Why Pickles?

True or False? Fully Loaded Pickles were first created in attempt to convince my husband to eat fermented food?

TRUE STORY!

I was starting to play around with fermenting foods. I started off with sauerkraut, where many a keen budding fermenter often does.

I had been doing a lot of reading about gut health and fermenting, which had me totally fascinated. I was keen to get us regularly consuming a variety of fermented food and was also dabbling with my own kombucha and yogurt.

But alas, my husband didn't share my enthusiasm for sauerkraut..!

So I started wondering what else could be fermented? I learnt that a good starting point is to ferment vegetables that you enjoy, that way there is a higher chance of you enjoying the fermented version of it.

He liked pickled cucumbers and I wondered if cucumbers could be fermented..? Some google searching followed and I was pleased to discover it was possible!

I added some of his favourite flavours for good luck - cumin, pepper, chilli, garlic and dill.

And VIOLA!

The FULLY LOADED PICKLE was unofficially born! At this stage they were just sitting in OUR fridge, benefiting OUR bellies. Little did I know they would one day grace the fridges of my favourite local retailers.

Named "Fully Loaded" as they are fully loaded with flavour AND good bacteria.

The pickles have a special place in my heart, hence when deciding to re-launch one of our products, they were high on the candidate list.

They are also special in that they are very much LOCAL! I obtain all of the fresh ingredients locally. I collect the cucumbers, chilli and garlic direct from the farms (and the dill, seasonally). So they feel very much like they belong to my home town of Bundaberg.

Maybe you have a relative who is resistant to fermented foods? Maybe they love a good pickle? Maybe they'd like to try ours.. they're kind of a big dill ;-)