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We've had the same return policy for awhile now, but we recently took the time to rewrite it in a clear and easy to understand way.  As a small business, customer service is extremely important to us.  We want to make sure that you are happy with your purchase and your experience buying from Stone Creek Trading.

However, sometimes things happen beyond our control that would lead you to need to initiate a return.  We feel that our return policy balances the needs of our customers with our ability to run our business.  To find our return policy, simply follow the link in the footer of our website or in the FAQ section.  I have also copied and pasted the policy below.

Damaged Items

Due to the large, heavy and fragile nature of many of our products, damage during shipping does unfortunately happen.  We are constantly evaluating our packaging and hand pack every order to ensure that your products arrive in the best condition.  However, we cannot guarantee that our "Fragile - Handle with Care" stickers are read and followed!

In the event that your item arrives broken, please email emily@stonecreektrading.com immediately.  Please open and inspect all packages upon receipt.  We cannot process damaged claims more than 30 days after you received the item.  Please keep the broken item and all packaging for at least 14 days after you have contacted us.

When an item is damaged during shipping, we do not require that you return the broken item to us.  Instead, we ask that you email us photos of the damaged item and any damage to the packaging.  In addition, if you purchased a fermenting crock, please indicate whether the lid and stones were damaged, or only the crock itself.  Once we have the photos, we will be able to package up a replacement and ship it to you within 1-2 business days. 

Customer Initiated Returns

If you have changed your mind and would like to return the item you purchased, please contact us immediately.  You will be responsible for paying the return shipping to get the product back to us.  Once we have received the item, we will inspect it for any damage.  If the product is unused and in sell-able condition, we will issue a full refund excluding shipping charges. 

You must contact us before sending the item back to us, otherwise we won't be able to process the return.  The item will need to be back in our possession within 45 days of the original order.  If we receive the order outside of this time period, we will be unable to process your return. 

Please note - many of our items are large and fragile.  This means that they are more prone to damage during the shipping process.  We recommend you purchase insurance on the return shipment (as we do on all shipments) for the purchase price of the item.  If the product is damaged during the return shipment, you will be responsible for filing a claim with the shipping company if you choose.  We will be unable to give you a refund of the original order in this situation.

Defective Items

If you believe the item you received is defective, please contact us.  We will do our best to work with you to resolve the situation.

We hope that this will help ease your mind if you should need to return an item!

Being polite is extremely important to us.  Growing up in the Mid-West, being nice and respectful has always been an important part of my life.  We are adamant in teaching our daughter to say please and thank you, as well as being respectful of other people's feelings.

As an online business, we depend on a lot of other people to help us do our job.  We truly appreciate you, the customer, for supporting our business with your orders.  We also appreciate the workers in Poland who make all of the items we sell.  We know that it's not easy to manufacture high quality, natural products, and that's why we only sell products from small businesses that pay fair & living wages. 

On this side of the pond, it takes many shipping workers to get our products safely to you.  Because so many of our products are fragile, we took a lot of time in choosing the fragile sticker that we felt reflected our personality.

We believe in recognizing the good in others and treating people with respect.  From the Fragile label on our packages to the way we interact with our customers, we want our business to be a reflection of our ethics and beliefs.  We are grateful for everything we have in life and everyone who has helped us along the way.  We hope that Stone Creek Trading will prove that you can be a successful business while still being nice.

Where you keep your crock when it's fermenting is really up to you.  But the temperature will effect the speed of the fermenting process.

If you keep the crock in a warmer place, it will ferment faster.  However, if it is colder, the fermenting will slow down.  If it is too cold, it can slow down the process to the point of virtually stopping.  And on the opposite end, if it's too hot it could speed it up too much and end up rotting before you know it!

An average room temperature is best.  We like to keep our crocks on the floor or counter top in our kitchen.  This way we can keep an eye on it and listen for that "popping" sound which means it's fermenting away!

If you have a root cellar or basement with a concrete slab, you can put your crock directly on the cold floor once it is finished fermenting.  The cold in the concrete will transfer to the stone crock to provide a steady cool temperature for storage.  This is the time when you want the cold to stop your fermenting process.

The taste of your final product will be different based on the speed and length of fermenting.  So experiment!  That's the fun part of fermenting, the smallest variable can completely change the results!

Another email questions we've received more than once - just how much sauerkraut will I get? 

You can expect a full batch of sauerkraut from our 10L fermenting crocks to yield about 10-14 pints. As the cabbage ferments, it will reduce in volume.  Therefore, the sauerkraut you end up with will take up less space than the cabbage you started with. 

Another interesting point - the crock actually has a larger capacity than 10L.  The 10L size is about the maximum amount of ingredients that can fit inside the crock while still being able to maneuver the stone weights into position.

As far as pickles go, you won't get the reduction of size during the fermenting process that happens with sauerkraut.  Last summer, we fermented a 10 liter crock full of the surplus of cucumbers from our garden and ended up with about 7 quart size jars.

And what about a 5 liter fermenting crock?  It's pretty simple math!  If a 10L makes 10-14 pints of sauerkraut, you can expect a 5L crock to make 5-7 pints.

While some people may think that sounds like a lot of sauerkraut, if you love it as much as we do, you know it won't last long!

