Blog Page 15 - Stone Creek Trading, LTD.

It's That Time of Year Again!

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Emily Kociolek | 0 comments

Ah, summer! The sunshine and warm weather (and humidity here in Illinois!) means the garden is growing fast. We've had lots of rain here which our garden has been loving.

Just a few weeks ago, we started to see the first pickling cucumbers at the local farmers markets. This always gets me excited and makes it feel like it truly is summer!

Of course we bought out the first seller that we saw with the perfect size pickling cucumbers. We made ourselves some in our 5L Artisan Green Fermenting Crock, but we had enough left over to share. So we brought a 5L Olive Green Fermenting Crock to my parents to teach them how to make fermented pickles! Growing up in rural America, my family always had a huge garden and made and canned jars of pickles each year, but my parents had never heard of or tried fermented pickles until Kryz became a part of our family. We've always been happy to share a few jars of our own fermented foods with them over the years, but it was time to get them started fermenting themselves!

And last week we had our first few baby cucumbers. In just a few more weeks all those lovely blooms will be perfectly sized pickling cucumbers! Our crocks are ready and waiting.

Hopefully your garden or local farmers market is also beginning to blossom with lots of fresh produce perfect for fermenting! We are definitely seeing an increase in orders lately, so I think we aren't the only ones who are getting ready for the summer/fall fermenting season!

Holiday Shipping

Posted on July 01, 2014 by Emily Kociolek | 0 comments

Due to the holiday weekend, all orders placed after 3pm on Thursday, July 3 will not ship until Monday, July 7. UPS will be closed and does not accept packages on Friday, July 4. As always, we will still be available to answer your customer service questions via email (emily@stonecreektrading.com).

We hope you have an enjoyable, relaxing holiday weekend!

Why Are Your Prices Lower?

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Emily Kociolek | 2 comments

We get this question a lot - why are our prices lower than the competitions? If you are looking for a Boleslawiec fermenting crock, you will often find a wide range of prices, but typically ours are the lowest. We are providing the same product as our competitors, but the way we run our business allows us to provide a better price to the consumer.

We are a small family business and therefore keep our overhead costs as low as possible. We strive to offer high quality, personal service while keeping a small, efficient staff. When the same people are packing and processing orders as well as participating in marketing and customer service, it means we truly know our products and customers. By keeping our overhead costs low, we can sell our products at a lower price while still making a profit.

In addition, we direct import all of the products we sell and keep them in stock in our own facility. This means we don't have to pay a middle man who also needs to make a profit. Many companies these days purchase from an importer who has brought the products into the US. This saves some hassle of having to deal with customs and international shipping, but costs more money. My father-in-law heads our Polish operations, working directly with the people who make the products we sell and then overseeing them as they are packed and shipped to us in the United States. By having him as part of our company, the price the Polish manufacturer is selling the product for is the price we pay for it.

Another key feature of our business is keeping all of our items at our own facility. Many websites now list products which they don't actually stock. Instead, when you place an order they send this order to another company located elsewhere that then ships out the product to you. Not only does this cost more as you have to pay the other company a profit in addition to your own, but it also means that many companies know little about the products they are selling. This isn't the case for Stone Creek Trading. We have personally used every product that is listed on our site. We hand pack every order and inspect each item before it leaves our facility to make sure it meets our high standards.

With all of these ways that we are saving on overhead, we could choose to make a larger profit and charge the same amount as other companies. However, we are consumers as well and understand that most of us have to work hard for the money we have. Therefore, we choose to pass on the savings to our customers.

Another key difference between our fermenting crocks and those offered on other sites is that we include the stone weights with the crock. Many websites require you to purchase them separately, which adds to the price. However, we do not have free shipping. To estimate the shipping costs, add the items you wish to purchase to your cart then scroll to down on the shopping cart page and enter your state and zip code.

Hopefully this helps to explain why we have some of the lowest prices for fermenting crocks on the internet today. We believe that everyone should have access to high quality products at affordable prices. At Stone Creek Trading, we do our best to provide those opportunities.

