Abe Hunrichs and Maddie Elling met in the Fall of 2010. Inspired by the Berkshire community and landscape their love and interest in food and farming quickly turned into a quest for creating a nourishing, niche value-added business. In West Stockbridge, on Maddie's family property they started planting perennial food crops and raising animals and with fermentation guru Sandor Katz book Wild Fermentation in hand they we're experimenting making all types of cultured foods; baking bread, brewing beer, honey wines, fermenting vegetables, beans, grains and dairy. You could say this was then, they caught the fermentation bug. They felt the Berkshires was a welcoming place for some sort of business, rooted in agriculture and food and saw there was some culture lacking in the local community...cultured food products that is! 

The following Spring in 2011 Abe and Maddie started to sell Berkshire Blue Cheese at the Norfolk Market in CT. Each week they attended the market they thought  'we could have so much more on our table! What else should we bring?' Meanwhile they had jars or fermenting products at home and it clicked. No one was selling any type of fermented vegetable product at the market, why not bring a few varieties and see how people like it? 

A few weeks later after refining some recipes and gathering necessary permits they brought their first batch of Sauerkraut and Crimson Kraut to the market. In bringing their products to market they were able to see first hand how their customers liked the varieties. Each week customers came out to resupply, they liked it! 

2021 marks 10 years in business for Hosta Hill. They continue to be a locally driven business rooted in the Berkshire community. Today you can find Hosta Hill ferments in the fridge section of many grocery stores, food co-ops, farm stands, CSA’s, cafes, restaurants, and online across Massachusetts and in surrounding states.

Want to hear more of our story? Stay connected with us by signing up for our monthly news! Signup on the bottom of our homepage.