.

The Mercantile Apothecary stocks over a hundred varieties of bulk, organic herbs and spices, herbal teas, and herbal body products, as well as herbal products for hearth and home. We also offer D.I.Y. fermentation starter cultures and supplies.

The Mercantile Pantry features local and artisan foods from around the region, fresh produce, bulk and organic foods, healthy kitchen staples and snacks, and holistic health and body care.

The Farmstead Funky Finds Consignment Boutique supports over 30 local artists and consigners and offers and ever-changing array of treasures. From consigned clothing, locally made art, crystals and crystal jewelry, music and craft supplies, vintage household items, there’s always a “funky” to “find”.

About Free Bird Farm

The dream of landing our own farm finally came true on the Winter Solstice of 2020. While starting over is met with immense challenges, we have much gratitude for the ability to set down roots and truly ground with the land for the long haul.

Free Bird Farm is located “just over the bridge” from Scottsville, about 13 miles away in beautiful Buckingham County. The property spans 50 acres and is situated in a horseshoe bend of the Slate River. 

Our stewardship of the land, the vegetables, the fruit trees, berries, herbs, flowers, bees, and poultry flock includes ecologically sound methods such as soil regeneration, biodynamics, natural farming methods, and organic practices. One hundred percent of our kitchen scraps (a lot!) go back to the farm and into the compost pile and, eventually, into the garden beds. We are inspired by the rhythms of Mother Nature and by working with her cycles and flows. In doing so, our efforts are blessed with a cosmic kiss. 

Farmstead Ferments is deeply grateful for the opportunity manifest a homestead-based lifestyle as a foundation to right livelihood that benefits the highest good of ourselves, our community, our Earth, and the greater whole. We hope you enjoy these foods as much as we are blessed in making them. 

About Fermented Foods:

Farmstead Ferments are raw, naturally-fermented foods and beverages made by hand in small batches and featuring sustainably-grown, fresh ingredients procured from our farm and other local Virginia farmers.

Since Farmstead Ferments are always raw and never pasteurized, these wholesome, nutritious and delicious foods are loaded with incredible life force and teeming with wonderful things like electrolytes, enzymes, and probiotics.

These healing foods catalyze the processes necessary for digestion and assimilation while restoring and increasing the beneficial bacteria of the gut. This is good medicine for so many of the common GI ailments, but also a highly effective remedy for immune issues, given that 70-80% of immune cells are located in the gut.

Fermented foods are also known for their high nutrient content, especially vitamin C, and are proven to be anti-carcinogenic. All of this adds up to better digestion, increased immunity, enhanced energy levels and improved well-being.

But, fermented foods ALSO happen to taste delicious, in addition to being incredibly delicious! They pair perfectly alongside every meal- as a condiment, as an ingredient incorporated into a dish, and as a stand-alone snack. We call them “the party on the plate”! They pair well aside casseroles, atop meats and fish, stuffed into sandwiches, dolloped onto rice or potatoes, stirred into soups and right on top of a leafy green salad (skip the dressing and use the kraut or pickle juice itself)!  

Putting food by after the harvest is a time-honored tradition that allows us to enjoy the flavors of season’s past and fermentation is the best way to preserve these foods while enhancing both nutritional content and flavor. We hope you enjoy the fruits – and the vegetables – of our labor (of love).

-The Farmstead Ferments Team