Meet Modern Farmer’s Guest Instagrammer: Food and Ferments

Dave and Carly Dougherty fell in love with fermentation not long after falling for each other. Perhaps it was inevitable that they would go into a business revolving around food and sustainable farming. Carly, 31, is from a dairy farming family, interned at the Center for Food Safety in Washington, DC, and worked at a local organic grocer in Philadelphia. Dave, 40, has also had a working life that revolved around food, from Whole Foods to working in the Philadelphia eatery, A Full Plate Cafe (now closed), where he and Carly met.

The couple fell for fermentation after attending a Wise Traditions conference, and reading Jessica Prentice’s Full Moon Feast. The couple was enamored with the health benefits of fermented food and their traditional use in diets in a variety of countries around the world. After many home fermentation experiments, the Doughterys got serious, traveling to California where Carly attended an extensive culinary program focusing on nourishing foods and fermentation at Three Stone Hearth, the nation’s first community supported kitchen. They also took the time to travel around and meet established fermented food and drink makers to get a first-hand look at what they were jumping into.

Dave and Carly launched Food and Ferments three-and-a-half years ago while still living in Philadelphia, but they have since relocated to Carly’s family’s organic dairy farm in central New York. The couple produce a variety of sauerkraut flavors, kimchi, and kombucha (a cultured, effervescent tea), along with beet kvass – a savory and tangy elixir full of probiotics – and Fireside Tonic, used for fighting colds, among other specialties. They sell their products online, and at farmers markets and a variety of stores in upstate New York and around Philadelphia.

“Learning about the gut, gut health, and the microscopic world inside ourselves left us wanting to know more,” Carly tells Modern Farmer in an email. “Making a product that we felt good about, one that would support the local economy as well as increase the health of our community, was really important to us.”

Beet kvass

The couple source most of their produce from local farmers, the majority of which are organic growers. After moving to New York they connected with Main Street Farms, which will be growing beets, cabbages, cucumbers, and onions for the company this year.

“Both Philadelphia and the central New York region have incredible farming communities, and one of our favorite parts of what we do is getting to source ingredients from local growers,” Carly says. “We’re grateful to have had bountiful local suppliers in both locales.”