In A Pickle? Janet's Got You Covered!
Janet Song, the founder of In A Pickle.
In A Pickle started mid-pandemic by a passionate pickler named Janet Song. She did most of the work herself, but recently hired a team for prepping and farmers market pop ups, consisting of about five-six people.
There will be a tasting of her products available at Ethikli on May 18th starting at 2 p.m.
“I’m really passionate about pickles,” said Janet. “It’s in my culture, I’m Korean so I grew up eating fermented foods and pickled veggies my whole life.”
Being introduced to pickled foods at a young age caused her to grow a love for banchan, which are fermented side dishes in Korean culture. She considered them her favorite part of a meal.
“The whole idea with starting my first jar was that with each bite you have a different experience,” said Janet. “Each vegetable lends a different flavor and then also lends a different texture.”
She honors and respects Korean culture through the process of pickling, which is a very long process, but with her own twist.
“I kinda like to dabble in the spicy peppers that you don’t see often,” said Janet.
The thing that sets In A Pickle apart from other pickle businesses is that they offer a unique variety of vegetables. One of Janet’s goals is to introduce people to other types of vegetables.
On May 18th In A Pickle will offer products often brought to farmers markets including kimchi, a veggie medley, pickled daikon, turmeric and chili, and a smokey pickle.
Janet recalled her first collaborating with Ethikli as serendipitous. She wasn’t selling at farmers markets or retail shops at that time, but Katy, our founder, reached out looking for a local woman-owned pickle business.
“I was really intrigued by her shop concept and her mission,” said Janet. “It just worked out perfectly, the timing of it.”
Working together just made sense, as Janet was able to make bigger batches specifically for Ethikli so people could bring their own containers and refill on pickles.
“I’m never throwing away those jars, I’m constantly washing them, rinsing them and recycling them,” said Janet. “It’s really awesome we get to do that, we do our best not to have any waste.”
When considering vegetables for Ethikli she notes it starts with a good, curvy cucumber. Ideally they are smaller, bumpier cucumbers, because the bumpier they are the crunchier they are.
They wash, salt, and marinate the pickles for about a week before delivering them to Ethikli in gallon containers. They also hand cut their peppers for the spicy and extra spicy batches.
Janet fine tunes her recipes constantly and it took her 1-2 years to develop her recipes, but she always takes feedback into consideration while also honoring her own taste buds.
“I feel like I have it down now,” said Janet, “but it took me a very very long time.”
When hand picking vegetables Janet feels each vegetable to make sure it’s firm, pays attention to what’s in season, and even considers color since different colored vegetables taste different and hold the brine differently. She even asks the farmers questions to find the best vegetables for her brine.
“It’s funny because it was always a dream of mine to start a pickle business,” said Janet.