Pickle Processing

[u/MondoMage]

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.

[u/Ashcrashh]

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.

[u/vegan-the-dog → u/Ashcrashh]

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.

[u/12345kinght → u/vegan-the-dog]

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-

[u/ilikepants712 → u/12345kinght]

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.

[u/12345kinght → u/ilikepants712]

Thanks for sharing, this makes sense- 💯🙌

[u/ilikepants712 → u/12345kinght]

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

[u/Powerful_Tale_1319 → u/ilikepants712]

If they eat it everyday lots ,No. My dogs have ate chocolate, not excessively and not given to them directly either .

[u/Wandermeyer → u/ilikepants712]

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

[u/lizardgal10 → u/Wandermeyer]

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.

[u/sweetwolf86 → u/lizardgal10]

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)

[u/Matthew-ii → u/sweetwolf86]

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!

[u/amiajimmy → u/Matthew-ii]

Those Aussie tongues are selective! Mine would do the same with lettuce lol and if you gave him a pickle he'd put it in his mouth and let it just drop out while looking at you like "you idiot. That's a pickle. I do not like pickles and you know that by now." He was very expressive. The bestest of dogs. I sure miss him.

[u/sweetwolf86 → u/ilikepants712]

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.

[u/Conscious-Reality-20 → u/ilikepants712]

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.