Meet Your Local food producer: Cape Cod Pickle Company brings the crunch

Where would we be without pickles? Hamburgers would sob themselves to sleep. Cucumbers would lose all aspirations and sag on the vine. The world would be a more boring and less flavorful place.

Luckily, we have the Mashpee-based Cape Cod Pickle Company on the job, transforming cukes into crunchy and delicious works of art. And you can pick up some of their awesome pickles at the Meet Your Local Farmers event on March 28th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School (351 Pleasant Lake Avenue in Harwich). It’s going to be a hootenanny, so save the date!

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) and the Orleans Farmers’ Market. It’s a great opportunity to chat with farmers and producers and buy local produce, fish, meat and handcrafted products.

According to History Magazine, “pickling—preserving foods in vinegar, brine or a similar solution—is one of the oldest methods of food preservation.” A handy Pickle History Timeline published by the New York Food Museum tosses out the amazing fact that anthropologists and archaeologists believe that Mesopotamians had jumped into the pickling game by 2400 B.C.

To get a more modern view of the pickle world, we had a lovely chat with Cape Cod Pickle Company owner Amina Smaykiewicz, who was packing pickles when we called!

She’ll be bringing her galaxy of pickle flavors to Meet Your Local Farmers, including Original Dill, Habanero Dill and Grandma’s Bread and Butter. And a new guest star, kimchi (a traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables), will also be available.

Tell us about the Cape Cod Pickle Company.

It was established in 2024. I was looking for a business that I could do on my own. I learned how to make the pickles and it was fun! It can be a lot of work, especially in the summer, when I’m probably working 70 hours a week. But I have a lot of downtime in the winter.

How have people responded to your pickles? They were selling like hotcakes at last year’s Meet Your Local Farmers event.

I’ve had great responses. People like the fact that they are super fresh and crunchy, that they haven’t been sitting on a shelf for a year. The vegetable is actually still good for you because it hasn’t been overly processed.

Your pickles are called “refrigerator pickles.” What does that mean?

Refrigerator pickles are super crunchy, not soggy at all. The vinegar preserves them a little bit, but you’ve got to keep them in the refrigerator. The challenge with making refrigerator-style pickles is that you don’t want to make more than you can sell, because they aren’t shelf stable. So, you have to pay extra attention to your markets and who is buying what, because you don’t want to end up with a ton of extra pickles.

What are your favorite things about the Meet Your Local Farmers event?

It’s great that people can talk to local farmers and food producers, and ask questions about how food is grown. You can’t really do that at a supermarket. And it’s a great way for people to discover producers that they might not see at their local farmers markets.

Last year was phenomenal! A lot of new customers found out about the Cape Cod Pickle Company, and what markets I would be at in the spring and summer. They would tell me that Meet Your Local Farmers was where they discovered my pickles.

SAVE THE DATE: The Meet Your Local Farmers event will bloom on March 28th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School (351 Pleasant Lake Avenue in Harwich). Hope to see you there!

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