Pickles, Sauerkraut, Sourdough & More, Made in the Skylands

Some are. Salt-brine pickles such as half sours and full sours are fermented by lactic acid bacteria and keep live cultures while they stay cold and unheated. Vinegar pickles such as bread and butter get their sourness from added vinegar and are not fermented.

Maranatha Farm in Far Hills sells lacto-fermented sauerkraut made from its own cabbage. Kilhaney’s Pickles in Hackettstown and Clinton, Jerzey Girl Pickles in Mount Arlington and The Polish Pickle Deli in Manville make their own pickles; we are confirming which of theirs are salt-brined. Each maker on this page is labeled by how its food is made.

No. Sourdough is fermented by wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria, but baking ends the live cultures. What you get is slow, naturally leavened bread, which is why we label it “fermented, then baked”.

The Kombucha Bar in Flemington has brewed its own kombucha since 2016 and refills growlers. Bucha Booch brews raw, small-batch kombucha in Sussex County and sells it at farmers markets in Sparta, Sussex, Lafayette and Morristown.

In Hunterdon: Bread & Culture in Flemington, Hopkins Baking Company in Whitehouse Station, Lambertville Bakehouse, Honey Moon Bakery in Frenchtown and Bobolink in Milford. In Warren: Marksboro Mills in Blairstown, Fiddler’s Farm in Harmony and Four Fields Farm in Great Meadows. In Sussex: Windy Brow Farms in Newton, Café Pierrot in Andover and The Bread Boutique in Lafayette. In Morris: Cedar Gate Farm in Denville and Jersey Artisan Co. in Morris Plains. In Somerset: Heated in Gladstone, Manville Pastry Shoppe and Breakthrough Bakery in Warren. Several are preorder or weekend only, so check each profile.

The Polish Pickle Deli in Manville makes its own sauerkraut, low-salt pickles, bigos, żurek and horseradish. Polski Smak in Butler makes its own traditional kielbasa. Krakus Deli in Phillipsburg makes pierogi, including sauerkraut and mushroom, and stuffed cabbage. For German sausages, Alpine Meats and Deli in Blairstown makes landjaeger and other dry sausages in its own smokehouses.

Cedar Gate Farm in Denville sells live sourdough starter from its farm store. Many local bakers will also share a little starter if you ask.

Not really. Black garlic is whole garlic held warm and humid for weeks until it turns dark and sweet. It is often called fermented, but the change comes from slow aging, not microbes. River Lea House in Branchburg makes it from its own garlic.