Ambar Ramirez Carmen Macri
Words & photos by Ambar Ramirez & Carmen Macri
Five weeks ago, Jacksonville got a new addition to its quirky lineup of storefronts — the Pickle Factory. Step inside, and it’s like stepping into a ’70s grocery store on a color trip with neon lights, bold hues and abstract designs all around. The shelves are stocked with a wild variety of pickles, olives, kimchi and sauerkraut, each jar begging to be tasted. And it’s not just about the food — there are keychains, pillows and pickle-themed knick-knacks scattered about, giving the place a fun, laid-back vibe. It’s a little bit retro, a little bit funky and a whole lot of flavor. Behind this pickle lover’s dream are Charlotte and Shai Tzabari, the visionary co-founders of Olive My Pickle, a brand dedicated to gut health and the art of fermentation.
But the Pickle Factory’s story doesn’t begin there. It began 14 years ago when Shai was feeling a bit homesick, so he started making pickles on the kitchen counter to recreate the tastes and smells of Israel. It took a few more years before they actually did something with the pickles they were making. During that time, Charlotte and Shai were living out their “hippie homestead” dream on an urban micro-farm. As they worked the land, they started experimenting with pickles. When they finally put their creations on the table, they were an instant hit — way more popular than the vegetables they had been selling at local markets.
Pickles are delicious, sure, but what truly set Charlotte and Shai apart at the bustling Riverside Farmers Market at RAM every Saturday wasn’t just their one-of-a-kind creations. It was their passion and commitment to spreading awareness about gut health, combined with their meticulous fermentation process, that made their stand impossible to miss and their mission unforgettable.
“So fermentation is different from regular pickles because it’s a saltwater brine process versus vinegar pickles. Oftentimes there’s sugar involved, you heat-can them and the big difference there besides, you know, some things on taste is that the vinegar pickles are pasteurized and there’s no live cultures, probiotics or live enzymes. They’re a dead processed food versus fermented foods are a live culture food,” Charlotte said. “And that creates a lot of good health benefits for the microbiome, gut health, which also happens to be a big trending topic in health and wellness, for a lot of reasons. But we did not set out to solve a problem or fill a gap in the marketplace. Shai just started making his grandmother’s pickles and that sort of evolved.”
As Charlotte shared, their journey began purely by chance. Everything changed when a customer approached their stand at the farmers market with an unexpected revelation: Their pickles had completely resolved her IBS. Unbeknownst to them, by faithfully following Shai’s grandmother’s recipe, they had been practicing the ancient art of lactic acid fermentation all along.
“That was the time that I realized, OK, we have something that’s beyond, just a farmer’s market. We could create a brand around this that wouldn’t just be like another cool pickle brand, there’s actually, like a health and wellness play here. That’s how we found ourselves in the fermented food business,” Charlotte explained.
While Olive My Pickle and the Pickle Factory fall under the same jurisdiction, it’s important to note that they are two separate entities. Olive My Pickle is Charlotte and Shai’s product line of fermented goods. While the Pickle Factory serves as the storefront and a home for their pickled creations, it’s more than just a place to stash jars. The two — storefront and product — coexist, but neither depends on the other to thrive.
“People have asked us for years, do you have a store? And our answer was always our website is our store or we’re at the farmers market. It was never a priority. Like the words “we don’t want to be shopkeepers” have come out of my mouth many, many times,” Charlotte said. “We had been renting and occupying the backspaces, but this space became available and our landlord told us about it. So we got the keys in July, and it was not zoned for retail. Everything top to bottom needed to be done. But since we’ve opened, it has been a crazy sprint. Never a dill moment.”
Even though Charlotte and Shai have their hands full with Olive My Pickle and the Pickle Factory, they have stayed true to their products and mission of making fermented foods accessible and fun.
“It started with Grandmother’s kosher dill. That’s actually still the number one product in our entire line today. But we have five different pickles and then we moved onto sauerkraut, then kimchi. And we have carried olives from the beginning also, so I think we have 14 kinds of olives. And then our most recent product we added was our live brine pickle juice,” Charlotte explained. “There are so many different ways to enjoy fermented food. It all goes back to spreading the news about, you know, fermented foods for gut health and to be successful with them and get the health outcomes you want is a lifestyle approach. It’s not a fad or a phase. You need to eat them every day, like three times a day as snacks or with meals. So to do that, you need a lot to choose from because it’s a lifelong habit. You don’t want to eat just the same thing every day, right? So we’re constantly giving our consumers different ways and ideas through recipes and emails and content and all that stuff.”
When you’re in the pickle business, you’ve got your staples — garlic, kosher dill, spicy — but we had to ask: have they pushed the envelope with any wild, unexpected flavors? The answer? Simple — and pretty obvious — yes, they have. Charlotte shared that they recently sold out of a holiday flavor: apple pie sauerkraut. Our first thought? Yeah, we weren’t sure either. But she quickly reminded us that there’s a big difference between regular sauerkraut and the kind they ferment, insisting that customers went wild for it. While it was a hit, Charlotte was quick to point out that they don’t want to fall into the trap of relying on shock value to sell their products. A fun flavor every now and then is cool, but they prefer to keep things grounded and stick to the classics. Except for pumpkin pie sauerkraut which will not be gracing the shelves… again.
“We’ve always wanted it to be fun and easy but also credible. So that’s been our approach with it all. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. It’s only pickles,” Charlotte said. “But also fermented foods really can and do change people’s lives because they’re so great for you.”
See more of the Pickle Factory here.
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