Just because a vegetable is blemished or imperfect doesn’t mean it can’t be made into a delicious product, according to the co-founders of Farmented Foods, Vanessa Walsten and Vanessa Williamson.
Farmented Foods offers several different kinds of fermented vegetables, including radish kimchi, dill sauerkraut, spicy carrot chips and champán de salsa. The vegetables are sourced from five different farms in the Flathead Valley near Kalispell, Mont., as well as from a distributor in Bozeman. To maintain a high-quality product with no chemicals or additives, the business prefers organic produce or produce raised in an organic fashion. Due to this, Farmented Foods acknowledges there may be variations in the raw product due to no pesticides. Fortunately, the business is designed to work with these “ugly” vegetables.
“We know that because of organic practices we prefer that there can be insect damage to some of the vegetables or worms can affect the overall appearance of the Daikon radishes we use, for instance,” said Vanessa Walston. “One of the downsides of this is it can cause extra labor in processing. Last fall, some of the carrots we received were very small, but we do get this kind of produce from farmers at a discount, so hopefully it offsets the processing costs.”
Giving farmers an outlet for their nutritious, but perhaps not photoshoot-pretty produce is a benefit for farmers.
“Because we can work with produce that would be considered ‘grade B’ or ‘ugly,’ we can help farmers with produce that they may have considered not taking to market,” she said.
In addition to thinking out of the box when sourcing produce, the pair has also found a creative solution to finding a commercial kitchen where they can process their product. By leasing an old food court stall at a mall in Kalispell, the business has been able to revitalize an underused space. Working with the location available has helped the business to grow.
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“We found a spot in an old food court in a mall and renovated it,” Walston shared. “It works great for us.”
The business idea for Farmented Foods began in 2016 when Walston and Williamson met in 2016 in a class at Montana State University (MSU).
Both women enrolled in a “farm to market” class that year and decided to partner to create their value-added business. After much market research, product development, and support from the MSU and Bozeman community, Farmented Foods was launched and the first jar was sold in December 2017, according to the business website farmented.com.
Since then, the business has processed over 52,000 pounds of produce, with over 12,000 pounds of that being in 2023. The business has also branched out into North Dakota where Vanessa Williamson now lives, sources vegetables, and processes some of the business products.
Expanding the business reach was helped by hiring a brokerage company that got the product into national grocery stores and assisted with distribution, Watson noted.
“We are wanting to expand in the next two years and double where we are today,” she said. “We also have a goal of doing more education around ‘ugly’ produce so business know they really can buy and use imperfect fruits and vegetables.”
For more information, visit farmented.com.