A Local Pickle!

By Gail Ciampa

Journal Food Editor gciampa@providencejournal.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Ziggy Goldfarb looked at the retail food landscape and saw Rhode Island was lacking a local source for delicious, homemade, artisan pickles.

Though he was a professional communicator by trade, for the movie industry in the Southwest, that all changed once he moved to Providence, and bought a pickling kit as sort of a gag for his bride.

There in the kitchen of his honeymoon cottage in Fox Point he started making pickles. And more pickles. All the while he experimented with the flavors, and then the texture. He had to keep them crispy. You can’t have a great pickle without crunch after all.

“There were definitely a lot more misses than hits when I was coming up with pickle recipes,” Goldfarb admitted.

He had so many rejected jars, he gave them out as parting gifts after a New Year’s Eve party earlier this month. He might have said something about only being able to give them away to those who were tipsy with holiday joy. But I’m not sure because Goldfarb talks fast and with so much enthusiasm you get swept along to another thought before you absorb what he’s just told you.

But I digress.

It was more than a year of experimenting, he estimated, before he created pickles he could build a business on. He brought them to farmers’ markets, including the one at Hope Artiste Village, and the pickle buzz started. Shoppers loved the pickles and the fact that he sourced his cucumbers from local farms.

Then he got lucky.

“I was first at the door when Hope & Main opened,” Goldfarb said.

The Warren food incubator, the first in Rhode Island, opened its doors in October and sought out its first class of food producers who would be nurtured while bringing their products to market. Fox Point Pickling Company, and Goldfarb, were among them.

Just a few months later, shoppers can buy his Fox Point Garlic Dill Pickles and Spicy Dill Pickles at more than a dozen stores.

Now if at this point you are asking, “pickles?” All this for “pickles?” Then I don’t know what to say. We pickle fans find unabashed joy in every mouth puckering bite.

I also love that Goldfarb left the Southwest behind to come to Providence with his bride Danielle Cabral Goldfarb who was embarking on a residency program through Brown University. He got a public relations job but the still challenging economy resulted in his being laid off. So he created a new future with pickles.

He recognized that Rhode Islanders take pride in their local products and they have been behind him since he sold his first jar for $8.99. His entrepreneurial drive is only exceeded by his artisanal spirit.

Goldfarb knows that pickles can be more than snacks and he has come up with a handful of fun recipes to make for Sunday’s Super Bowl. Why order pizza when you can have pickles?

It was when he first left his Poughkeepsie, N.Y., childhood home that Goldfarb learned to cook.

“No mom,” he explained.

He found he really enjoyed cooking not just for himself but for his roommates.

“It became my hobby,” he said.

Now it is his livelihood.

Does he miss his old life?

“To be honest, it’s a great feeling to be building a brand for myself,” he said. “I spent all those years building brands for other people.”

Hope & Main has been a help. Members of the board of directors are part of the process. In Goldfarb’s case, John R. Perez, president of JP Consulting, who has an engineering background, worked with him. He came up with a slicing solution for Goldfarb that didn’t involve him slicing each pickle individually by hand.

The solution? Use a French fry cutter.

Now he is exploring how to get local farms to grow more cucumbers for him as his pickles are more in demand. He also has other food artisans coming to him for advice.

Most importantly, he is also adding products and is currently working on pickled carrots as well as a Bloody Mary mix.

Cheers for pickles.

Find Fox Point Pickles at Tom’s Market in Warren and Tiverton; Clements Market and the Green Grocer, both in Portsmouth; Grapes and Grains and Persimmon Provisions, both in Bristol; Wright’s Dairy Farm, North Smithfield; Dave’s Marketplace in East Greenwich; The Pantry at Avenue N in Rumford; the Food Chalet, Warwick; and Partners Village Store in Westport.

In Providence they are sold at Olive Del Mondo, Willy’s Local Foods, Campus Fine Wines and Environs Stylish Gifts. Learn more at foxpointpickles.com.