Hello Friends, time for an update!!! We’re Back Open — but we need your help to keep it that way!

To our friends, community, and supporters,

We’re incredibly grateful to say that Pyramid Ferments is officially back open and operational. After months of renovations and hard work, we’re doing what we love again—creating and sharing our products with you.

But the truth is: the struggle is still very real.

For those who may not know, Pyramid Ferments was forced to leave our home at the old Black River factory after nearly 8 years in the facility. We were given only a couple of months notice to find and secure a new location, which set off what has now been almost a full year of renovations and rebuilding at our new space.

The cost of renovations alone reached nearly $100,000, and that’s only part of the story.

During the closure, we also faced significant additional expenses—temporary workspaces, storage fees, trailer rentals, travel, labor, and all the logistics required just to keep things moving. These costs ran us approximately 4500-6500 per month - on top of the renovation expenses - and all of this came on top of our ongoing lease payments at the new facility under construction.

While we’re back and producing again, we’re now working hard to climb out of a deep financial hole created during that time.

This campaign is our final push for support—a way to help us stabilize so we can focus fully on what matters most: making our products, serving our community, and rebuilding sustainably.

How you can support us:

• Donate to help us cover renovation-related debt and operational costs

• Share this campaign with your network

• Support us by ordering our products

You can make a huge impact by purchasing from us:

• Order through Indie Food Canada and receive free shipping on orders over $50

• If you’re local to Prince Edward County or the Belleville area, we offer free local delivery with a minimum purchase

Every order helps us keep production going and brings us one step closer to full recovery.

Your contribution—whether through donations, purchases, or sharing—truly makes a difference. If you’ve supported Pyramid Ferments in the past, we are deeply thankful. We wouldn’t be here without you.

We’re so close to turning the corner. With your help, we can move forward stronger, more stable, and focused on bringing our products back to you consistently.

Of things go well with this fundraiser, we are hoping to put a good portion of funds raised into purchasing new processing equipment. Currently, we process approximately 1000-1250 lbs of cabbage during a production day. At Themis speed, we NEED to have two prodiction days per week - which only allows us to have a couple days for jarring, if we aren’t focused on making kvass or kombucha. This NEW equipment would allow us to have only one production day per week, as the shredder can process up to 1500lbs per hour.

This equipment would be life changing for our business, and allow us to accomplish so much more in our work week. Not only would it allow for the growth needed now, but it has the capacity to help us continue our growth. One can dream!

Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for your continued support, emails, texts & all of your kind words of encouragement.

With so much gratitude,

The Pyramid Ferments Team

—————————————————

original fundraiser post below

—————————————————

My name is Nicole and I'm the woman behind Pyramid Ferments! We are a small, family owned and operated fermentation company here in lovely Prince Edward County.

We specialize in making raw ferments, with locally sourced ingredients, packed with nutrients and all the probiotic goodness that your gut (and brain) craves!

At Pyramid Ferments, we pride ourselves in supporting our local farmers and agricultural community as much as possible!

Throughout the seasons, we purchase as much produce from local growers such as Hagerman's Farm, Fiddlehead Farm, Laundry's Farm, Edwin County Farms, Vicki's Veggies, Campbell's Orchard and so many more. At the end of the season, we will often purchase any cabbage these farms have left in the fields and keep them in cold storage to be used over the winter.

As a community, we need to support our farmers as this is the ONLY way to guarantee food security in our region!

You may not be aware of this statistic, and it is a troubling one;

Hastings-Prince Edward region has lost between 24-26% of its farmland in recent years. There are many reasons, but much of it comes down to local farms not being as productive or lucrative as in the past & future generations not wanting to carry on the farming tradition. We can help prevent more loss of farmland by supporting our local farms, farmers markets, road stands, food producers and anyone in the agricultural community.

Not only do we support our local growers, but we also support our local livestock farmers and rescues. The production of sauerkraut and kimchi will always create a certain amount of scrap cabbage, but we don't put that to waste! Instead, we bag up all vegetable scraps and donate to local farmers for their pigs, sheep, goats, alpaca's and other livestock. We also donate some of these scraps to local animal rescues/sanctuaries as a nutritious alternative which we hope will occasionally help to offset the cost of feed.

Now that you know a little more about us, let's get to the issue at hand....

As some of you may already know, we have had a VERY tough year. After 8 happy years at the old Black River Cheese Factory in Milford, Prince Edward County, the landlord decided NOT to renew our lease, as he had new business plans of his own. This ultimately displaced Pyramid Ferments, as well as the The Black River Market - leaving us with few options and little hope.

The landlord's business plans fell through, leaving the facility open once more. We requested an extension on our lease, but we were denied. We then approached the idea to purchase the building, but were again denied.

There is much more to the story, but out of deep respect for the landlord's family, we are choosing to keep those details private.

