Correction.
Robyn Mericle and Ethan Fischer are kind of a big dill. In 2012 they founded Central Pickling right here in Chicago and have been turning out some of the tastiest, crunchiest pickles we’ve come across at Provenance Food & Wine. PFW staffer Nathan was able to catch up with these two and talk a little bit about the magic of turning cool cucumbers into cold hard cash.
PFW: So Robyn and Ethan, you two know better than anybody that not all pickles are created equal, especially after testing so many different recipes out in your kitchen at home. We think the final product you’ve perfected (your hand-packed Garlic Dill Pickles) are absolutely fantastic whether enjoyed on their own or incorporated into any number of meals (or Bloody Mary’s). Aside from showing off your mad skills with the cucumber, what would you say you hope to accomplish through Central Pickling?
CP: We don’t have too lofty expectations for our little operation. I don’t think we imagine changing the world or making some transcendent pickle from heaven. It has mainly grown out of a fascination with the process and coming into contact with great local produce. Somehow it all just felt right. I think we really enjoyed sharing our endeavor and successes with our friends and family, and we realized that by turning it into a product and distributing them, we could share them with a lot more people.
PFW: Canning and pickling is such a ‘tried-and-true’ skill (and a lot of work as I’m sure you both know). Was this something you’ve both been doing for quite a long time separately or was pickling a pastime you started getting into together a short while before C.P. began operating?
CP: Pickling is something we definitely have learned and grown into together. There is something very antiquated and honest about the process but it also combines elements of science and close observation, which attracted us. You should see our pickling journal that we started a long time before we even had a notion of turning them into a business—we were keeping figures and logging test batches just for our own interests. And maybe because we are nerds. And being somewhat physically taxing and perhaps tedious, doing it as a team is the only way we could build something and slog through it and still be able to enjoy the whole process.
PFW: As a kid I got an early start in the kitchen with my mom and her friends when they’d get together to can salsa, tomato sauce, peaches, you name it. Did you both have similar experiences growing up that helped get you to where you are today with Central Pickling?
CP: I don’t think either of us had family histories of pickling or the specific nostalgia of canning at the harvest. ETHAN: My folks were always definitely connected with food. Family dinner, food from scratch, and a legitimate joy in creating food was always present for me, so I count myself lucky. ROBYN: Coming from a family of seven, food was always a way to bring us all together. As a kid I loved being in the kitchen with my mom, learning her staple recipes, and experimenting with new ones under her guidance…. But maybe, not having memories (or traumas) associated with making pickles gives us the kind of freedom to find our own connection and experience. Believe me, sometime it’s the people who did grow up with canning kettles and the smell of brine through their childhood who are the most reflexively averse to anything pickled.
PFW: We always love asking our vendors about the "wow factor", or the spark that got the creative gears turning in your mind which eventually led to creating the business. Being fully immersed in the pickle world, was there a specific moment that comes to mind that made you think, "Ok, we can definitely do this for a living"?
CP: People ask us that sometimes and to be honest we are at a loss to remember when or why or how we decided to make the jump to go pro from just being hobbyists. Which is kind of odd since it is the same thing for both of us—how can neither of us have some idea of the narrative?! But it was all very organic. Each step seemed simple enough, since we knew we made really good pickles and we knew some great farmers where we could get cucumbers from. We just thought, why not see what happens?
PFW: For our friends that may not already know, Central Pickling is a local operation and you’re all about keeping things organic which is why you’ve been buying your cucumbers from farms not far from Chicago, like Genesis Growers in St. Anne, IL. Is buying directly from local farmers a source of inspiration for getting into the kitchen and turning out jar after jar of your Garlic Dill pickles? Why is supporting local farms so important to you guys (and us as consumers)?
CP: If we weren’t able to use organic and local cucumbers from farmers we know and appreciate, there is no way we would bother making pickles. It is pretty simple. For us it really is an appreciation of the product and the process and the farms are a huge piece of that. If we are going to buy over 1,000lb of cucumbers, we want to get them from someone we know and appreciate and trust. We see it as a partnership, and a way to showcase and literally preserve their hard work and attention. Vicki and the team at Genesis are a huge inspiration to us and make it worthwhile to sweat through long days in a kitchen in the depths of July.
