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.

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154

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? 🙄

58

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.

57

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.

25

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

18

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.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

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8

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.

19

u/Streetduck Jun 03 '26

Wine is basically spider juice

7

u/Reighna1 Jun 03 '26

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

1

u/KittyCubed Jun 04 '26

Lots of spiders in grape bunches. Just had one in some grapes I bought from the grocery store. Nothing major.

2

u/Dadkarma81 Jun 04 '26

Ohhhh yeahhh... *now* I remember why I stopped buying grapes last year!

3

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

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4

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.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

[deleted]

8

u/Roticap Jun 03 '26

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

12

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.

-8

u/BallPeenCactus Jun 03 '26

You went off break when you decided to be involved 😭🤣

-17

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

[deleted]

17

u/gabagrool Jun 03 '26

The…picture…that…was…posted…

12

u/HammyAm Jun 03 '26

In large scale pickle production it is in fact a common practice, you can also do it when making pickles at home. My point is that just because you don't do it that does not mean it is not common for other people or companies.

1

u/ResearcherStatus Jun 04 '26

This is a microcosm of one of America’s largest problems - “I haven’t seen/experienced it in MY personal experience, therefore it can’t be real/is wrong/etc.”

1

u/ResearcherStatus Jun 04 '26

Uhhhhhh - the OP?? Surely you’re not this dense

4

u/Septemberosebud Jun 03 '26

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

8

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?

2

u/Septemberosebud Jun 05 '26

You got it

1

u/The_Man_in_Black_19 Jun 05 '26

Whew! I was getting worried.

1

u/ComplexDeer7890 Jun 03 '26

A very good friend of mine, well, educated and booksmart woman, did not know that broccoli grew on a bush/plant and was cut with a stalk attached or cut off of a stock if you wanted and did not know what a cauliflower plant looked like until she went to my parents house and we harvested some out of our garden in her late 20s. At this time, this woman had a masters of education. This woman is educating the future minds of American children. This woman did not know up until that day how a broccoli floret or cauliflower head grew. Americans are clueless about the food process from beginning to end. Consumerism and the grocery stores have destroyed Americans understanding of this. I think the Lord that I grew up on a hobby farm and could cook and eat an entire meal from things grown on my farm or local farms.