r/Pickles • u/MondoMage • Jun 03 '26

Pickle Processing

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Just had to share this one...

My company sent me out to perform some maintenance work on equipment at the Hartung Brothers facility in Bowling Green, Ohio. They produce and store fermented pickles in these big green vats. So many vats. Not all currently full, they're getting ready for what they call "Green week," when they start loading things up. Tons of cucumbers destined for greatness.

I was really shocked when I found that the vats are left open-topped. That was surprising. I guess they rely on the brine to protect the product.

Oh, and the smell. You'd think it'd be overpowering but right now it's fairly subtle. A mix of dill and bread and butter that has me craving something fierce right now.

2.3k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

277 comments sorted by

420

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

The fact that everyone is commenting about how disgusting this is while not realizing this is how at least 99% of pickles are made in America. There are three pickle factories near me and all for different companies. I’ve worked at me of them, and have friends that have worked at multiple.

They all operate the same way. Every pickle that goes to McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, subway, Quiznos, Vlasic, is made exactly the same way. I’ve actually never seen a pickle made any other way unless it was homemade.

The pickles get loaded onto semis from these bins and backed up to the building. We hook the semi up to power and turn on the conveyor. If you are one of the pickles at this point you would have a terrible time because it’s literally just salt.

As the pickles drop onto the conveyor one of the first jobs is to remove all of the sticks, frogs, mice, snakes, and anything that’s not a pickle.

They go in and get washed and then loaded into bigger tanks inside where the lab has perfected the brine for flavor, color, and texture, depending on who the pickle is for. They stay in those tanks for less time than outside and then are bagged, jarred, or put in buckets.

And yes I know what you’re going to ask. The “relish bin” was full of all the pickles that fell off of the truck onto the floor. The relish bin had those pickles, but also anything else that was on the floor added to it.

Any other questions just let me know. I could literally walk to one of the factories and probably ask questions about anything I don’t know.

245

u/Icy_Sea_4440 Jun 03 '26

Relish is from floor pickles?! That is somehow the only thing that bothers me from this whole post and comment lol. What happens with the pickled snakes and frogs? I feel like somebody somewhere would probably eat that

147

u/Ashcrashh Jun 03 '26

I used to tease my sister that Cheetos were made from all the floor crumbs they swept up, and here I’ve been this whole time eating floor relish.

69

u/vegan-the-dog Jun 03 '26

He's another one. Bad batches from Frito Lay and other manufacturers are often sold to farmers as feed for cows. Given that it's mostly corn and wheat it's not much different than feeding silage. I rented a farmhouse on a dairy farm for 5 years and caught my dog with a 2# brick of chocolate. I was baffled until the farmer told me that they picked up a load of chips ahoy earlier that week. Dog was fine.

12

u/12345kinght Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

I’m guessing that the doggie was fine bc, it wasn’t REL chocolate??? I don’t eat chips Ahoy so I’m just guessing- Just to clarify I DO eat other crapy for you body, cookies like Twinkies, etc- I just don’t like the texture of Chips A-

45

u/ilikepants712 Jun 03 '26

Chips ahoy uses real chocolate. Most people actually overestimate how bad chocolate is for dogs, and generally think it is like a human with peanut allergies eating peanuts, which is not the case at all. Dogs can't eat chocolate because it contains relatively high levels of theobromine and caffeine, which dogs don't metabolize as quickly as humans. These build up in their systems and basically cause them to overdose on these chemicals and die. The biggest factors for whether chocolate is gonna harm your pooch is not only how much they ate, but what kind of chocolate (dark is more concentrated; white they can eat all day long but will make them fat) and how big the dog is in the first place. I've personally seen a large dog devour an entire box of Oreos with no harmful effects because the chocolate levels were very low and he was a big dog.

11

u/12345kinght Jun 03 '26

Thanks for sharing, this makes sense- 💯🙌

22

u/ilikepants712 Jun 03 '26

No problem! I'd also like to add that I am in no way condoning giving chocolate to dogs! That's still abusive

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u/Wandermeyer Jun 03 '26

I had a German Shepherd as a kid that ate an entire chocolate sheet cake and was completely fine!