We were lucky enough to find an alternative solution, but it came under the wire. We had just 10 days to pack everything up, and move our entire 2400ft2 facility into local storage, and transport all ferments to cold storage at the OAFVC.

The new location has required ( and still requires ) so much work. We've had to demolish walls, rebuild them after significant water damage, replace old moldy drywall and paint everything from the floor to the ceiling. We've had to bust through concrete blocks to build the walk-in cooler, do massive electrical upgrades and significant plumbing to the unit. We've had to pull up old tiles from the 60's and lay down new hospital grade epoxy floors. Priming & painting everything from the walls and ceilings, upgrading bathrooms and even cleaning 50 years of grime off light fixtures and paint them with an enamel finish. Some of this work is still ongoing, and will require additional funds.

After putting so much work, time and money into this, we encountered significant water damage from various leaks in the roof. This was a set back we did not need, and it put us many weeks behind. We had to tear off the old damaged parging, run dehumidifiers for days and then start the process all over again on that wall. New parging, multiple layers and days of mudding/sanding, priming & painting etc etc. This is just one of the many set backs we have encountered. To anyone who has done a major renovation, I'm sure you can relate!

Since losing our old location, we have had to pay for two separate production/packaging workspaces at the OAFVC and locally here at The County Food Hub. Without their support in cold storage and production, we would not have been able to keep our doors open. For this, we are eternally grateful. I highly recommend both of these businesses to anyone in food production looking to scale up and grow their business!

But this all comes at great cost. In order to keep our doors open, not only are we paying the lease at our new location & funding massive renovations, but we are also paying for TWO other temporary work spaces, storage fees, and the daily commutes. This is a massive drain on our resources, and things are getting tough. Things are getting really tough!

Due to space restrictions at the temporary work spaces, we are only able to work at approximately 35% production capacity, which is not nearly enough. We hope to complete the renovations, plumbing and electrical in the next couple weeks - but these are very expensive jobs. We NEED to get our doors open at the new location and be able to get production up to 120%. We have the opportunity to break into the Quebec market, and do home delivery with Indie Food Canada, but not until we get our doors open!

We have done our research and found the perfect cabbage processor that will allow us to triple our production, but the line is quite expensive (upwards of 55k).

This is our ultimate goal, but first we NEED to finish the renovations in order to pass our Health Inspection.

Cost to complete renovations, finish electrical & plumbing, and pay other contractors is approximately 25k.

Once completed, we'll need to order massive amounts of cabbage and other produce from our local farmers (putting money back into our community), order pallets of glassware, more labels. This will cost us approximately 15k.

If our goals are met, and we are able to re-open at the new facility, not only will we get our current employees back up to full time hours, but we will also need to hire more people. If all goes well, we are hoping to create another 4-6 positions within the company.

But first thing's first - we need help!

We have already spent over 55k on renovations.

We have spent over 25k in temporary work spaces, transport of goods, dry storage and cold storage.

We continue to spend an additional 650/week in temporary work spaces, and will do so until our renovations are complete.

We have funded the renovations ourselves, and I have personally funded most of the cost. We have stretched every last penny, even doing much of the mudding, sanding, painting, and floors ourselves. Our funds are maxed out, and we have no choice but to look to our community, our loyal customers, our followers & friends for support.

Pyramid Ferments has been in business since 2012.

That's 13 years of supporting our local farmers, and producers. That's 13 years of helping to create food security in our region. 13 years of creativity, collaboration, gardening, harvesting, passion, hard work, stress & tears.

We would not change it for a thing. We love what we do, and are so proud of the food we create for you. We want to keep supporting our local farmers, and we want to keep making all of the ferments you've come to love over the years. We support our farmers, our community and are proud to provide a safe and welcoming work environment for everyone. All are welcome here xoxo

We are trying to start a new chapter at a new location, and we just need a helping hand to make it happen.

if 1500 people donated $25, we would be half way to our goal. Our business pages has over 7500 followers, my personal page has a few thousand more. If we share this fundraiser far and wide, we should be able to raise enough funds to get us operational at the new facility.

I realize that this is a big ask, especially when times are hard for everyone... Under normal circumstances, I would not dream of asking. For those that know me - you know I'm incredibly stubborn, will try to do everything on my own, and that I really dislike asking for help - but we are at an impasse. I'm swallowing my pride, fighting back tears as I type these words, and I'm asking for help.

Please understand that this situation is not due to poor business or lack of growth. In just over two years we have been able to increase our sales by almost 40%. This is serious growth, and there is much more room for growth - which will ultimately create more jobs in PEC!

Our currently situation is a direct result of being displaced from our 8year home - which was completely beyond our control. In a perfect world we would have stayed at that location for the next 20 years!

If you, or anyone you know is able to help, we would be forever grateful. We understand that times are hard for everyone - so if you’re unable donate, please share this fundraiser. The further our reach, the more likely we are to meet our goals.

With gratitude & the hope of better days to come,

Nicole & Family

& The Ferment Team