Provenance

Bread & Butter Pickles and Gherkins

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.

Baby Balsamic Onions

Along with our cucumber products, our friends in Germany also produce our Baby Balsamic Onions for us. The tiny onions needed for this pickle are incredibly hard to source in the UK unless they’re frozen — and frozen onions simply don’t give you the crunch we’re after.

These little onions grow in abundance in eastern Germany, where they can be harvested fresh and handled properly to preserve their texture. And, to be frank, our German partners also have the specialist machinery to peel them in large quantities — something anyone who’s tried peeling baby onions by hand will fully appreciate.

As always, we choose suppliers based on quality, not geography, so we can deliver the best possible pickle in every jar.

Korean Pickled Garlic

While many of our pickles are made here in the UK, the garlic for our Korean Pickled Garlic is sourced from specialist suppliers in Germany. We made this change to ensure a consistently high-quality garlic with the right crunch, flavour and freshness we’re looking for.

Germany’s well-established food supply network allows us to source garlic reliably year-round, with full traceability and strict food safety standards. We always choose suppliers based on quality, not geography — helping us maintain the quality and taste you expect in every jar.

If you would like to know more about the provenance of our products and their ingredients, please send an email to us at hello@crookedpickle.co