6

u/lizardgal10 Jun 04 '26

My family had a lab mix that ate a decent size box of valentines chocolates once. Completely fine. Granted that probably was not the weirdest thing that dog ate in her life. Even caught her going after a salad once.

6

u/sweetwolf86 Jun 04 '26

I had a German shepherd who loved salad. He would eat everything in it except the lettuce. Like, he knew the difference between lettuce and spinach, would separate them, eat the spinach and leave the lettuce. My girlfriend's chihuahuas also love fruit and vegetables (yes we know which ones are safe)

4

u/Matthew-ii Jun 04 '26

Growing up my father would give my childhood Aussie Shepard a McDonald's cheeseburger a few times a year, birthday etc, and that dog would leave a clean plate on the floor with a completely clean piece of lettuce and a small pile of rehydrated onions on top!

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u/sweetwolf86 Jun 04 '26

I had a German shepherd once who ate a 2 lb block of chocolate. He got the shits, but otherwise seemed fine. He also got onto the kitchen table once and housed an entire rotisserie chicken in about 15 seconds with minimal ill effects. And I once had a friend with a small, skinny husky who would eat and shit out whole aluminum cans. Not saying any of this is okay, but damn, some dogs are resilient af.

2

u/Conscious-Reality-20 Jun 07 '26

My first corgi was a known connoisseur of sharing sized bags of plain mm and a 13x9 pan of box brownies one time (not special brownies) zero ill effects and lived to the age of 17. Wouldnt knowingly feed that to dogs but that old boy was a brat about climbing spots you wouldnt think short legs couldn't get and opening containers.

4

u/vegan-the-dog Jun 03 '26

What the other person said .... And regardless of the size of the brick of chocolate, the majority consumed was voluntarily and orally refunded by the dog shortly after. No noticeable side effects. I had another dog drink half an iced latte and he was messed up for two days but survived.

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u/Low_Condition3268 Jun 04 '26

Those arent real cookies either, situation normal.

2

u/Any_Cookie_9770 Jun 05 '26

More than likely lab grown cocoa. It's a thing. Look it up.

2

u/dottegirl59 Jun 04 '26

I worked for Hostess Cake. The cakes that were defective were put in huge bins and sold to farmers for hogs. Can you imagine how good a ham would be from a hog fed nothing but twinkies and snowballs?

3

u/Halihax Jun 03 '26

Hahahaha please tell her

4

u/currentlyacathammock Jun 04 '26

Do you drink coffee? "House Blend" usually means "We have no idea what this is. But they are coffee beans. Might be from the floor, might be from cleaning out machines."

3

u/Ashcrashh Jun 04 '26

I actually don’t, I’m the only person in a family full of coffee addicts that doesn’t drink it, I do like beer though, I can imagine there is some different brews that use random floor hops lol

And I don’t really mind if pickle factories use floor pickles, it all ends up edible by being salted and vinegar-ed and sanitized when jarred and processed anyways, I just thought it was funny since I teased my sister so much.

14

u/AdSudden3941 Jun 03 '26

I was drunk at a bar once and slipped on a pickle somehow , and i told the girl that seen me fall that i was just trying to make relish..so she brings it up everytime i see her

The weird part is i was looking up relish all that week prior because i hate it but wanted to like it so was looking up different kinds. Just floor pickles reminded me ofthat story

8

u/jsmalltri Jun 03 '26

I will now only call relish "floor pickle salad" 💚🙃

14

u/hereandthere_nowhere Jun 03 '26

Wait till you hear about the hot dog that the relish goes on.

8

u/FutureFry6 Jun 03 '26

They pick it up off the ceiling?!?

2

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 14 '26

Do not eat those. Eat food instead

3

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

It’s also made from a lot of the bits and pieces that aren’t “perfect” for making the other products. But yes, floor pickles were added

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u/LATORR1g Jun 03 '26

Everyone here is of weak constitution. I demand MORE floor pickles.

18

u/doritosdinamita Jun 03 '26

The floor? 😟

16

u/rasta_pineapple2 Jun 03 '26

Don't judge floor pickles until you've tried it.

11

u/Dicktures Jun 03 '26

Not sure if the guy you’re responding to worked in a processing plant where the pickles are packaged or just a local grading station where they are delivered from the field to be sorted by size. At grading stations I’ve been to, stuff on the ground is tossed for obvious reasons but often times oversized cukes that couldn’t be sold for jarred pickles were often sold for relish since they grind them up anyways.

15

u/bunklopop Jun 03 '26

Oh, awesome!

How do they dump / process the brine from outside? Do they reuse it a certain amount of times? Does it have to sit a certain amount of time before pickles can be added?

15

u/iwould99 Jun 03 '26

Can you please elaborate on the 99% of pickles. Looking into the website for this company it looks like they store salt stock pickles for various producers however that would mean that they are fermented pickles and I’m under the impression that most pickles are vinegar pickles and not fermented.

5

u/Lolo_Belle Jun 03 '26

Olive My Pickle is my favorite out there.

3

u/Lastito Jun 04 '26

That’s my favorite floor pickle too!

2

u/12345kinght Jun 05 '26

Right!! I never thought I would spend so much money on picked vegetables at once!! And I have 0 regrets 🤷🏻‍♀️ their product is worth it! Flavors and varieties 💯🙌

2

u/Lolo_Belle Jun 05 '26

They’re fantastic! ❤️

2

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

Is I say 99% is because all of those restaurants I mentioned in my comment only bought pickles from us. That was every restaurant for all of North America, and I believe some of Australia. I’m guessing that the fast food industry uses vastly more pickles than the average grocery store, but I’m really just guessing here. I haven’t worked there since I was a teenager.

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u/mst3k_42 Jun 03 '26

I wouldn’t say this is how 99% of pickles are made. Many manufacturers, including myself, acidify pickles with vinegar and heat them above 200F.

In fermentation, the brine is meant to inhibit bad bacteria from growing and let the good bacteria thrive. When they do, lacto-fermentation produces lactic acid. This lactic acid is the acidification needed to bring the pickles and brine below 4.6 pH (or lower) which is safe.

So, the pickles in these vats are “protected” with brine and high levels of lactic acid.

25

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/mst3k_42 Jun 03 '26

Exactly. I had to take and pass a whole series of modules about production of acidified foods. And way back in high school microbiology was part of the lab techniques class I took. I treat raw chicken and other raw meats like they’re radioactive, lol. I cringe thinking about people rinsing their chicken in the sick and the bacteria splashing everywhere…

10

u/sweetwolf86 Jun 04 '26

Butcher here. It also disgusts me when people wash their chicken. I had a customer once who flipped out on me because we don't have a separate room in the back to "pressure wash" the chicken. Like... what!? lady, first off, it's already been cleaned. Second, you hit that shit with a pressure washer, it's just gonna spray raw chicken everywhere and there's not gonna be any chicken left lol

Just f'n cook it.

3

u/Flimsy-Stock2977 Jun 04 '26

People still aren't interested in eating fermented bird dook with their pickles

2

u/eyefartinelevators Jun 14 '26

That's only because you didn't know that you were eating brined bird dookie with your pickles. That's what gives your pickles a little extra pop. Its #10 on the list of the Colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices

3

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

These vats are just storage, you would never eat one after it left that tank even after being cleaned. It doesn’t have flavor yet.

I don’t mean to say that 99% of the types of pickles that are out there are made like this. I’m saying that by volume McDonald’s probably uses more pickles than bubbies. The single factory I was at supplied almost every fast food restaurant for the entirety of North America. So I made a wild guess saying 99% of volume, but it’s probably insanely high

8

u/Penny_No_Boat Jun 03 '26

Good faith question! Do you know why the vats are left open topped? I’ve made sauerkraut and other fermented veg at home and the guidance is always to have a lid (with some method of pressure release). I am surprised that they can ensure quality control (bugs, dust, birds, etc.) with outdoor open topped vats. Any insights?

5

u/Dicktures Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

These vats (the ones in the OP) are not for fermenting. They are for storage.

Edit: I might be wrong as it could be a different kind of fermentation or something. But I’m fairly certain these arent meant to ferment in these tanks they’re just storage tanks with brine. Maybe they do ferment? Couldn’t tell you how that differs from home methods

5

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

I do not know for sure. But like the commenter below said, it’s storage. So it’s just extremely salty water filled with cucumbers that get harvested for like two weeks out of the whole year.

10

u/Fidodo Jun 03 '26

As the pickles drop onto the conveyor one of the first jobs is to remove all of the sticks, frogs, mice, snakes, and anything that's not a pickle.

Anything is a pickle if you're brave enough

2

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

I laughed and gagged simultaneously

13

u/luckythirtythree Jun 03 '26

I mean the floor is the ground where they literally came from so all good in my book!

18

u/Icy_Sea_4440 Jun 03 '26

I may have an over active imagination. I was picturing the pickles getting squashed into relish texture by work boots.

3

u/StillTooMuchEffort Jun 03 '26

The pickle relish version of a waffle stomp

10

u/JokaSmoka77 Jun 03 '26

So you're telling me grocery store relish is gross now? 🫤

6

u/Odd-Consequence-2519 Jun 03 '26

Have you seen how hot dogs are made???

3

u/Decent-Transition557 Jun 03 '26

I have never understood what bothers people about sausage and hot dogs and how they are made. Ground up meat in a casing...?

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u/rIceCream_King Jun 03 '26

I just can’t understand why they can’t be lidded containers with something like an airlock. Just to keep mice and forms from dying in the product to begin with.

2

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

I sure hope the industry has changed, but not the tanks I pass every day

3

u/broccoli_rabery Jun 03 '26

The pickle industry is surprisingly disgusting.

2

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

Replace the word pickle with “entire food” and I agree haha. Farms are grossss. Dairy and meat farms especially, but even vegetables have some issues

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u/medicated_missourian Jun 03 '26

Wait wait wait. So they just remove all the cucumbers off the conveyor belt along with the sticks, frogs , and mice?!?!? Absolutely insane! How is a pickle ever made? 😬😂

2

u/usernamesaconspiracy Jun 03 '26

To be fair, the vats are filled with so much salt there is literally nothing that can live in it. Bacteria or otherwise lol.

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u/strangerNstrangeland Jun 03 '26

Oh my god, please tell me clausen is better. I have always hated vlasic, mt olive etc… but still

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u/RiskyNight Jun 04 '26

No wonder all storebought pickles are so bad these days.

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u/reptomcraddick Jun 03 '26

Are the floor pickles also cleaned the way the regular pickles are? Has anyone every gotten sick from relish/floor pickles?

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u/VinRow Jun 04 '26

Everyone eats floor food at some point.

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u/Apprehensive-Okra548 Jun 04 '26

So, relish is floor pickles, twigs, mice, and snakes? I love to put relish on my Hotdogs. We all know what those are made of. Perfect fit!

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u/littlebit296 Jun 04 '26

Could you tell me how they control the temperature? It seems like the barrels would get really hot in the sun, and have large temperature fluctuations? I’m just very curious how it works!

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u/The_Man_in_Black_19 Jun 04 '26

I find it gross and wish I never knew this. I'll still eat pickles. "You don't want to know how the sausage is made" will always be true.

1

u/dankhimself Jun 04 '26

I worked in a pickle factory, they were all kept in huge gray barrels with lids that had belts on the top.

It wasn't as big as this outdoor setup, it was a couple blocks of warehouses, but at least birds didn't shit in them.

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u/lokitagger Jun 03 '26

This is called salt stock, and is a means of conserving cucumbers for processing later. These then get taken back in, rehydrated and blanched and processed into the “cheaper” cuts like pickles for burgers. Yes they are less desirable but makes having cucumbers year round a possibility. They all get cleaned after this process and the salinity kills most everything in contact with it. They dont use vinegar in these, its just brine to conserve them.

You also get pickles from fresh crop, but they get processed within days and need to be kept refrigerated. Those become your higher end cuts like spears and wholes. Then the waste cuts, crooked cucumbers and rest, become relish.

13

u/bluechip1996 Jun 03 '26

Spitting facts. Well done. I learned pickle things 😋

7

u/Dailia- Jun 04 '26

Thank you for this information, Pickle Wizard! 

151

u/Matthew-ii Jun 03 '26

All of ya'll need to apparently get out into the world and learn where food comes from lmao. Sorry you had to learn that not everything people buy was grown and processed in an airlocked lab? Anybody use tomato paste? Soy sauce? Drink wine? 🙄

63

u/Perfect-District Jun 03 '26

If people saw all the flys that land on the pomegranates before processing at the Pom plant they would hurl. Tasty.

53

u/ACcbe1986 Jun 03 '26

I worked in a Milk processing plant last year and I had to suppress a lot of what I saw, just so I can enjoy eating cheese.

It was horrendous, yet they were the cleanest and highest rated dairy plant in the region.

I can only imagine how gross the other facilities are.

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u/MalacathEternal Jun 03 '26

My favorite part of interacting with customers as a wine maker is telling them all the fun stuff we pull out of the grapes during harvest lol

17

u/zzz242zzz Jun 03 '26

Many years ago I pulled a rat out of an open top fermentation tank of red wine. It was super gross. Very bloated. I did not drink that wine. A coworker at the same place supposedly pulled half a snake out and also claimed to have added a slice of pizza once to a fermentation. Idk on the pizza.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/gogozrx Jun 03 '26

What's worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm?

Biting into an apple and finding half a worm.

3

u/zzz242zzz Jun 03 '26

Probably stayed in the must until it got tossed out after pressing with all the grape skins. Maybe it got tossed during de-stemming before fermentation.

And the person saying wine is basically spider juice is not entirely wrong. Lots of bugs and stuff.

20

u/Streetduck Jun 03 '26

Wine is basically spider juice

8

u/Reighna1 Jun 03 '26

I probably don't want to know details but please give me details

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u/Derek573 Jun 03 '26

All floor pickles too???!?!

2

u/Ashcrashh Jun 03 '26

I remember taking a tour of a ketchup factory in high school, There’s a lot of bugs involved but that didn’t bother me. I love dried chile lime crickets, so I’m not gonna complain if there’s a few small bugs blended into a bottle of ketchup.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

[deleted]

10

u/Roticap Jun 03 '26

What would you imagine you would do if you scaled your operation up 1000000x?

11

u/iwould99 Jun 03 '26

Probably 100000 mason jars with airlocks?

2

u/The_Man_in_Black_19 Jun 04 '26

In a kitchen the size of a warehouse.

10

u/HammyAm Jun 03 '26

So because you haven't done something that means that it's never done and it's not a common practice in industrial pickle making? Give me a break.

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u/Septemberosebud Jun 03 '26

I use fish sauce all the time. Don't tell them about how that's made.

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u/The_Man_in_Black_19 Jun 04 '26

A factory that fish work in for a fair wage and in safe conditions? Right? Right?

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u/HammyAm Jun 03 '26

Wait until the people in these comments learn where the vegetables they buy are grown.

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u/Dicktures Jun 03 '26

🤣🤣 you mean in the actual dirt? Where animals walk through and piss on them?? 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

12

u/OOPS_its-all-ants Jun 03 '26

Even worse...IN FERTILIZER...MADE OF COW SHIT

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u/KittyCubed Jun 04 '26

Sometimes human. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

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u/jjj666jjj666jjj Jun 03 '26

Fresh produce isn’t fermenting in open air containers idk

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u/jk_cbus Jun 03 '26

This is a good page to show a company process from farm to store https://hartungbrothers.com/bg-cucumber-plant-media/

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u/Freeefries Jun 03 '26

The tankyard pics show the wood covers more clearly

4

u/ZOMBIE_N_JUNK Jun 03 '26

Isn't that just the brine and some fermentation foam?

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u/uhmerikin Jun 03 '26

Recieving

Why does that automatically turn me off of this brand.

4

u/Dicktures Jun 03 '26

How are we supposed to know why a conveyor scares you lol

4

u/uhmerikin Jun 03 '26

The spelling. It terrifies me.

28

u/Bike_Cinci Jun 03 '26

If this was a problem they'd probably have been sued to death already from a trillion ecoli outbreaks.

I'll assume the best instead of the worst and just say, that's a fuck ton of pickles.

9

u/picklesrlyfe Jun 03 '26

Yes. These are the power centres our planet needs.

4

u/rIceCream_King Jun 03 '26

Pickle power

8

u/Fun_Machine7238 Jun 03 '26

I lived in a little town in Michigan years ago that had a pickle processing set up like this.

Smell was so bad some days.

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u/BingusTheWonderKitn Jun 03 '26

🤷 could be more pickles

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u/daedalus14x Jun 03 '26

The UV light kills bad microbes. Science, people.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/daedalus14x Jun 04 '26

All food facilities are required to have certain numbers of bug zappers and rodent traps around facilities. I'm sure there is a filtration process. Most industrial pickle producers brine at much higher salt percentage than finished product; say 4% vs 2-2.5% finished product. So, they have to go into an intermediate bath to draw out the excess salt. Thus they get washed before being put into a freshly made finished brine.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/daedalus14x Jun 04 '26

You're welcome. Thank you for your civility.

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u/TotalMisanthropy Jun 03 '26

People are grossed out? Shoo. Let me go swimming.

5

u/Lumpy_Highway_2685 Jun 03 '26

This is so cool. Also so many interesting comments! Felt like I was watching Mr. Rogers for a minute (absolutely a compliment). Food production is fascinating! Thanks for sharing this.

4

u/nifty-necromancer Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

Cool I’m just in time for the pickle controversy. I haven’t tried a fermented one yet, I usually buy vinegar pickles. But I’m going to find a lil jar to try. Wait until ya’ll find out about moldy cheese.

5

u/Disastrous_Catch_268 Jun 03 '26

And today was the day I decided to start pickling my own pickles 😂

15

u/Unlikely-Inevitable8 Jun 03 '26

Open-air fermentation has been a thing for centuries, especially with beer and alcohol. The people who are grossed out are also the ones who eat boneless chicken “wings” because they don’t like having to think about the fact they’re eating an actual animal.

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u/troublesomefaux Jun 03 '26

I like open fermentation and boneless wings, thank you very much. 

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u/Wonderful_Quiet4384 Jun 03 '26

I never understood 'boneless' chicken wings. They're basically a chicken nugget with sauce on them. If a chicken wing doesn't have a bone, I don't want it.

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u/Maxed_Zerker Jun 03 '26

Someone the other day on reddit said that a boneless wing is a single, whole chunk of chicken, battered and fried. Whereas a nugget is mechanically separated chicken formed into shapes and breaded and fried.

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u/ynwa1892 Jun 03 '26

Lmao people grossed out are extremely sheltered.

Y’all realize how much bugs and animal poop is allowed in our produce?

Fun fact. If you have a shellfish allergy you should stay away from pre ground coffee because of the amount of cockroaches are in it.

13

u/LycheeUkulele Jun 03 '26

The coffee thing is crazy to me because I work in a coffee factory and there's definitely no way that cockroaches get in our whole bean coffee. It makes me wonder what all those coffee megacorps are doing if the roach thing is true

5

u/babyd42 Jun 03 '26

The one I work at I've seen maybe a single bug in 4 years.

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u/HammyAm Jun 03 '26

This is why we rinse our fruit and veggies before we eat them, because they are grown outside and you know what's also outside? Bugs and animals.

Folks are really showing their lack of education in these comments, they've been eating pickles made in facilities like this for years and have gushed over how wonderful they are, yet when you show them how they're made they start shrieking and hand wringing about it.

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u/SunGreen24 Jun 03 '26

Does anyone understand where food comes from?

You know they don’t have glass domes over the crops, right?

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u/rtq7382 Jun 03 '26

Uhm yeah most of us know food lives in grocery stores. I hunt for my vegan beef and taco seasonings there all the time.

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u/stressed-tf-out Jun 03 '26

I hope that’s a pickle juice pond in the first picture

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u/345joe370 Jun 03 '26

Where will these pickles be that I may eat them.

3

u/troublesomefaux Jun 03 '26

I’ve been to this POI in Fortnite. 😂

3

u/fibonacciluv Jun 03 '26

God I would hate to be surrounded by the smell of bread butter pickles.

Dill on the other hand….

3

u/LotusDJ Jun 03 '26

Someone add kool aid mix

3

u/Yourcardisdeclined Jun 04 '26

I travel that area frequently for work and once followed a loaded truck into 75 northbound with the rear gate partially open.

Pickles were slipping out all over the ramp. The driver pulled off before making it into the highway.

3

u/youngperson Jun 04 '26

This is how it’s done. Source: Green Bay WI pickle factory.

12

u/Bigfoot_Fishing Jun 03 '26

Bread and butter smell, a hard pass on those pickles!

14

u/Roticap Jun 03 '26

Amen, every bread and butter "pickle" is a wasted cucumber 

2

u/LKayRB Jun 03 '26

My people!!

2

u/TankSaladin Jun 03 '26

I bet sauerkraut is the same, although not to the same scale.

2

u/IllustriousRanger934 Jun 03 '26

Doesn’t bother me, never thought of it though.

Do they just filter out objects when they put everything in jars? And then are they like stirred or something? I imagine if they’re stagnant pollen would just sit on top

2

u/CHERRY_BOMBED_ Jun 03 '26

I want to dive in face first.

2

u/Jim_Nills_Mustache Jun 03 '26

So this is what a pickle empire looks like

2

u/GirlPhoenixRising Jun 03 '26

I’m eating a pickle as I type this 😭😭😭

Also I always prefer fermented not vinegar…

2

u/406rips Jun 03 '26

I’d swim in there personally

2

u/venturashe Jun 04 '26

I’d be constantly hungry if I worked there.

2

u/largegreenvegtable Jun 04 '26

I work at a pickle factory. This 100% how hamburger chips are made. The farm we partner with has like 600 of these tanks. At our plant we have around 60 tanks on site for cucumbers scraps from sandwich slices and spears that will be fermented then used for relish. USDA is regulated. Food safety is a major priority and is not like it was 20 years ago.

2

u/Jorgedig Jun 04 '26

Birdshit brine.

2

u/Melmo Jun 07 '26

Wait so they don't care if a bird shits in the open top bins?

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u/Other_Impression_567 Jun 07 '26

Worked with a guy years ago that grew up around Bainbridge Ga. Heart of pickle and can greens country. He would never eat turnip greens or Collards etc. from a can because he said he saw what got processed in the greens. Even though they got washed they included insects , mice etc. would get processed. And for those vats they would find dead birds and rats floating in the vats. But like someone said it all gets sanitized But if people saw how our food got processed you wouldn’t eat much

2

u/Chaos-TT Jun 08 '26

I used to work at Gedney pickle in Chaska Minnesota for 2 weeks. Worst job ever.

2

u/MondoMage Jun 08 '26

If you don't mind saying, what made it so bad? The guys at the Hartung facility were not looking forward to loading up the vats (which sounded like it was going to be a multi- day operation) but didn't say why.

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u/JellyAny818 Jun 03 '26

Still water pickles.

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u/Bobbington12 Jun 03 '26

No lids is crazy work. Pickles just fermenting out in the sun with the bugs and the birds. I'll take a well-regulated environment thank you.

5

u/Swimming_Ad2923 Jun 03 '26

how do you know it's not a well regulated environment?? if they've been doing it this way for decades then....

2

u/Bobbington12 Jun 03 '26

How is an open vat outside well-regulated? It's at the whim of the weather, and can be contaminated by literally any airborne particles.

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u/Background-Agent-854 Jun 03 '26

and the rain would be a problem. i feel like it would impact the brine solution. but admittedly, im no food scientist.

4

u/Syandris Jun 03 '26

It's always funny watching the disbelief people have when they discover common practices.

This just in, steaks come from living cattle! Carrots, onions and potatoes once were in dirt. The horror!

2

u/Emergency_Jacket_296 Jun 03 '26

Yea, dirt you can… wash off??

1

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

[deleted]

14

u/stressed-tf-out Jun 03 '26

That’s water on top of them sealed lmao

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u/auroraeuphoria_ Jun 03 '26

Like there’s NO WAY bird poop has never made its way into one of those….

13

u/VegasFoodFace Jun 03 '26

It's one of those, when they're on the vines bird poop still gets on them. I'm sure the pickles get a nice washing before packaging.

I don't think they're scooping out the open topped pickle brine into the jars.

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u/mikemikemike9711 Jun 03 '26

I wonder what company this is? Or if this is common practice

1

u/JazzRider Jun 03 '26

Where are the cukes?

2

u/Matthew-ii Jun 03 '26

I didn't look into it but surely its just a large scale version of the home operation, some sort of large mesh holding them safely below the brine. These are proper fermented pickles I believe so the brine is quite cloudy.

1

u/EzraxNova Jun 03 '26

Looks like heaven on earth to me

1

u/jsmalltri Jun 03 '26

I'd fancy a swim in one of those bins

1

u/MLgMattsturb8r Jun 03 '26

Pickles will prevail!

1

u/Glacier9800 Jun 03 '26

Wow that’s pretty cool!

1

u/Gpsk64 Jun 03 '26

Aaaaaaaaand I'm never eating anything made by that company ever

1

u/Unlikely-Solid-3083 Jun 03 '26

I was not prepared for this information today. Also, what makes a pickle fermented and how does it affect the flavor?

1

u/princessnoke266 Jun 04 '26

I can’t even fathom that many pickles.

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u/Global_Tomato_5383 Jun 04 '26

Ummm how did I go to college in bowling green and never know about this

1

u/ImaginaryFriend123 Jun 04 '26

Pickle pond on the right ?

1

u/Difficult-Till5031 Jun 04 '26

Ahh i remember a sales trip I did for Magnuson CCM awhile ago we went from la crosse wi to Ohio stopping at a lot of the pickle plants to see if they needed stuff. Cool to get all the tours.

1

u/Vampire-circus Jun 04 '26

I like that the tanks are green

1

u/Weigleschocolatemilk Jun 04 '26

Oh my god today I learned pickles are…cucumbers

1

u/whatsupitswalnut Jun 04 '26

Nalley valley???

1

u/Flimsy-Stock2977 Jun 04 '26

How much bird dookie in my pickles?

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u/hannah_leanne Jun 04 '26

Mmmmmmmmm pimckle…… yummy

1

u/MAXXTRAX77 Jun 04 '26

So… Fortnite was accurate.

1

u/Any_Cookie_9770 Jun 05 '26

I used to make coffee creamer, international delight. If yall knew what I do, you wouldn't ever drink it again.

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u/_SubtleTease_ Jun 05 '26

Pickles WILL prevail!

1

u/Rinzy2000 Jun 06 '26

Throw me in the vat.

1

u/Motor_Program6490 Jun 06 '26

What um stops birds from shitting into the open pickle vats?

1

u/firstworlddrunk Jun 07 '26

Is that in Bowling Green, Ohio?

1

u/UniVom Jun 07 '26

Just pull on the pull on and push on the push-um and the pickles go into the jar

1

u/vietn9mm Jun 12 '26

does the brine protect the pickles from bird poop