An update on paid membership

Hello everyone,

I wanted to give you some advance notice that, from 27 August, paid membership of The Black Butter Club will increase from £5 to £6 per month, and from £45 to £60 per year, but most importantly, if you are already a paid member, nothing will change. Your existing price will be honoured for as long as your membership remains active, as a small way of recognising the trust you placed in me and this publication early on.

The same will apply to anyone who has been considering becoming a paid member: if you join before 27 August, you will keep the present £5 monthly or £45 annual price for as long as your subscription remains active.

I am sorry to be increasing it at all, and truly appreciate that to some this might seem like a small increase, but to others it is not. One of the things I have always wanted to do is make fermentation and food as enjoyable and accessible as possible to anyone curious enough to learn about it. So asking people to pay more feels at odds with that, but it is not a decision I have taken lightly.

The price of The Black Butter Club has remained unchanged since I launched it more than two years ago. During that time, the publication has gradually become much larger; a growing archive of recipes, essays, fermentation studies and practical research, alongside the new monographs, which allow me to explore a subject with considerably more depth than would ever fit comfortably into an ordinary newsletter.

The Club itself is growing steadily, and I am enormously excited about what it is becoming. This change is not being made because the publication is in difficulty, but because I want to build upon that growth and make sure the time and resources available to it can grow alongside its ambitions.

My circumstances outside the Club have changed too, with my income from employed work having been reduced twice during this last year, which means I need to think a little more seriously about making The Black Butter Club a sustainable part of my working life. This small increase will help me protect more time for researching, experimenting, photographing and writing, while continuing to improve what paid members receive.

I will still publish free recipes of course, as well as the essays and practical pieces you’ve come to know and love, as I want the free side of the Club to remain generous and worthwhile. At the same time, I want paid membership to genuinely reward the people who make all of this possible, with more regular paid studies, a well organised archive and an expanding library of substantial fermentation monographs, of which the next is coming soon.

There is absolutely no pressure to upgrade. However, if you have been thinking of joining, becoming a paid member before 27 August will secure the current price for as long as your membership remains active.

Most of all, thank you. Whether you read, cook, ferment, comment, share or support it financially, you have helped The Black Butter Club grow into something I could not have imagined this time two years ago, something I care about enormously. It has outgrown my wildest dreams! And I cannot wait to show you where we’re going next.

Very best wishes,
Sam

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