Meet Rich and Pam Dearborn, the owners and brewers behind Edible Earth Kombucha.
Tell us about who you are and where you’re from.
I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and my wife Pam was born in Thailand. We met in Hong Kong when I was over there for work and we fell in love. We moved to the Prescott area 4 years ago and we absolutely love it.
What do you sell at your booth?
We sell freshly brewed kombucha in a variety of flavors made with all organic ingredients. Kombucha is a probiotic fermented tea. Our kombucha is brewed with 3 different types of organic green tea.
How long have you had your business?
We’ve had our Kombucha business for a year now, but Pam has been brewing Kombucha her whole life. How we started Edible Earth is almost like a love story. When we moved to Prescott we didn’t have a lot of hobbies and were looking for something fun to do together. We were in St. Petersburg, Florida and went to a farmers market and I saw how much Pam loved being there. I thought “We should start a business at a farmers market,” and started observing different booths there. The kombucha tent there was slamming and it all just made sense. Pam was already brewing it and starting a business would give us an opportunity to spend time together doing something fun.
Tell us about how you get ready for the market.
I pick up the kombucha kegs from our commercial kitchen. I test pH and alcohol levels to make sure our product meets all the appropriate guidelines. Pam and I taste each kombucha to ensure the flavor, freshness and quality is up to our standards. We then pack up and head to the market. The best part of our job is being at the market and talking to all the wonderful people!
What’s special about your business?
We love working with our customers. Some customers have suggested what flavors they would like to see in the and a lot of our flavors are based off of their recommendations. We also pride ourselves on using fresh ingredients and being squeaky clean. We have a strict process for cleaning and sanitizing all of our equipment in our commercial kitchen. Serving a fresh, delicious product and using clean equipment is the most important thing to us and our customers.
What are your plans for the future?
Our top priority is to serve our customers at the Prescott Farmers Market so we will continue to make fresh organic kombucha for our existing and new customers. We want to work toward getting our product into local establishments around the Prescott area. Prescott has a fantastic health community and I would be honored to contribute by having our product available around town.