Fire Tonic
- Small Batch | Immune Booster
- Produced in Minnesota by Fierce Ferments.
- 8 oz
- Details
- Reviews
- Fierce Ferments
Raw onions, garlic, ginger, horseradish, and habaneros, blended and infused in raw apple cider vinegar. Farmers and herbalists since at least the 1970s have been making some form of this stuff and calling it one of the above names, or something else. The concept of blending herbs or other ingredients into vinegar is much older than that, but the ingredients we've settled on are among the most potent, "medicinal" food ingredients out there. We've left them to infuse for at least a month in a dark place, and double-strained the pulp. What's left provides powerful relief from congestion, sore throats, and other cold and flu-related symptoms. Don't believe that our choice ingredients are medicinal? Do a little research yourself!
Can't take the heat? Cut it with honey and dilute with fruit juice or hot water. Still too hot? Dilute it some more! Add more honey!
Like it straight? You're our kinda guy/gal. And may we suggest:
- Put it in a Bloody Mary!
- Make a salad dressing with it!
- Add a splash to your sauteed vegetables!
- Use it in your meat marinades!
- Fire Tonic-tahini sauce!
I'm Galen, and I've been making food since I was a kid.
I come from a family of natural foods purists; not only my parents, but aunts and uncles too. Industrial processed junk foods were never in our house growing up, and meals on my grandparents' farm always had plenty of garden veggies and wild-harvested goodies. My grandma was picking nettles off of her land and serving them to us before it was cool.
By 2010, my Uncle Andy and Aunt Beverly had taken over the family farm in Indiana and started a farm-based fermented foods business. They spent much of their lives dealing with various health problems until they learned that microbially-rich fermented foods may have been a key missing part of their diets.
Uncle Andy built a climate-controlled commercial kitchen facility into the barn, and they got to work, selling ferments to farmer's markets and health food stores throughout Indiana and Ohio. I was fascinated and wanted to get involved.
I'd been out of college two years, working in the produce department of my hometown food co-op, and I already knew I wanted to be part of a movement to return to more traditional foods and more sustainable farming methods. Helping out my folks on the same hobby farm I'd always loved visiting growing up felt awesome, and I discovered that I had a knack for fermenting.
Having no background in business, I had no idea how to start one; nor was I even sure that I wanted to. After a year spent working in Ohio and Indiana, I moved to Minneapolis to be closer to friends and family back home.
I got a job in produce at the Seward Co-op, and put the idea on the back burner. But two years later, I was feeling the itch. I applied for a vendor stall at the nearest farmer's market to my apartment, got my artist friend Josh to make up some labels, and started selling homemade ferments on Saturday mornings.
Two of my friends, Nick and Mike, helped me out at the farmer's market stall, which led to them helping produce my recipes, which eventually led to them being my partners and co-owners of the company.
Where we go from here? Hell, we don't know, but we think our ferments are the best ones out there.
