The Rural Voice, 2000-07, Page 34The unique financing plan brought
publicity in the Toronto Star which
in turn brought more customers. A
gourmet pickle distributor. "Let's Get
Pickled" from Richmond Hill read
about product. asked to see some and
took on the line. Though Bustin had
his products in a few retail outlets'in
Toronto and Oshawa, the new
distributor opened up many more
channels. including some major
stores. Now the challenge is to
produce enough product to keep up
with the demand.
"I don't know how many dozens
and dozens of cases of dill pickles we
made last year and they're all gone
now." he says.
It's a far cry from the the situation
10 years ago. "In the beginning it
wasn't taken seriously at all,"
says Bustin who still claims "there's
nothing serious about a pickle."
His father had made pickles and
he picked up the hobby as well as a
couple of original recipes (Dad's
Original Chow Chow and Dad's
Original Mustard Pickle) he still uses
today. He started experimenting with
recipes himself, giving away pickles
as Christmas gifts for friends. Along
the way he came up with a new
pickle called Ken's Perkles . "They
caught on like hot cakes," he recalls.
"That's sort of when I thought
Maybe I should look at this closer."
Bustin built up the' business by
selling at farmers markets from
Elmvale to Owen Sound. Twelve
years ago, he chuckles, the idea of a
man making pickles was a tough sell.
Women at the markets laughed the
idea, saying "you've got to be
crazy!" he recalls. "That just made
me more enthusiastic."
But you can cut your marketing
teeth at farmers' markets, he says.
"It's one on one. You share recipes.
You talk about ingredients. And
hopefully sell products."
Taking part in the Autumn Leaves
tour of Grey County studios and
craft -based businesses has also
provided a lot of exposure in the
Toronto area, he says.
Along the way he developed
WOW sauce, a combination of garlic,
chili peppers, two kinds of vinegar,
virgin olive oil and distilled water,
that has become one of his best
sellers and impossible to keep in
stock.
30 THE RURAL VOICE
The growth wa.; steady and "the
first thing you knew, we were
incorporated," Bustin says of the
move three years ago.
Carol Morrison joined the year-
round staff this year. With years of
experience in restaurants. she says
it's nice to have a food -oriented job
that's not involved in the hospitality
industry.
Morrison provides valuable back-
up. Bustin says. She learned the
recipes and when production hits two
shifts later this summer, it means
each can supervise the staff for a
shift. As well she spent the winter
developing recipes that incorporate
Pickle Guy products for a cookbook
they'll be publishing.
Production gears up for the
summer in late June when garlic
starts arriving from California.
Though there's plenty of garlic
grown locally these days and though
he grows garlic himself for sales over
the counter to customers, the garlic
he uses in his garlic products is a
special Italian strain that he buys
peeled and ready to use for "a zillion
dollars per pound".
When the garlic arrives the
kitchen will swing into action
making WOW sauce, sweet pickled
garlic and dilled garlic and for the
rest of the summer the tempo
increases.
"By September you stay here.
You don't leave," he says. For a two -
and -a -half -month stretch the plant
will be in heavy production with four
to six people working double shifts to
produce Super Dills, Ken's Perkles
and other cucumber -based pickles
ending up with relish.
For the last three years he's been
too busy to grow ingredients for this
products. He'll buy local products if
the supplier will deliver. There's
plenty of produce available as close
as Keady Market but because of
convenience he gets most of his
vegetables from the Food Terminal.
He can call in an order for 14 bushels
of cucumbers a certain size and the
cucumbers will be picked on
Mennonite farms (they use only
vegetables that haven't been sprayed)
that night and by the next night will
be processed into pickles.
The quantities are startling. He'll
pick up eight to 12 bushels of
cucumbers at a time, twice a week.
He'll easily go through 1,500 pounds
of prepared garlic a season, he says.
In the summer when peppers are
plentiful he'll buy them in large
quantities, cut them up and freeze
them to be used later in the season.
Pearl onions can also be frozen for
later use.
presentation, he says, as he
shows off the lone jar of dill
pickles from last year, is a big
part of the appeal of a food product.
He calls the careful design of the
contents "art in a jar". Making the
food look good has been a key right
from day one, he says though he
admits, "it's hard to dress up a jar of
relish".
Success has come from quality,
not price. "Our product isn't cheap.
It's not cheap to make," he says. A
750 ml jar of Super Dills, for
instance, retails for $7.50.
So what can others who might
want to get into food processing learn
from his experience?
"Keep your day job," says Bustin,
who did exactly that while he built
up his business. "Learn business.
Learn everything (about business)
except what you want to do."
What you actually want to do,
what brought you into the business in
the first place, is only about 25 per
cent of a cottage industry, Bustin
says. The rest is learning to run the
business end of things, finding better
sources of supplies (like jars, in his
case), learning the regulations,
learning how to market your product,
learning how to keep books, how to
deal with accountants, lawyers and
bankers.
Starting slowly and growing
allowed him to build up to the point
of making the investment in the new
location.
"It was a gamble coming here for
sure," he says of the store. "It was a
big step, but the reward was great —
a larger working environment and a
retail store."
Walk-in traffic has been better at
the new location than the two
previous years combined. "One of
the greatest pleasures is to watch
their faces as they try the pickles,"
Bustin says. Sometimes they smile,
sometimes their eyes water when
they try a hot sauce.
The greatest reward of the
business, he says is "It's fun."0