Obsessives: Pickles

Published on Friday, March 13, 2009, by The CHOW Editorial Team / Edit Post

Obsessives: Pickles

By Lessley Anderson, Meredith Arthur, Eric Slatkin, and Blake Smith

Here’s the cliché: Alex Hozven craved pickles when she was pregnant with her first son, 12 years ago. And the twist: She started her own pickling business. The Cultured Pickle Shop sells pickles ranging from classic sauerkrauts to unusual kimchees and kombuchas—way beyond the sour dill. But it’s the experiments, like the mysterious nuka pot or pickled blood oranges, that really get Hozven excited. There’s plenty of zing, zest, pow in all her pickles, though.

This is a regular series called Obsessives, in which CHOW explores the worlds of singularly focused food-industry figures. These are the people with the dirty hands, answering detailed questions about the work they do.

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POST A COMMENT |16 Comments

COMMENT

  • Her sauerkraut is to die for! Yum! Inspired me to make a variety of it, since I live across the country from Berkeley.

  • If i'm not mistaken, salt brings out the toxic heavy metals in metal containers...Use a mason jar or a ceramic crock if you want to do it in quantity! (or plastic but I am concerned with the plasticky taste permeating the ferment) Cheers,

  • Great video, as always in the obsessives department. Very informative and inspiring.
    One nit to pick: why do people pronounce turmeric as "toomrik"?

  • i would love to know how she got her start! i have the same love of pickled veggies and would love to know more on how to start up and possibly sell them

  • Alex, when are you going to put out a cookbook???

  • Excellent piece. I've always loved pickles on peanut-butter sandwiches. Now I'll have to try some other pickled veg/nut butter combinations. Curious to know how the blood oranges turned out. Thanks CHOW!

  • Video doesn't work in firefox. Works fine in IE.

    Regarding the content: It was really outstanding. Thanks so much.

  • chokeartichoke
    thanks , went out and bought the ingredients today. looks good and easy.

  • Cool schtuff. The best video I have ever seen on CH!
    Great job.

  • That was great. My husband, the pickle fiend, also enjoyed it. I'm sorry I'm way across the continent and in another country, but also glad, because Alex might represent a threat to my marriage! LMAO!

  • oh wow, i remember her from the berkeley farmers market - glad to see she is still at it and has taken things to the next level!

  • Wonderful feature on pickles. So glad to see someone so serious about pickling!

    Welcoboy : try those thin Japanese eggplants in kimchi! Here's my recipe, inspired by Sandor Katz:

    http://chokeartichoke.blogspot.com/2008/07/mixed-vegateble-kimchi.html

  • Outstanding!

  • I'm pissed she didn't tell how to pickle eggplant. My aunts used to do them and they never said they were "tricky". They were great.

  • Great video. I have had Alex's stuff - it is truly wonderful. When you're eating it, you can taste how healthy it is. Her stuff really raises the bar. Almost makes me think juicing is a rung down the ladder. We'll have to come up with some new juice recipes to compete. I have not tried the "vegetable soda" but look forward to doing so next time I am in town. Way to go, Alex. Keep up the good...+READ

    Great video. I have had Alex's stuff - it is truly wonderful. When you're eating it, you can taste how healthy it is. Her stuff really raises the bar. Almost makes me think juicing is a rung down the ladder. We'll have to come up with some new juice recipes to compete. I have not tried the "vegetable soda" but look forward to doing so next time I am in town. Way to go, Alex. Keep up the good work. And kudos to Chow.com - your stories are excellent.

    Dallas
    www.juicersmadeeasy.com-COLLAPSE

  • This was great! I really love the small snippets of entertaining, well put together videos... I wish if we wanted more information about the topic there were links/ more informative videos...

    I want to know more about that weird pickling dough she was talking about.

    Great work!