Vendors who share our passion

John Gipson started beekeeping in 1987 as a hobby and a way to spend time with his kids. The hobby took off, and Santa Rosa-based Gipson’s Golden is now a leading producer of raw honey. The Gipson’s built the company from the ground up: starting out small, they expanded into producing so much honey that they had to give it …

Based in Tiburon, Melissa honed her craft as a professionally trained chef with experience both in Michelin-starred restaurants and for private clients. In 2022, frustrated by the lack of clean, wheat-free bread options, Melissa began baking her own. No gums, no soy, no yeast, no dairy, no refined sugars. No seed oils. Melissa’s Breads are composed of ancient grain flours, …

Formerly Wild Terra, Wild&Tea is an apothecary located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. They specialize in biodynamic herbs, tea and spices. In 2024, the winds of change brought about a legal name change, as well as a shift from brick and mortar to an online shop. We reap the benefits as Wild&Tea has expanded their retail reach …

The story of Ritual Chocolate begins in a tiny 400-square-foot studio turned test kitchen in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Anna Seears and Robert Stout were driven by a dream to change an industry that was broken. It was 2008 and they felt high quality chocolate was hard to come by, with little transparency in production and sourcing. They named …

Heather Hardcastle eliminated gluten from her diet over 20 years ago. When she found it difficult to purchase the treats she craved, she decided to make them herself. Using the techniques she learned at The Culinary Institute of America, and through much trial and error, she mastered the art of creating gluten-free recipes that had incredible taste and quality. Together …

Hospitality pro Janice Clement has worked all the industry jobs, from event planning, to dishwasher, to bartender, to line cook. Now with a business of her own, Janice is able to utilize local cottage food industry laws, and bake from her certified home kitchen in Petaluma. Known as “Auntie JJ” to her nieces and nephews, Janice launched a line of …

Clara and Eddo Lee opened their innovative Korean restaurant, Queens Superette, in San Francisco’s Sunset district in 2019. The pandemic hit their small business hard, and they closed the shop in 2023. The pair pivoted to wholesale and online orders, focusing on traditional fermentation and preservation techniques, and working directly with local farms. The goal of Queens is to create …

Miso pioneers Christian and Gaella Ewell met in Boston in 1976 when they were students of macrobiotic teachers Michio and Aveline Kushi. Both of their dads had died of cancer young, and they wanted to explore a macrobiotic lifestyle to maintain good health. They were staying with the Kushis, and eating miso soup for breakfast every morning. At that time, …

While working as a chef in Europe, founder Kathryn Lukas encountered two compelling truths. One, fermentation is fascinating. And two, her friends in the US had no idea. Inspired, Kathryn returned home with a clear message: Fermentation is going to have a positive impact on lives. In short order, she assembled a crew, now known as Farmhouse Culture, to spread …

To Kabir, Yasmin and Saajan, Cookie Chachi is more than a bakery—it’s a love letter to their late grandmother whose warmth and cherished recipes continue to inspire them. The husband, wife, and brother team come from a vibrant Mexican and Indian diaspora, and named Cookie Chachi after the Punjabi word for ‘aunt’, Yasmin’s nickname. The trio makes cookies daily in …

When Fred Zwar and Kirsten Maitland pitched their artisan vegan cheese company Rebel Cheese on Shark Tank, Mark Cuban jumped on the opportunity to invest. The Texas pair’s plant based cheeses are that good. Fred and Kirsten shared a love of cheese, especially holiday charcuterie boards, they said. After deciding to go vegan, they weren’t satisfied with the options they …

Lindsay Ott came to the Bay Area in 2013 with her young son and a background in organic farming and midwifery. She understood a new mother’s needs and fused her passions into postpartum nutrition. In her quest to find kindred spirits, Lindsay contacted Jane Lin, owner of Mama Tong. Jane trained Lindsay in Chinese postpartum soups, indicating that she was …

VYBES is a line of functional drinks made with Hemp CBD, and designed to bring calm to the mind and body. Founder Jonathan Eppers believes that modern lifestyles take a toll on our health, and that medicinal properties of plants, including cannabis, offer significant healing. THe VYBES collection of organic juices are infused with 25 mg Hemp CBD per bottle. …

UK wunderkind Jeffrey Postelthwaite had three restaurants by the time he was 19 years old. He says it was his love of food, rather than classical culinary training, that won him British food awards. By 23, Jeffrey sold his business and moved to LA to try his hand at acting, landing a roll in Peaky Blinders. Still in California, Jeffrey …

Cristina Arantes, a.k.a. Kika, was born and raised in Brazil, surrounded by tropical cacao, and spent her days baking and eating all things chocolate. In 1999 she moved to San Francisco and had the opportunity to refine her skills at some of the City’s best restaurants and bakeries. In 2006, she made a list of her favorite cookies and decided …

Shawn Askinosie’s daughter Lawren wondered if her dad might have lost his mind when he quit law to take up craft chocolate. But she worked alongside him, and helped him build one of the first fair trade chocolate companies in the country. Together they travel the world, empowering farmers they work with, and sourcing cacao for their small factory in …

Fairfax entrepreneur Shireen Khera grew up in India, where she learned Ayurvedic cooking from her mother, and where farm-to-table cuisine is a way of life. When she moved to the US for graduate studies, she gravitated toward budget-friendly fast food. In time, Shireen rediscovered vegetarian cooking. To create her Hey!Hunger recipes, Shireen riffed on the Indian snack tikkis to create …

Greg Moore founded Tam CBD Drinks in Sausalito with the goal to promote wellness using full-spectrum hemp. Inspired to find balance in daily life, Greg experimented with CBD and juice blends to test their effects on mood, body and function. He developed a line of organic drinks that are infused with CBD from hemp, plus functional ingredients including turmeric, electrolytes, …

Heart Roasters founders Rebekah and Willie Yli-Luomo bring a passion for coffee to their Portland cafes, where customers can relax and connect with each other. Wifi is not available at the shops so that guests can unplug, and chat with knowledgeable baristas about roast flavors and bean sources. In their retail line, Heart offers the same custom experience of freshly …

Cellarmaker is a San Francisco based brewery that makes beers in small batches, and constantly releases different flavors. The team at Cellarmaker includes the founders Connor Casey, Tim Sciascia, and Kelly Caveney Sciacia. They feel that making the same beers all the time would limit them creatively, so they don’t follow that business model. Their output and production schedule is …