Historians believe the first cucumbers were pickled more than 4,000 years ago, that Cleopatra ate pickles as part of her beauty regimen, and Christopher Columbus rationed pickles to his sailors.
Fast forward to a mid-20th century Kentucky home, where Polly Whitehouse took a regular dill pickle and made something special for her family and friends. In 2018, Whitehouse’s daughter and granddaughter launched Polly’s Pickles, which soon would become a bustling business.
Polly’s Pickles Past
Like many family-owned culinary businesses, it began with a homemade recipe. Whitehouse took a jar of dill pickles, marinated them and then served them as an unlikely side dish for big dinners.
“She only had them on special occasions like Christmas and Easter, and it was just a big treat,” her daughter, Karen Larimore, said. “I have happy memories of childhood sitting around our dining room table … and at the end of the meal, we would pass these around. And that’s where a lot of family history and stories were told and where you learned who you were in the family. So, I connect that with the pickles.”
Larimore’s daughter, Polly Reynolds, has fond memories of her namesake.
“Obviously, my memories are a little different, but [they] did revolve around the table,” Reynolds said. “I remember that when my grandmother did make [the pickles], she would make them in these big jars. I didn’t even know anything about it; I just knew that whatever was in that big jar turned into something really good.”
That big jar contained Whitehouse’s marinade, in which the pickles rested for five days and later chilled in the refrigerator. Larimore and Reynolds stick to that same recipe and process when making Polly’s Pickles.
“You start with dill pickles, and you slice them, and you marinate them,” Larimore said. “People ask us if it is a dill, and yes, it is a dill, but the dill has been changed. Our recipe is sweet and savory. It’s not exactly like a bread-and-butter pickle, either. Those are sweeter than ours. We have garlic in the marinade. We have bay leaves in the marinade … It’s a totally unique kind of taste. And as far as we know now, nobody has that same type of pickle out there.”
Back in Polly Whitehouse’s day, they were just a special dinner dish. For a few lucky teachers, family and friends, they also were treasured gifts from a woman who Larimore said epitomized hospitality.
When Whitehouse died in 1990, those same friends and family members asked Larimore and Reynolds if the pair could make them a batch or two or 10.
“They would ask for eight to 10 jars at a time,” Larimore said. “We didn’t have the jars. We didn’t have a label, and we were thinking, ‘Well, gee, this might be a business.’ ”
At the time, Larimore was an elementary school principal, and Reynolds was a nursing educator. It was natural that the duo wanted to educate themselves before launching a new venture—what it took to get certified by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and, more importantly to them, gain certification as a Kentucky Proud product.
“We wanted to get certified from the beginning,” Larimore said. “We felt like our business would be so much better if we had the state come in to look at what we’re doing and approve what we’re doing. We didn’t even start until we had all that behind us.”
Once that was done, a Kentucky Proud label soon followed, and Polly’s Pickles popped up on shelves at Paul’s Markets in Louisville. Larimore and Reynolds set up tasting tables at the stores, promising shoppers that if they tried just one pickle, they would be hooked. And most were.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Sales slowed but not for the usual reasons most businesses suffered during that time.
“It seemed like there was more demand than there was a supply for us, which is the opposite of what you normally saw,” Reynolds said. “But at that time, people were cooking more at home, and people were experimenting more with different things at home. So that really helped us out.”
Despite facing inventory shortages on pickles and jars, Larimore said the community support saved them.
“There are people who want to help you out and want to use local,” she said. “They looked us up and supported us. That’s another reason why we’ve survived.”
Polly’s Pickles Present
In addition to Paul’s Markets, Polly’s Pickles can be found at several meat markets in the Louisville area as well as local farmers markets, arts and crafts festivals, and holiday bazaars not only in Kentucky but in North Carolina and South Carolina.
While Polly’s Pickles has yet to become a large-scale operation, Reynolds said they stay busy since their pickles must be made on demand because they’re not shelf stable.
Larimore, who has since retired from full-time work as an educator, said the timing can be tricky.
“We have to make sure we don’t have too many, but we need just about enough, and we’ve gotten a feel for that,” Larimore said. “We know when people want them.”
The mother-daughter duo also learned more about each other in navigating the ups and downs of starting a family business.
“At times, [Polly] would get discouraged, and I’d say, ‘No, we’re going to keep at it.’ Then I would get discouraged, and she would say, ‘No, we’re gonna keep going,’ ” Larimore said. “It was a whole new world for us. We had no business background. None. It was just a different language, different types of people that you run into. But we both love it. We both love learning business. When I look back at how we started, we were so green. We learned together.”
Reynolds said they’re still learning and looking to expand the product line, while keeping true to her grandmother’s legacy.
“For the past couple of years, there’s been an explosion of pickles—whether it’s pickle popcorn or pickle potato chips and people using dill pickle juice in mixed drinks,” Reynolds said. “There’s just all these different aspects of what you can do with a pickle. It’s not just a sidelined vegetable anymore. It’s a part of the act, and we’d like to take advantage of that and see what our pickle can do to enhance … not just the having a little pickle on the side of your plate, but as a part of your meal and being a player in the game instead of sitting on the sidelines.”
“We’re constantly experimenting, and things are moving along,” Larimore said. “Thank goodness the world loves pickles.”
For more information about Polly’s Pickles, visit pollyspickles.com.