Beginner's Fermenting Kits Now Available

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Emily Kociolek | 0 comments

Have you been looking to start fermenting, but are intimated by all the equipment? We've created a new Beginner's Fermenting Kit which includes everything you need to get started, and at a discounted price. These kits include a fermenting crock, a cabbage shredder, a cabbage masher, wood tongs and recipes.

The Beginner's Fermenting Kit - 10L Crock, Shredder, Masher & Tongs features our popular Boleslawiec made 10L Fermenting Crock. It also includes your choice of shredder size (Medium, Large or Extra Large) as well as a Cabbage Tamper/Masher/Pounder and Wood Tongs.

The Beginner's Fermenting Kit - 5L Crock, Shredder, Masher & Tongs is identical except that it features a 5L crock instead of a 10L.

Check out all the details in the product listings. These made great gifts too for anyone who you want to share the world of fermenting with!

Two New Products Now Available!

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Emily Kociolek | 0 comments

The first two of our many new products are now available for purchase! The Fermenting Crock, 5 Liter, Artisan Green with Stone Weights and the Cabbage Tamper/Masher/Pounder are now listed on the website!

The Fermenting Crock, 5 Liter, Artisan Green with Stone Weights is a new size of our popular 3L Artisan Green Fermenting Crock. The 3L crock is almost sold out again, so we are excited to be able to offer this new 5L size. In addition, the 3L size is too small for stone weights, but the 5L size includes weights! We will have 2L version of this crock as well coming soon, so stay tuned!

You can also find our new Cabbage Tamper/Masher/Pounder on the website as well. We have had many requests for this item, but the first prototype we received on the last shipment wasn't up to our standards. So we made some custom changes to the design and are now happy to offer this product! The Cabbage Masher is perfect for pounding the liquid out of cabbage when making sauerkraut.

We also wanted the Cabbage Tamper so that we could create a Beginner's Fermenting Kit, which will be posted on the site later this week. Stay tuned to the blog or our Facebook page to be the first to know when more new items are listed!

New Products Coming Soon

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Emily Kociolek | 0 comments

We are very excited to be offering some new products in the next few weeks. But before they are listed for sale we thought we would give you a little sneak peek here on the blog!

Our 3L Artisan Green Fermenting Crock has been extremely popular, so we are expanding the available sizes of this unique item. We will soon have a 5L and 2L of this crock available as well. We will also have a very limited number of this 3L and 2L crock in an Artisan Cream color.

We have been very pleased with the quality of the Artisan Green crocks and have therefore added more products from this craftsman. We will have two sizes of garlic crocks in green and a lard crock in brown. We will also be offering a brown mug from the same artisan.

Finally, we have had many requests for a wood cabbage tamper/masher. The first prototype that our wood manufacturer made wasn't large enough for our needs. So we made a few changes and now have one we are happy with!

Look for these products to be listed on the site in the next few weeks. If you have any questions about a specific item, be sure to email emily@stonecreektrading.com. You can also stay up to date when new products are posted by liking us on Facebook!

The Shipment has Finally Arrived!!!

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Emily Kociolek | 0 comments

We are very happy to say that our container is finally here! Our fermenting crocks and cabbage shredders are back in stock on the website. And we'll have a sneak peek here on the blog of some new products which arrived as well!

The container was packed full - floor to ceiling! Which means we should be fully stocked for awhile now. And with the hard work of our helpers, it only took about 2 hours to unload.

Of course it took a few days after that to sort through everything and get it organized. But we now have updated the website with the correct stock numbers of all of our current products and are shipping orders as they arrive. We will have new products coming to the website over the next few weeks. Stay tuned to the blog in the next few days to see a sneak peek of some of the new items. And of course, follow us on Facebook where we post all new items as they are listed!

Thank you to all of our loyal customers who have been hanging in there with us waiting for this shipment to arrive! It was a very stressful process, but at least it's finally over!

As always, if you have any questions, send Emily an email - emily@stonecreektrading.com!