Fieldstone Kombucha was founded in February 2019 as an entrepreneurial dream to bring together sustainable agriculture, delicious kombucha, and local communities around healthy drinking and living. The company began life as Salt Marsh Farm, LLC. This is the name of my family’s farm on Massachusetts’ south coast. The first batches were made in the kitchen there. The first flavor ingredients were harvested from the farm’s gardens, orchards, and herb patches. I gave away all my kombucha that first year, experimenting with different flavors and recipes, building a core group of supporters and developing the vision for the business.
WHAT IS KOMBUCHA?
Kombucha is an ancient drink, thought to originate in Asia. Its first recorded references are from around 220 BCE when a doctor from the Korean Peninsula took it across the Sea of Japan to the imperial Japanese court to serve the emperor. He called it “immortality tea.”
Once I obtained my license to sell, I moved production out of the kitchen (much to my mother’s relief) and into the Dartmouth Grange. Sales began in early 2020 at the New Bedford farmers market and grew from there. My production doubled. I set up Kombucha Fridges at cycle and yoga studios. Then the coronavirus hit. Pivoting quickly, I pulled the Kombucha Fridges from the temporarily shuttered studios and placed them at farm stands that were opening early to meet demand for local, safe food. Production tripled.