Lake Placid native Cori Deans created products to serve her own needs. Now, those products are appearing on shelves all over the country. This success should serve as inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere, but especially those in the North Country.

Deans’ Small Town Cultures specializes in raw, fermented probiotic foods like sauerkraut, pickled red onions and kimchi. We can remember walking through Deans’ kitchen in 2020, where she produced jar after jar of product from her quiet, rural space in Keene. There was an inkling then of what the business could become: Deans’ business has personal roots, and she shared those freely, hoping to help others as she learned to help herself.

Diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, Deans decided more than a decade ago to incorporate more fermented foods into her diet to try to flush out bad bacteria. When Deans looked around for fermented food, which are rich in probiotics, she realized what she was looking for didn’t seem to exist.

So she created it — all the while using locally-sourced ingredients, lifting up the other food producers around her. After only one month of eating fermented foods, Deans said she no longer needed her medication to manage the pain. She began to share her creations, jar by jar. Now, as Enterprise Staff Writer Sydney Emerson wrote this week, the company has expanded into a 4,000-square-foot production facility in Plattsburgh and her products are being picked up by national grocers such as Walmart, which has agreed to roll out Small Town Cultures products at 500 of its stores this year.

Deans’ story is evidence that, with the right idea and enough fortitude and hard work, entrepreneurs can find success, no matter where they come from or what barriers they may face. To any entrepreneurs who need more inspiration, they can find it over the place: On Broadway, Main Street, Saranac Avenue, Park Street, the Junction and beyond.