Community Cultures In The News
Press & News
Articles & Interviews
Contact us for comments on subjects like fermentation education, pay-what-you-can strategies, and our collaborations with other local businesses in the Pittsburgh area and around the world.
*Scroll down or Select one of the publications where we’ve been featured.
· 2025 article in Pittsburgh City Paper
· 2025 interview on CBS Pittsburgh
· 2025 podcast interview on With Bowl and Spoon
· 2025 interview with PA Eats
· 2024 article in Table Magazine Pittsburgh
· 2023 article in Farm to Table PA
· 2023 interview with Root Kitchens
· 2023 recipe in Table Magazine
· 2021 interview with PA Eats
· 2020 article in Very Local Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh City Paper
With the help of groups like Community Cultures, fermentation is evolving from latest trend to lifestyle
“As far as solidifying Pittsburgh’s interest, Ring also credits Justin Lubecki, founder of Ferment Pittsburgh, who started the Pittsburgh Fermentation Festival in 2016, and later folded fermentation into the larger Pittsburgh County Fair. Both Pittsburgh festivals not only helped grow fermentation education locally, says Ring, but ‘created this space for fermentation to be this celebratory, artistic, fun, DIY type of thing.’”
The pandemic brought even greater enthusiasm, and during lockdown periods, Ring spent time at virtual fermentation festivals and saw ‘people just nerding out about it.’”
Adding beans to a jar during a workshop, June 11 2025, Pittsburgh City Paper
Trevor Ring interview, kombucha demo, and wild soda recipe on CBS Pittsburgh.
Talk Pittsburgh | CBS Pittsburgh
Community Cultures’ Kombucha Recipe
“TR: I am going to walk you through a very brief demo… What I have here is basically a cup of mashed blueberries, gonna take a pint of water, and I will mix it in here. And then I take in a little bit of sugar, about two tablespoons of sugar and a cinnamon stick. Very simple. The wonderful thing about this, it is easy to make. Anyone can make it at home. I will give it a stir. If anyone chooses to make this at home, you shake it twice daily until it is nice and bubbly. There are living things in here, that is the live, wild yeast coming from the blueberries. All fruit have wild yeasts on them.
CBS: So, living things is good?
TR: Yes!”
With Bowl and Spoon | Podcast
Trevor Ring, Community Cultures
“Trevor’s approach emphasizes quality, community-building, and maintaining a small scale rather than expanding into a large production company. This philosophy stems from his experiences working with larger fermented food producers and his desire to create more seasonal offerings.
By tapping into his Eastern European roots and prioritizing a sustainable lifestyle, Trevor has successfully turned his hobby into a business that aligns with his values of living well and fostering local connections.”
Trevor ready for a cold day at the market, February 14 2025, With Bowl and Spoon
Community Cultures sodas at Bloomfield Market, October 2024, PA Eats
PA Eats
Fermentation Tips with Community Cultures
“It’s a pretty accessible process. In a lot of workshops I find it’s helpful for people to have their hand held a bit at first, so in-person learning is great as well as YouTube. There’s a lot of unlearning to happen for people to fully embrace fermentation as a safe practice.”
Table Magazine | Pittsburgh
Trevor Ring Transforms Food and Community with Fermentation
“Trevor offers affordable fermentation workshops for anyone interested in crafting things like sauerkraut, kombucha, miso, and more. Ring uses his love of fermentation as a lens for how he wants to positively impact our food system. ‘There’s something that’s so simple and empowering about transforming your food that way rather than pasteurizing it and sanitizing everything. You’re honoring the livelihood, or the life within the food. I just started diving into that idea and thinking about how I can bridge that with creating a business model that is also empowering people.’”
“It’s not about me anymore. It’s about the microbes”, July 31 2024, TABLE Magazine
“Fall Vegetable Ferments” workshop, November 30 2023, Farm To Table PA
Farm To Table PA
With Community Cultures, Trevor Ring Teaches Food Preservation Techniques That Have Lasted For Centuries
“This confidence is definitely achieved during the two-hours we spend digging in. As we chop, soak, squeeze, and jar, Ring talks history, health, and safety in a thorough, fun manner that makes us feel that even when we walk out the door and leave the tools that greeted us behind, we’ll be equipped with all the tools we need to try this at home.”
Root Kitchens
Unplated: An Interview with Trevor Ring
On microbes, music, and the power of fermentation education
“My brain has become so wired on fermentation that all of my passions embody some form of fermentation: I named my band Fermented Beats; I practice ceramics to create fermentation tools and vessels; I use fermentation metaphors in my political work (ferment capitalism!); I forage food and make herbal medicine for ferments; and I practice yoga and meditation to be more present with my passions. To flip that around, I also love the idea of infusing ferments with music–I joke in my workshops that lactobacillus in sauerkraut might love Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. I don’t have a scientific article to prove anything along this claim, but I like to dream about what vibrations specific microbes get off on. I love these playful mysteries and I wouldn’t think the same if it wasn’t for my exploration with fermentation.”
Root Kitchens logo
Hibiscus and mint spritz, May 1 2023, Table Magazine
Table Magazine
Hibiscus and Mint Spritz
“Built like a gin and tonic, this spritz combines the bright, floral flavors of Trevor Ring’s hibiscus and mint soda with the herbal notes of gin and zing of lime juice. It’s an easy-drinking, warm-weather sipper meant for end-of-summer celebrations.
We used Trevor’s fermented soda in this recipe, but local no-and-low-alcohol shop The Open Road Bar has plenty of alternatives. Try this cocktail with the Avec Hibiscus & Pomegranate mixer for a deeper, berry-forward flavor. Add a few fresh mint leaves, and you’re ready to sip!”
PA Eats
Pittsburgh’s Community Cultures Brings Fermentation to the People
“Of course, there are benefits to an industrial food system, but it does not serve us in so many ways and can strip us of traditional foodways that have been so significant to our species for most of our existence. There’s also the nutrition hype that is amplifying the “live bacterial cultures” aspects of some fermented foods. I think this is a great way to bring attention to the importance of feeding our microbiome live microbes. However, I worry that solely focusing on this part of fermented foods can whitewash culturally significant foods (often from marginalized communities) and strip traditional foods of their deeper meaning for some regions of the world.”
Community Cultures class, 2021, PA Eats
Pittsburgh fermentation, September 8 2020, Very Local Pittsburgh
Very Local Pittsburgh
From Kombucha to Sauerkraut, Talking Fermentation with Trevor Ring
“When asked about the craziest thing he’s ever fermented, Ring first identifies his passions to ferment what is in season and to preserve what is found in the local landscape. ‘While living in Massachusetts one winter, I wanted to see what local produce I could find in February to make some wild-fermented country wine. I turned beets, carrots, and sweet potatoes into a wine that was surprisingly very tasty after aging for almost a year. It helped remind me that the process of fermentation can turn ingredients that might seem like a strange combination into a delicious representation of seasonality and creativity.’”