Wild Pantry

Wild Pantry, living ferments made in Liverpool

Wild Pantry is a Liverpool-based company dedicated to making raw, unpasteurised fermented foods and drinks. Its range is built around sauerkraut, water kefir and other fermented preparations such as salsa, produced in small batches by hand. The company states that it uses organic ingredients and traditional fermentation, with no shortcuts and no pasteurisation, so that the products reach the consumer with their cultures still active.

The company itself presents its origin as a response to a health problem and frames its activity around the idea of bringing fermented food into everyday life, moving it away from a complicated or medicinal image. This narrative appears on the site under the heading “From Health Scare to Fermentary”, which sums up the shift from a personal health concern to the creation of a fermentary.

House fermented products

The range is made up of several products prepared with vegetables and spices. They all share their raw, unpasteurised character, the absence of vinegar and added preservatives, and glass packaging.

• PowerKraut: sauerkraut with white cabbage, carrot, beetroot, red onion, turmeric, garlic, black pepper and fine sea salt.
• ImmuniKraut: white cabbage, carrot, white onion, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, garlic, elderberry, turnip, fennel, red chilli and sea salt.
• Fermented salsa: tomato, red pepper, white onion, garlic, jalapeños, coriander and lime.
• Water kefir: lightly sparkling fermented drink with prebiotics, presented as alcohol-free cocktails in two flavours, Mojito and Piña Colada.
• Gut Loving Fizz: a category with a single product, Elderflower Champagne, described as the best seller.

The company describes these products as rich in live lactic acid bacteria, including Lactobacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Pediococcus pentosaceus, and notes that the kefir also contains yeasts such as Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus hilgardii, Bifidobacterium and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. According to its presentation, fermentation increases the vitamins and enzymes in the vegetables, and the drinks are low in sugar and non-alcoholic.

Purchase formats and packs

As well as individual products, the site offers boxes and combined bundles. The catalogue showed a gut health starter bundle, a three-litre kefir bundle and a fermented food trio made up of PowerKraut, ImmuniKraut and salsa. The company also allows customers to build their own food box and has a wholesale line.

Direct sales, markets and local delivery

Wild Pantry combines online sales with a presence at farmers' markets. The site announced its participation in the West Kirby Farmers' Market, held every fourth Saturday of the month at St Andrew's Church Hall in West Kirby (Wirral), as well as at Frodsham Artisan Market and Oxton Village Market, the latter organised by Curate & Co at the R.A.F.A. headquarters in Birkenhead.

Local delivery takes place every two weeks in Liverpool, Wirral, Cheshire and Merseyside, with home delivery to L and CH postcodes. The company also states that it ships throughout the UK and that the minimum order is £14, with free delivery over £35.

Awards

The company presents itself as a producer of award-winning ferments and states that its products have won awards that support their quality, without detailing in the material consulted which competitions or in which categories.