Foraged knotweed and our new production space!

The past month has been a whirlwind of activity - we finally finished our build out at our new production space over on Flushing Ave (on the border of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick). The building is pretty incredible; it is the pharmaceutical company Pfizer's former Brooklyn headquarters, and has been empty for a few years.  The 8-storey building is FDA approved and comes with a fully operational loading dock.  We are one of the first tenants in the building (along with Kombucha Brooklyn, Steve's Ice Cream and People's Pops) and it's been quite a journey to get our 1900 sq ft space fully operational.

(check out the recent NY Times article on this building)

Last week, we put down a new layer of epoxy floor paint, finished the walk-in refrigeration installation, paid the last electrician's bill and today our new steam kettle arrived (we are taking suggestions for affectionate names for our steam kettles).

And now for foraging news - this Saturday at Smorgasburg - Japanese knotweed and honey soda.  Knotweed is native to east Asia and grows wild on the east coast (it is sometimes classified as an invasive species). It has hollow stems, edible leaves and tastes a bit like rhubarb. We've been working with Evan Strusinski  the noted wild food forager who travels up and down the east coast, sending packages of foraged goodies to various NYC chefs and restaurants.

Antonio is particularly excited about the prospect of creating a root beer using mostly foraged ingredients - in the next few weeks we'll keep you updated on how our experiments with foraged Spice Bush, Sassafras, birch bark and wintergreen go.