It was Yahlee Baht Rahvyah HaCohane’s inquisitive nature that attracted her to a contest that determined who could make the best tasting cured olives. The prize would be 500 shekels toward your own business. She experimented, researched recipes and ending up winning the contest!
She enjoyed working with the olives so much, she launched Quintessence Foods. Little did she know it would blossom into Quintessence Fermented Foods serving the health and welfare of the African Hebrew Israelites and beyond.
Humble Beginnings
In her humble beginnings, she purchased 350 kilos (that’s about 800 lbs) of large green Manzanillo olives in the fall of 2012. With no machine to put a cut on the olives – which would allow the brine they’re cured in to pull out the bitterness of this fruit in about 6 months – she patiently waited an entire year before they were prime to eat and sell.
In the meantime, Yahlee invested in a small factory space in the community to facilitate her production efforts.
The grand opening of Quintessence Foods was November 15, 2013, when she was finally able to sell this first batch of olives. Six months later, she began to provide a variety of pickled foods to the community along with the olives.
From Pickled to Fermented Foods
The transformation from Quintessence “Foods” to “Fermented Foods” came in the spring of 2016. Prince Yadiel made a National History presentation in which he stressed the need for fermented foods in our diet. This peaked Yahlee’s curiosity once again. And she began immediately researching fermented foods. All the health benefits made it a no brainer.
Fermented/Cultured or pro-biotic foods aid the microflora in the body. They help the body absorb nutrients, balance out the good bacteria and reduce the bad bacteria for a healthy and optimally functioning digestive (gastro-intestinal) tract.
So, Yahlee began making sauerkraut, selling it door to door to community members, to get a feel for its acceptance. As its acceptance grew, she discovered someone else was also selling sauerkraut…enter Yesher.
She promptly set a meeting with Yesher and discovered they both were equally motivated to improve the health and well-being of those in their community. She invited him to be her partner, to pool resources, knowledge and energies for this shared vision. They have been working together since August 2016.
They produced sauerkraut and dill pickles together. Then each of them had ideas of adding other products. Yesher added the element of “spicy” to pickles and sauerkraut, and introduced a cultured, vegan yogurt, while Yahlee introduced kimchi (a spicy Korean fermented cabbage) and relish. They have future plans to add apple cider vinegar, tempeh and miso. (Tempeh and miso are soy-based fermented foods.)
Their aim is to provide wholesome alternatives to conventionally preserved artificially fermented foods. “Health and well-being are paramount in all that we do and our products embody our motto, ‘Perfect Examples of Healthy Eating’, stemming from the word ‘quintessence’ which means ‘perfect example’,” Yahlee explains.
Yahlee and Yesher are planning to expand their business to greater Israel and even internationally, and are seeking outside funding from investors, donations and grants to expand operations and provide employment for women of the Negev.