PFW: I was working at the store one night when Ethan came by with a case of Garlic Dill pickles for our shelves as well as a sample jar for customers to taste. My bosses shouldn’t be shocked to know I of course immediately opened the jar and began eating some of the spears. THE perfect balance of garlic and dill combined with a snappy crunch of freshly brined cucumbers got me hooked in about two bites. Allowing our customers (and maybe an employee or two) a taste of your pickles is obviously the easiest way to move your product out our doors. In what other ways does Central Pickling strive to extend product to new customers who may not have tried them before?
CP: We would love to give everyone a chance to try our pickles. We have put in the work and we use such beautiful cucumbers, so we are very proud of them and we know they are good. But that can’t be all that separates you, and makes that person want to grab your jar of pickles from the shelf. A lot depends on the design and how they look, that is just a reality. So we took a long time developing our packaging and logo. We tried to keep it simple and clean and make the pickles stand out. But we also do really like to put out front our legitimate relationship with real farms and real farmers. These pickles are from Illinois, made by us here in Chicago, are organic and are really good. Hopefully that message comes through in the packaging.
PFW: C.P. is one of our favorite go-to recommendations to give to customers when they come in looking for pickles because we love telling them they’re helping to support a young start-up business that’s taking off right in their own city. Being able to inform them of exactly which farm the produce come from and where they’re being brined is a major benefit to carrying local products. What benefits do you guys feel Central Pickling is able to offer retailers and consumers alike?
CP: It’s great to be part of these growing connections between farmers and consumers. We strongly believe in the way that Provenance strives to engage people and create a community around food. It is a real relationship and it makes a huge difference to actually know a product, know who is behind it and how much they care about it. It feels amazing to walk in and know there is a face and a story and a “provenance” behind every label. It feels like so much is possible when you have partners who are on the same page.
PFW: I feel like a major highlight to working at Central Pickling would be the time spent in the ‘lab’ (aka your rented workspace at Kitchen Chicago, a fantastic shared-use kitchen right here in the city) experimenting with different pickle recipes. Would you guys say you have a favorite aspect to running your own business?
CP: The whole initial process of painstakingly comparing recipes and ratios and ingredients, developing our recipe, and then the crazy sessions of drawing and doodles and internet searches to figure out the logos was all very exciting, involved, satisfying and exhausting. Since that period of “lab” work, a lot of the gratification comes from the relationships we have. We are super lucky that way. We have met and become connected with a lot of great stores and farmers, and have been able to talk with so many people who have great pickle stories. It’s even interesting to hear stories of why people hate pickles! It is also really satisfying to have someone who grudgingly tries a pickle, explaining that they normally can’t stand pickles, and then see their face brighten up and say they are really good—we attribute that to a life-long association with limp, salty, mass-produced pickles that are a second thought placed next to a sandwich. Too many people are kind of surprised to find out that pickles are made from cucumbers—there’s so much disassociation between the raw vegetable and the product on the shelf.
PFW: I’m sure deciding on the next addition to your product line can be quite the…um, pickle…but are you guys able to share with us any new developments on the horizon for Central Pickling that we can tell our customers to keep their eyes peeled for?
CP: There has been a lot of consideration and some trepidation about adding more products or variations to our stable. From the beginning we wanted to keep a focus and do something really well that we could absolutely stand behind. But we have recently been messing around with developing a giardiniera, an obvious Chicago homage. A real solid and locally built Hot Mix. Our “messing around” involves a bunch of labeled, “aging” jars, tightly monitored variations, and some very important field work—tasting, researching, etc. It is exciting and who knows where it will go. Since we only use local produce, it means our window for production is normally a very brief couple of weeks and we aren’t going to settle just to get something in a jar and on the shelves, so no promises.
PFW: And finally, after having seen pictures on your website of the C.P. team in action at Kitchen Chicago it looks like you’ve got your pickling process down to an absolute science. Did things always run smoothly in the kitchen when you first began to make pickles, or were there any ‘delightful disasters’ you’re able to laugh about now?
CP: Given our personalities and the various issues you deal with when doing canning, we’ve been on the slow and careful side—we don’t take too many risks! The first rule of canning has to be: botulism is not worth the risks. But we have definitely had some missteps with recipes, or found jars from deep in the cupboard that we have no idea how many years they may have been hiding in there. And at the end of a long day, 12 hours straight without a down moment, in a hot kitchen in the middle of July standing over vats of boiling brine and lugging around case after case of pickles, you have to see some humor in the whole endeavor. We could probably train a team of monkeys that would be vastly more productive. And they would look more adorable in their aprons. Or we could be Big Pickle Co. with robots and an assembly line churning out thousands or millions of jars in a day. But so far the hands-on pickling process is working out for us pretty well.
