Real Pickles is a worker co-operative working to change the food system by making pickles! It all started when Dan Rosenberg began making traditional pickles in 1999 after attending a workshop at a Northeast Organic Farming Association conference. Excited about the benefits of locally grown food, he started pickling cabbage, turnips, greens, and other vegetables as a way to eat locally throughout the winter.
Dan quickly became devoted to the craft of traditional pickling and, two years later, decided to go into business. The idea was to create a small company focused on building a better food system. As one of a tiny handful of businesses producing raw, fermented vegetables, Real Pickles would offer an important and nourishing food that was largely missing from the food system. This new business would also be committed to local/regional food and organic agriculture. Real Pickles would buy its vegetables only from Northeast organic farms and sell its products only within the Northeast.
Real Pickles launched in 2001, operating out of the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center in Greenfield. The business steadily grew and expanded sales to stores in the Boston area and then elsewhere around the region. By 2009, Real Pickles had outgrown the incubator kitchen, and we were ready to make the leap to our own home. We purchased a century-old industrial building in Greenfield, MA and transformed it into a solar-powered, energy-efficient, organic pickling facility. The move allowed us to expand significantly, tripling our purchases from local farms in the years following. We look forward to staying here for many years to come.
