How Did This Come to Be?

About one and a half years ago, we realized we needed to move our business to an urban area to accomplish the goals we had for Harvest Roots. For years, we’ve been running our business in the beautiful hilly and mountainous region of Northeastern AL. But, why did we end up there in the first place?

More than four years ago, we realized our fermentation business was way more ripe than our farming business. In knowing this, we also knew we had to get a certified kitchen to take our fermentation business to the next level. We looked around Birmingham, asked local resources, tasked for local food initiatives, teased renting catering kitchens, and even almost rented the back end of a rural Alabama VFW.

In the end, by chance of fate sprinkled with some mysticism, we found a tiny kitchen in Mentone, Alabama in the back of Little Rive Hardware. Stan Lawton, former owner of Little River Hardware, welcomed us into this community with open arms. We upended our life and packed our bags and headed for this beautiful town.

In 2015, we blew out of that 150 sq ft space. With Stan’s help, we built a larger kitchen (500sq ft +/-) on the other side of the hardware store. This was 2016. We have now blown out of that too in 2019.