Real Pickles is a Massachusetts-based company that makes pickles from regionally grown vegetables that are raw, vinegar-free, 100% organic, and rich in probiotics, using the traditional natural fermentation process. Founded in 2001 by Dan Rosenberg, Real Pickles is, “committed to promoting human and ecological health by providing people with delicious, nourishing food and by working toward a regional, organic food system.” In line with its social mission, the company buys its vegetables only from Northeast family farms and sells its products only within the Northeast, and the products are made in a solar-powered facility.
Industry: Food and Beverage
Location: Greenfield, Massachusetts
Number of employees: 18
Became employee owned: 2013
Financing: Cooperative Fund of New England
From the company
- https://realpickles.com/
- Real Pickles: The Story of a Co-operative Conversion [slides] (2016)
- Rural Cooperatives – Our First Year as a Co-op (2014)
- Real Pickles – We’re Going Co-op (2012)
- Real Pickles – Why I Want to be a Worker-Owner…Again (2012)
Learn more
- Boston Fermentation Festival – Fermenting Workplace Democracy (2019)
- Fifty by Fifty – Real Pickles DPO: How Employees Raised Half a Million Dollars to Buy a Business (2017)
- Project Equity – Real Pickles (2015)
- Project Equity – Financing Case Study: Real Pickles (2015)
- Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board – Real Pickles (2015)
- Co-opLaw.org – Legal Case Study: Real Pickles (2014)
- Ward – Community Investment in the Local Food System (2014)
- CDI – Congratulations Real Pickles on transitioning to a Cooperative! (2013)
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