Texas family keeps tradition alive with pickle company
By Todd Boatwright | Spectrum News
The Hill Country-based Fickle Pickle company got its start decades ago in a unique way. Creator Billie Shaw had opened a store in Boerne just to sell antiques, and business wasn’t exactly booming. “But she did have this recipe that she had come up with for pickles that she always made for us and for our family and friends,” said daughter Lisa Obriotti. Shaw decided to sell her pickles in the store.
“She said, ‘What are we going to call it?’ And I don’t know why, but off the top of my head I said, ‘Fickle Pickles,’ and that was the only name we decided on and thought about and it stuck,” said Obriotti. Obriotti and her husband took over Fickle Pickles in the early 2000s. The crunchy fermented cucumbers caught on with customers, from ordinary people to politicians. “When George Bush was running for governor, he came in and bought the pickles and said his parents were big fans of pickles,” Obriotti said. Martha Stewart found out about Fickle Pickles and invited Obriotti on her show.
As the business grew, so did the secrecy surrounding the ingredients. Obriotti’s own mother kept pretty tight-lipped about the recipe. “She didn’t even tell me how she made them until she retired,” she said. The pickles are still packed by hand in glass jars. Obriotti says it’s her job to keep her mother’s legacy alive. “I feel like she’s still with us. I think she’s watching over us and that’s always a good feeling,” she said.