One of the hardest parts of online shopping is understanding the size of the item you are purchasing.  If you've never seen a fermenting crock in person, you might have a hard time deciding which size you should get.  In addition, fermentation crocks are often referred to by the size in liters, something that Americans don't often deal with.  Today, we wanted to offer you a comparison of the most popular sizes of the Boleslawiec fermenting crocks that we offer - the 5 liter and 10 liter.

This photos shows the 5L fermenting crock on the left and the 10L fermenting crock on the right.  While the capacity of the 10L crock is twice that of the 5L crock, you can see from this picture that the size is not twice as big.  The 10L is only slightly taller than the 5L (14" versus 13" for the actual crock not including the lid).  The primary difference is in the diameter of the crocks.  The 5L is 9" across, while the 10L is 11". 

If you're confused by the liter description - the 10L crock is approximately 2.6 gallons while the 5L crock is 1.3 gallons.  There is also a weight difference between the crocks with the 5 liter fermenting crock weighing about 16 pounds and the 10 liter fermenting crock weighing 28 pounds.

Still having a hard time choosing which crock will be best for you?  In our experience the 5L can be stored on your countertop - it doesn't take up too much space and it isn't too heavy to lift and move around (even when filled).  However, when we ferment in the 10L crock, we typically fill it in place on floor and don't move it around once it's filled.

Hopefully that gives you a better idea of the differences between the 5L & 10L fermentation crocks!  If you have any questions, feel free to email me at emily@stonecreektrading.com. 

“I just checked on my fermenting batch and it smells/looks awful.  What happened?”

Here at Stone Creek Trading, we don't just want to sell you something. We want to make sure you also have all the information you need to enjoy the things we sell.  That's why we take the time to answer your personal emails and share our knowledge about the products we sell.

A lot of our customers are first time ferment-ers, which means we often hear about fermenting mishaps as they figure out process.  But for every customer that reaches out to us via email (emily@stonecreektrading.com), I know there are others out there who don't.  So here's our advice if something goes wrong!

If the contents of your fermenting crock don’t look or smell good, you definitely need to throw it out.  If you think it might be rotten, trust your gut!

With fermenting there are a lot of variables so it's hard to know exactly what went wrong but here are a few suggestions -

• Wash the crock with soap and hot water and let it dry completely.  You may also want to rinse it out with boiling water. (Note - some people (Kryz’s grandfather included) believe that you should never wash a fermenting crock as the bacteria in it should be allowed to pass between fermenting recipes!)
• Make sure the water in the airlock rim does not completely evaporate, since this will allow air to enter the crock and possibly let mold in.
  
• Conversely, make sure you do not overfill the rim as this water can then get into the ferment and let bad bacteria in.
• Check your ratio of salt to water.  You may need to add more salt.  Salt is what kills the bad bacteria, so you need enough of it to get rid of the bad bacteria but not too much that it also kills the good bacteria. (Note - if you do get a good batch of sauerkraut that tastes too salty, don't throw it out.  Put it in some mason jars in the refrigerator and let it sit for 1-2 weeks.  The saltiness will decrease with some time!)
• Make sure you are using either distilled water or water that has been boiled and allowed to cool when making brine.  This makes sure there isn't anything in the water that is changing the bacteria in the ferment.
• While you don't have to, you can check the ferment every few days by removing the lid and looking at it.  If you notice any mold on the top, use a clean dry wood utensil to skim the mold off the top and remove.  If any mold happens to get in the crock, skimming it off the top will keep it from developing and overtaking everything.
• The ingredients need to always be below the brine.  This is one thing you can check for when you open the fermenting crock.  The stones should hold all the ingredients below the water.  If you are making sauerkraut, you can place a couple large cabbage leaves on top of the shredded cabbage before putting the stones on top to help keep everything beneath the water

Those are our quick suggestions, but remember every batch will be different.  Every cabbage/cucumber has a different amount of natural bacteria, and the salt water ratio, and temperature and humidity all effect the outcome!  We have had bad batches ourselves with no idea why.  You just tweak things the next time and keep a closer eye on it.

And of course, you are always welcome to send us an email (emily@stonecreektrading.com) and we can troubleshoot what went wrong together!

As a small business, we don't have a gigantic warehouse filled with products. We try to evaluate our customers needs and anticipate sales volumes, but we do run out of stock of some of our products before we can get more.  Because we import everything we offer directly from the manufacturer in Poland, it takes 2-3 months from the time we place an order until we have the product in our possession and can offer it for sale.

Over the last year our business has been scaling up to meet demand.  We've seen steady increases in sales every month, and are working hard to scale up the business accordingly.  Last month we placed our largest order to date and today it was all packed up into a shipping container in Poland!  It now starts the long journey "across the pond".

Our popular cabbage shredders and 3.6L Green Fermenting Crocks are just a few of the products that are currently out of stock.  But we are happy to say that more are now on the way with the latest shipment!  We expect to have these items and others available in mid-April, but as we know from past experience, customs clearance can take anywhere from a few days to 5 weeks! 

We'll keep you updated here on the blog and our Facebook page if there are any delays to the shipment.  But if you would like to receive a direct email first when these items are back in stock, just send me a quick email - emily@stonecreektrading.com!