Sarah Pesout uses locally produced vegies in her fermented vegetable products. And she sells locally in the Portland, Oregon area farmers’ markets from her booth and online. So far, her audience is extremely loyal and word of mouth coupled with Instagram has been her marketing effort. She seems to have no trouble selling everything her company can produce. The company name? Fermentista, of course. A natural for what Sarah is and does. A California native, Sarah grew up in the beautiful foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. From a small town, Sarah left right after high school and entered UC Santa Cruz, traveled a year, then accomplished an associate degree in culinary studies. She subsequently moved to Portland and that’s been her home since. But it was in Santa Cruz she had “the best job ever” as she says. She was looking for a bakery serving farmers’ markets and the amount of produce was absolutely overwhelming. With more produce than the local area could consume, Sarah began looking into canning, preserving and fermenting the excess production. So, when in Portland, she surveyed the farmers’ markets and observed the amount of excess produce that usually wound up as compost. Sarah reasoned that if she could pay the farmers for what would become unsellable excess, ferment the produce and sell it to people who wanted fermented vegies, that could be a good and responsible business and everybody wins. Her company intensely produces her product line and she is currently at capacity. She began selling olives to restaurants and because of the bureaucracy of selling fermented products, has been able to let restauranteurs stay current with the health department. Of course, COVID lockdown has hurt that business line so it is currently on hold. Her crafted fermented veggies stand out with packaging that reflects an attitude of “from our hands to yours."

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by  Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

#90 Don't Waste it, Ferment it - Sarah Pesout, Fermentista

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast