Provenance
We get asked about the provenance of our products a lot and it is important for us to be transparent about the origin of our ingredients.
Whilst most of our products are produced in the UK, specifically in England, some are produced further afield in Germany.
These products are our Bread & Butter Pickles and our range of gherkins. The reason for this is one of raw material quality. It is impossible to find locally grown pickling cucumbers in the UK as the cucumber industry has been in decline for decades now. The only option is to import or have them produced where they are grown. We did start off making our Bread & Butter Pickles ourselves with UK salad cucumbers when they were in season and Dutch salad cucumbers out of season. However, the salad cucumber is ill suited for pickling due to the large seed housing in its centre which leads to a soft pickle. The holy grail of cucumbers is the pickling cucumber, sometimes referred to as a "Kirby" cucumber. These are narrower and have a much smaller seed housing. Think of a gherkin, that's the one!
As of 2023 we teamed up with a small manufacturer based in Germany's pickling cucumber heartland of Brandenburg, who has been making our cucumber products to our specification. The cucumbers are pickled within 24 hours of harvesting, resulting in a much crisper and crunchier pickle produced to very high and consistent standards.
Along with the cucumber products our friends in Germany also produce our Baby Balsamic Onions for us. The tiny onions required for this product are also impossible to get hold of in the UK unless we want them frozen, but that leads to a soft pickle which nobody wants. These little onions grow in abundance in east Germany and to be frank, they have the machinery to peel them in vast quantities which, if you have ever tried peeling them by hand, you would appreciate!
If you would like to know more about the provenance of our products and their ingredients, please send an email to hello@crookedpickle.co