Can you tell us about your business, and how you found your way into pickling here in Israel?
To tell you about my business, I will start by describing it as a boutique pickle brand. I found my way into pickling here in Israel in a rather unconventional way, but one that makes sense with my making Aliyah. Born a picky eater, I admit to not even knowing that a ‘pickle’ (often referring to a cucumber pickle in American English) was a cucumber transformed. I was satisfied with knowing it was something floating in a liquid that I had no interest in. Having prefaced my ultimate pickle maven future with being anything but a pickle person, the metamorphosis began in 2015 with my good friend Jeremy bringing around spicy garlic Habanero and apple cider vinegar pickle spears when I lived in Baltimore. My friends and I would inhale his jars and instantly beg for more. The following year I was set into a whirlwind as I discovered Israel as a place. Meaning… prior to 2016 I had never heard of Israel. As a painfully uneducated and uninformed Jew I went on a distant Aunt’s advice to visit Israel and the balagan was enough to incite me into upheaving my entire life to the Middle East. Three months after my birthright trip I landed in Israel with two backpacks and no plan. Seven months or so later I was asking Jeremy how to make pickles from across the world. Those batches inspired larger batches for people at my first job here, and the results were familiar. People inhaling the jars and begging for more. I then built a store with an accompanying apartment in the back, quit my job, and opened up shop against anyone’s advice. The Pickle Jar was born. I did take a two month hiatus from sunlight to rewrite all my recipes for Israeli tastebuds to ensure the local consumers enjoyed the products as much as Americans who by comparison can handle higher levels of salt.
Do you see what you’re doing as symbolic—something meaningful in connection to the land of Israel and its produce?
If you ask me if I see what I am doing as symbolic and meaningful in connection to the land of Israel and its produce, I would be quite happy to explain why I do. Firstly, the cucumbers that I use are quite unique to both an American consumer, or an Israeli consumer. The cucumbers I use are known to Israelis as ‘cornishons’. If we look at the world stage we know French cornishons are small tiny bumpy cucumbers. Yet, the Israeli ones are either larger varieties or are simply grown larger. Very few farmers in Israel are growing these bumpy pickling specific cucumbers in a serious manner. It means a great deal to me to be supporting farmers who are taking a risk to grow something new and develop the scope of the Israeli produce and food products market. Secondly, choosing to live here and not go back home means a great deal to me. Life is punishingly hard here. And still, the conditions could worsen, and I would not leave. Israel is home for me. Lastly, American pickle history is Jewish diaspora history. The Jews that sold pickles on the streets of New York City and helped pioneer American pickle culture, the culture I am trying to bring to Israel, those Jews were from Eastern Europe where refrigerators hadn’t been invented yet. They pickled everything for the winter. The story of my business has travelled the globe in the suitcase of Jewish culture.
Has your business—or your sense of its meaning—changed over the past two years, especially in how it connects you to the land and community?
My business, as well as my sense of its meaning, has hardened over the past two years, especially in how it connects me to the land and community. Without this project I have much less opportunity to travel and learn the land, meet the members of my community and country, learn the culture and ways of my people, and physically embrace living in the state of Israel. The tragedy and war has given me more reason than ever to succeed and create a stable root in this country because the more roots, the harder it is to wash away. I am 36, came here at 27. I did not do the army, and have a slight handicap – but I would love to one day volunteer for it. In the meantime I am pursuing this idea in order to create a stable life for myself as a humble American Israeli pickle maven.