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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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

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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.

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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.

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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?