About Free Samples

We used to offer free samples for bloggers and other people who asked for a free sample to review our product. We no longer offer this, because to date, exactly ONE person who offered to do a review actually did so. ONE.

The other bloggers who received product (some highly visible writers on topics of lacto-fermentation) took the free sample, and did not bother to write or publish a review of our product. One other wrote the review – said our product worked great, but did not include any photos of it and left our brand name off of it – as though this made them more ethical than those who simply ignored the obligation.

So we naturally do not trust the motives of any individuals who ask for free product in exchange for a review.

This is our current policy:

Purchase the product. Write the review and email us with the link for the review. Then you may ask us if we will send you a free product pack. IF your blog is good quality, and IF the review is fair (this does not mean it does not list negatives, just that it lists pros and cons fairly), we will be happy to send you a product pack for you to sample an additional product (we don’t supply Fidos for samples).

ALTERNATELY, you may negotiate a free product each month in exchange for placement of an ad for our site (sidebar image ad – ask us, we’ll give you one). We’ll verify the placement, and send you a product for each month that the ad runs (the first month will be sent at the end of the month of placement, and quarterly thereafter to conserve on shipping). We need to review your site prior to placement to verify value.

We also provide some free samples for our wholesale customers to introduce them to new products. The samples are OUR choice, and may or may not accompany every order.

If you are hosting a fermentation class, and wish to order product to include in the purchase price of your class, we will be happy to provide you with a customized digital copy of our Heritage Pickling book (with you listed as a sponsor of the book) which you are free to distribute or print, with customized instruction sheets for our products, and with an Add-On Sample Pack (items of our choice) which will ship with your order of 20 or more Fermenta Locks, Fermenta Lock Bundles, or Fermenta Fidos (orders of more than 5 pieces qualify for quantity discounts). We will also provide you with a group order sheet if you wish (where you can set your own prices for the products), or, if you would rather just refer the students to us, we will provide you with pass along cards with a discount code that you can use as a perk for your students. We will also happily brainstorm with you for ideas on how to contain costs or how to handle excess product after the class.

We would love to be generous, and we would love to share our product with honest and enthusiastic writers and instructors, but due to the poor ethics of many of the more visible people within the lacto-fermentation community, we find that we are not able to afford to do so in any other manner than that stated above.

CopyCat Notice

The ORIGINAL one-way valve fermenting airlock! Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery, and we have noticed that our product has been copied by other sellers of fermenting products. Remember, if you see someone else selling a one-way valve airlock for fermenting, THEY copied US, not the other way around! Fermenta Lock is still the only original invention, handmade in the US. If it isn't orange, it isn't the original!

We invented Fermenta Lock, Fermenta Free, and the valve used for Fermenta Fido and other Fermenta Airlock products. We invented Fermenta Dunk Extender. Patents are prohibitively expensive, and designed by the government not to protect the rights of individuals, but to provide another source of revenue and control for the government and lawyers. We are good at what we do. We have endless ideas and endless creativity, and competition does not scare us. Impatient thieves do not scare us - they are too busy taking shortcuts to make a success of it anyway, and they won't want to take the effort to actually MAKE a product and fill orders.

So if you want to copy our idea, go right ahead. If you want to market and sell a competing product, you are welcome to do so, as long as you do not patent our idea - we had it first, and our posts on FaceBook announcing the invention and launch of it will prove that. This idea is officially in the public domain, placed there by us. We will NOT release supply sources, or part names unless you want to buy them - we'll be happy to sell you an instruction kit. If you buy our product, or look at the images and figure it out for yourself, good on you. Compete with us if you like, just don't screw us, and we'll get along just fine. Big companies who might want to screw us may have more money, and more lawyers than we do, but we have more to gain by suing the pants off a big company, and believe me, we will be well motivated to do so if anyone patents our idea and claims it as their own - this is a free idea. Everybody now owns it.

Published June 23, 2012

Wholesale, Export, and Manufacture of this product by other companies is an option. International distributorships are available for those wishing to export. Please email us to inquire about access to our wholesale website, or in regards to manufacturing any of our products.

Business Building Services Are Available - If you are wanting to build a business like this, where you make things in the home and sell them direct to the customer, or if you want to build a business that you can sell to other people as a complete business package, Firelight Heritage Farm is now offering Cottage Industry Services to aid small business owners in building a successful product or service business from the home. Don't know what you want to do? We can help you figure that out too (something original, and just yours, not a canned business). You get the wisdom and uniquely successful perspective and experience of people who have been business, marketing, and website professionals for more than a dozen years. For more information, visit CottageIndustrialRevolution.com. Why copy someone else's business when you can do something uniquely you and enjoy it so much more?