Community Cultures

Community Cultures Community Cultures offers fermentation education through in-person and virtual workshops, as well as larger international events.

Community Cultures provides Fermentation Education opportunities throughout the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, workshops are also now offered virtually. The goal is to make fermentation education accessible to all through affordable workshops.

We continue to celebrate the seasons this weekend, marking the beginning of autumn in just a few days. Some of you tried...
09/18/2026

We continue to celebrate the seasons this weekend, marking the beginning of autumn in just a few days. Some of you tried our Solstice and Lugnasadh sodas and we're continuing with that theme--utilizing the plants and fruits around us to inspire a flavor that represents a specific moment in time and the mark of transition. Equinox is light and herbal with a subtle tang and allspice-like spice from the blend of rosehips, lemon balm, spice bush berries, staghorn sumac and raw honey.

Lea is holding down the fort at Bloomfield and can answer all your questions. Of course, we've got many other popular sodas available--a handful of concord grape bottles (before we switch to other grape varieties in future weeks!) and nectarine bottles. AND pizza sauce and cucumber mint is back on tap! See our pizza sauce soda post to learn more!

For those who need more explanation about our pizza sauce soda, we did a deep dive to open your mind. Find it on tap thi...
09/18/2026

For those who need more explanation about our pizza sauce soda, we did a deep dive to open your mind. Find it on tap this Saturday at Bloomfield Market!

I'm very excited to be back teaching, kicking off education season with a list of full-day, multi-week, and 2-hour class...
09/16/2026

I'm very excited to be back teaching, kicking off education season with a list of full-day, multi-week, and 2-hour classes, workshops and courses during October! Starting it off outside Hershey, PA at Rock Hill Heritage Farm for a new collaboration to create an intimate, full day experience of fermentation education at a really cool spot (farm tour offered as well!). This will be a great day of depth, covering topics from beverages to veggies and beyond!

As usual, I'll be back at Stanford doing a multi-week introductory online course, with a focus on preserving the seasonal harvest.

Another new one I'm super excited about is with guest, friend, meditation guide, Helen (she/her) at AV Tea Co. , aiming to bring mindfulness to your fermentation practice through a Kraut Workshop.

Lastly, I'm always grateful to come back to East End Food Co-op and CCAC with some of the usual, reliable, popular classes.

Check our website/link in bio for more info and to signup! Folks have been asking about classes and signing up for the newsletter all summer, so I'm happy to deliver this good news in kicking off the autumnal harvest season 😊

Squirrel Hill today until 1pm! Come say hello to Lea, sample our new habañero lime cashew spread, grab some dilly beans,...
09/13/2026

Squirrel Hill today until 1pm! Come say hello to Lea, sample our new habañero lime cashew spread, grab some dilly beans, and sample what's on tap! Soda flavors today:
Concord Grape
Nectarine
Pizza Sauce (waiting to be used in a bloody mary!)

Very excited to be back at Pittsburgh County Fair this Saturday! We have a special lineup of soda for yinz, and hopefull...
09/09/2026

Very excited to be back at Pittsburgh County Fair this Saturday! We have a special lineup of soda for yinz, and hopefully enough to not sell out by the fourth hour! Stay tuned...

Squirrel Hill market tomorrow--we'll be in a different spot, on the other side of the market this time! Lea will be hold...
09/05/2026

Squirrel Hill market tomorrow--we'll be in a different spot, on the other side of the market this time! Lea will be holding it down with our vibrant soda lineup. stop on by for your fix of ferments!

fruit! so much fruit to ferment!
09/04/2026

fruit! so much fruit to ferment!

Lacto-fermented cherry tomatoes (batch #1 debut) arriving to Bloomfield and Squirrel Hill markets this weekend!Let the ...
09/03/2026

Lacto-fermented cherry tomatoes (batch #1 debut) arriving to Bloomfield and Squirrel Hill markets this weekend!
Let the fizzy grape tomatoes pop in your mouth for a fun experience; blend them with the garlic, onions and brine into a gazpacho (as shown by kenji morimoto ); toss them in a salad; place them in a sandwich for a burst of fermented excitement....so many possibilities! we're excited to play around with different flavorings of this same product in the coming weeks!

One of the challenges of fermenting seasonally is working with the ingredients I consider to be "wild cards". Often, the...
09/02/2026

One of the challenges of fermenting seasonally is working with the ingredients I consider to be "wild cards". Often, they're tasty, reliable and popular raw ingredients (usually fruit), but when fermented they can get "funky" and have a unique nuanced flavor that's quite different from its raw form. Peach sometimes falls into this category, but my experience with watermelon is a true wild card. I personally think this makes it fun, but from a business standpoint, it can be risky.

Sometimes watermelon ferments quickly, and since the melon flavor is bound with the sugar, that means that a quick drop in sugar is a drop in watermelon flavor. Often you're left with what tastes like watermelon rind--not bad, and often very tasty in my opinion, but not necessarily what people are expecting. My hope is that people actually turn to our products to get something different. If you're looking for probiotic juice, our water kefir sodas might not be for you (that's what the canned stuff at the grocery store is for, with their alternative sweeteners)!

This time I'm blending watermelon with basil, that way if the sweet melon flavor disappears, we hopefully get an aromatic, basil-y watermelon rind soda of sorts.

Concord grape, on the other hand, is reliable...it tastes like grape! Just about always 😎

We'll have several fruit sodas on tap over the next couple weeks! This is one of my favorite times of year with local produce. AND paw paws are just around the corner!!

Wish these watermelon babies a happy fermentation..."see you on the other side" they say!

Lea is at Squirrel Market today until 1pm! We have a different soda for different people: blueberry lavender for sweet-f...
08/30/2026

Lea is at Squirrel Market today until 1pm! We have a different soda for different people: blueberry lavender for sweet-fruity-floral folks, fig leaf for tropical-coconut-figgy folks, and bitter boogie for the IPA-lovin-bitter sweethearts. The last of corn pico is also on the menu, along with cilantro garlic cashew spread! We'll be back again in 2 weeks : )

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Pittsburgh, PA
15218

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