Festival of Hobbies - pickling
Lots of people like hobbies related to cooking. Felix Mendelsohn of the Crooked PIckle, has created a business related to his passion for making things in the kitchen: pickling. I met Felix at Nether Edge Market and loved his pickles - which were clearly a real labour of love … some of the flavour combinations were very unique! He kindly agreed to answer some Festival of Hobbies questions via email:
Tell me a little about who you are and what you do for work outside of your hobby.
My name is Felix and I am a food and mountain bike enthusiast based in Chesterfield. I grew up in Namibia and emigrated to the UK in 2007 to be with my then girlfriend who I subsequently got married to. I am self-employed and have two small businesses. One is selling baking equipment online and the other is selling pickled vegetables and fruit.
What is your hobby and how did you get into it?
Pickling vegetables and fruit. I come from a predominantly German family where my mother still pickles and preserves year-round. One of my earliest memories is of my mother and grandmother peeling peaches and preserving them in a sweet syrup for us to enjoy until the next year’s harvest. So you could say that I have been exposed to the craft of preserving since birth.
I find the process of extending the edible life of things fascinating which most likely lead to my first job after school as a qualified beer brewer. I gave up that profession when I moved to the UK and set up my bread baking equipment business – yet another hobby turned profession. This business is very seasonal as most of the sales are during the winter months when people stay inside and bake. Come April/May and sales nosedive as the sun does the opposite! The lull in sales usually ends when the Great British Bake-Off final is on and people start to think of baking as the days draw in.
I knew I needed to do something to bridge the fall in income during the summer months and started looking at various options and ideas. In 2018 I visited a lot of food fairs and markets to see what the trends were, who was selling what and perhaps what kind of thing was not being sold.
Two things that stood out: Chutneys and preserves were over-represented and nobody sold vegetables and fruit pickled in vinegar like I was doing for fun at home.
That was my lightbulb moment when I knew that I had discovered a gap in the market and that I could use my hobby skills and knowledge to exploit it.
What is it specifically about your hobby that interests you?
I love the idea of extending the edible life of fruits and vegetables by submerging them in vinegar. More than that, I love the infinite ways in which you can add flavours and colours by adding herbs and spices to really personalise a pickle to your taste. You can mix and match vinegars and use dark or light sugars to create complex flavour profiles. It is alchemy at it’s best because it is alchemy that looks good, tastes good and makes you feel good because it is so rewarding!
What do you think you get personally from your hobby? Why is it important?
I get a great sense of satisfaction from dreaming up recipes and testing them out on others to see whether they share my excitement and enthusiasm for the pickle that I have created. My Korean Pickled Garlic constantly gets a “Oh my God, that is so good!” reaction at markets and I never grow tired of hearing it. It spurs me on and validates the effort that I put into my products.
But my hobby is my job too, so I expect to make a living from it. I want to grow it into a business that pays and employs local people. The time, effort and drive that it takes to get it to that level is exhausting at times but extremely rewarding.
Why do you think it’s important for people to have hobbies?
Hobbies are the perfect way to de-stress from the madness of everyday life. When you engage with your hobby you leave all the thoughts that bother you at the door and enter into your own little world of self-indulgence. Because that is what a hobby is to me: a bit of “me-time” doing something that pleases and tickles my inner curiosity.
The meditative effect of this process is important if you lead a hectic life as it acts as a little oasis of calm. Even knowing that you are going to spend a bit of time on your hobby later in the day is satisfying because it gives you something to look forward to outside of your busy schedule.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to pick up a new hobby?
Think about what you like doing and see if there are any introductory courses linked to your interests. For example, if you like food or cooking then sign up to a course that is a bit niche or focuses on a specific skill. What I mean is don’t just do a general ‘cooking for beginners/intermediate chefs’ course, instead do a sourdough bread course or butchery for beginners course or chocolate making course. That way you focus in on a particular subset of skills which keeps your hobby focused and not too broad.
What’s next for you and your hobby?
As mentioned earlier, this hobby has turned into a fulltime job so hopefully I can set up a small factory in the coming years and employ some people to do at least some of the jobs that currently do. However, I will always want to have a hand in the kitchen creating pickles because that is what I love doing.
If you could try a hobby you’ve always wanted to, but never had the chance, what would you try?
I am over 6ft tall and slim so clothes never fit quite right. They are either too baggy at the waist or too short at the sleeves. I would therefore love to be able to make my own clothes and alter the ill-fitting ones.
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You can find out more about The Crooked Pickle, and order some to try, via his website: https://crookedpickle.co/