Reflections on the early days of Three Stone Hearth (TSH), Berkeley’s one-of-a-kind cooperative kitchen and retail food store, often include a reference to magic. Perhaps that’s not so surprising when you consider how five community members created a thriving business based on nutrient-dense local foods, minimal waste, and shared ownership and governance.
Since its launch in 2006, TSH has developed a loyal following for its handcrafted bone broth, pickled veggies, probiotic sodas, krauts, stews, and soups, all made from nutrient-rich, mostly organic ingredients from local farms. Meats, eggs, and dairy products are from grass-fed or pasture-raised animals, and TSH favors traditional food preparation methods like fermentation, sprouting, soaking, and grinding. A new menu of fresh and frozen items is offered each week. Most food is packaged in glass Mason jars, which are returned by customers to be sterilized and reused, one of many labor-intensive feats that TSH workers pull off each week.
Worker-owner Mud Hut came to TSH as a volunteer in 2007, took a job there four years later, and then became a worker-owner. Now that the original five founders have moved on, Mud Hut and worker-owner Mary Dee, who started part-time in 2007, have the longest history at TSH and a unique perspective on its 20-year evolution. Those years brought tremendous growth in the amount of food made in-house as well as in retail items sold. During the Covid pandemic, TSH faced a temporary shutdown, a loss of personnel, and a pause in cooking workshops and demos. Today, some of these in-person events have returned, and the mood is one of optimism balanced with practicality…