Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheryl Paswater.
Hi Cheryl, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I got my start dealing with my own health issues. My immune system was really struggling and I was constantly sick. At the time, I was finishing up graduate school in NYC and as soon as I graduated it was my body just crashed and after months of being bounced around doctors and not getting any answers other than “here is another steroid or here is yet another antibiotic” I turned to holistic medicine for help and short version is that I started to heal.
Fast forward, after about a year of working with my holistic practitioner I was running out of funds to keep working with her and I knew I still had work to do on myself so, I started researching and reading more and stumbled upon a book one day on Candida (yeast overgrowth) and realized I checked a lot…A LOT of the boxes. So I decided to do a candida cleanse for a year and at the end of that year, I headed my asthma for good and never had another asthma attack, my nervous system began to heal, and in the mix I discovered the world of Fermentation. This was before fermentation was a “buzz word” or before I even knew who Sandor Katz was. That summer I was subletting an apartment in Brooklyn and the person I was renting from left her Kombucha SCOBY behind and told me to make kombucha if I wanted. At the time I was reading a lot of books ranging from Sally Fallon to Michael Pollan the China Study and so forth and one steamy hot smelly night in Brooklyn I was reading my books and staring at this Kombucha SCOBY and I had the epiphany that every culture in the world ferments food but us (in the USA) and we’re some of the sickest people in the world.
My ah-ha moment started me fermenting. Kombucha, sauerkraut, yogurt and then I just wanted to ferment all the things! I was fermenting too much so I started giving to friends, then selling to friends and the next thing I knew I had started a rogue, mafia-style Fermentation CSA in NYC. I was fermenting for 50 people out of my home and had a once a month pickup. First, I was in the back of a coffeeshop, then another coffeeshop, then at some CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share pick ups. Eventually, I had a fridge behind my friends bars and you would get the code, put your cash in the jar, take your ferments for the month, lock it back up and show up next month. People would text me at all kinds of hours of day and night wanting to pickup ferments, elderberry syrup, whatever I had and that is how Contraband Ferments came about. Things just kept going from there and next thing I knew I was teaching workshops, at fermentation festivals, contributing to books, etc. It was the most unexpected thing to pair together with my artist life but made so much sense at the same time.
Fast forward again, a few years in to fermentation I decided I wanted to gain more education especially around gut health and I had learned a ton but I started taking courses in herbal medicine, gut health, Chinese Medicine, etc and decided to start moving into the space of Health Coaching and I also got some further education in fermentation and preservation. I was teaching about 250 fermentation workshops and festivals a year pre-Covid and I had been wanting to go back to school for Functional Medicine or other Holistic Health modalities and then when the pandemic hit I had suddenly lost 70% of my work and I suddenly had time. My wife really encouraged me to go and apply and even vetted schools for me and put a foot in my butt. Some applications later I found myself at the School for Applied Functional Medicine where I worked my butt off for 3 years and got my Certification in Applied Functional Medicine.
Meanwhile as I was starting school we decided to move to Richmond, VA to be closer to my wife’s family and help with some medical issues they were having. We were there for 2 years and then my wife got offered a great job opportunity in Atlanta and we decided to take the leap and have been here for two years now. Contraband Ferments is still in Brooklyn, NY but it also goes where I go. I’ve been able to start bringing more of the fermentation frevor to people here in Atlanta and then I fly to NYC 5-6x per year to see clients, teach for a week or two, and visit my friends. It’s a real win win in a lot of ways. And then my holistic health practice is based here in Atlanta but I also do tele-health so I see clients all over the world.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nope! Just like all things in life there are ups and downs and all this opportunity for lessons and growth. There were times where I was dirt broke and wondering how I was going to feed myself next and then bam something amazing would happen. It was a real struggle for me balancing art and fermentation and as fermentation blew up more, I had less time for art and I wasn’t sure I was ready to let go of that. And then people either love that you’re obsessed with microbes or they are freaked out. Dating was fascinating!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started out in the art world. I hold my MFA in Painting & MS in Art History from the Pratt Institute. I’m so grateful to have had a career in art and I love that world so much. I worked in art education primarily in the non-profit space for 20 years with kids, teens and adults. And then I also worked in Adult Oncology as a Artist in Residence for 10 years as well as working for the Museum of Modern Art & 92Y in NYC.
I guess you could say I’m known as a Painter & Printmaker.
And…a Master Fermentationist, Teacher, Writer, Holistic Health Practitioner, Herbalist, etc
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
An extrovert from birth! Always talking, always making things, a collector of people and things.
I don’t think I ever had a report card as a kids that didn’t say “talks to much” or “always out of her seat”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.contrabandferments.com
- Instagram: contrabandferments
- Facebook: contrabandferments
- Twitter: contrabandferments
- Other: www.cherylpaswaterfunctionalmed.com & www.peelingtheonionpodcast.com
