The Cultured Pickle Shop

Preservation. Transformation.

 The Cultured Pickle Shop is a 25 year old Shop dedicated to vegetable fermentation in Berkeley, CA. Owners Alex Hozven & Kevin Farley create small batch, premium pickled vegetables, kombucha, miso, and amazake, with an emphasis on highlighting the quality and abundance of produce available throughout the varied regions and microclimates of Northern California. Every vegetable is preserved at its peak through techniques that span days to weeks, or months to years. The resulting products each tell a unique story of time and place. Every weekend The Shop transforms into a cafe serving rice bowls to guests designed to feature the wide range of products created and techniques employed at The Shop. 

The Cultured Pickle Shop Retail Store is open 7 days a week. Our products are made in small batches and vary greatly from season to season. We specialize in lacto-fermented vegetables such as sauerkrauts, kimchis, and classic dill pickles. We produce a line of traditional Japanese pickles fermenting in mediums such as miso, sake lees, and rice bran, you will also find a number of house made miso, a sweet fermented rice shake known as amazake, and a variety of koshos- an increasingly popular fermented citrus paste. We have a reputation for producing exceptionally well-balanced kombucha with unusual and delicious flavor profiles.

Click Here for Shop hours and Location

Every weekend we turn our small production facility into a tasting room and host a weekly pop-up we call Rice & Pickles. Guests are invited into the shop or at tables on the sidewalk and we serve a three-course meal. Starting with a dashi ( a light vegetable broth) followed by a Rice Bowl featuring the diverse fermentation techniques we employ at The Shop, and ending with a sweet bite. Rice & Pickles is our way of giving our community a chance to spend some time in the place where their pickles are made and with the people who make them. Guests are encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what’s in their bowls, about ferments they have going at home, or about fermentation in general.

Click Here for Rice & Pickle Info and Menu