By Jasen Lee, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Getting a new business up and running takes patience, determination and a fair amount of courage, especially if you literally have to mortgage everything you own to raise the financial capital necessary to keep it going.

In 2011, when Allison and Andrew Cesati launched Yee-Haw Pickles — a company specializing in chemical-free, gourmet pickles — they had plenty of patience and determination, but they soon found obtaining the needed funding would also require all the courage they could muster.

Before becoming first-time entrepreneurs, both had good management-level careers in the ski industry in Park City. But they became concerned about their futures as the recession struck its hardest, and they decided to make a life-altering change, hopefully for the better in the long run.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in our jobs at the time,” Allison Cesati said. “It was kind of tenuous.”

They decided to “take their destiny into their own hands.”

“We both quit our jobs the same day,” Cesati, 39, recalled. “We just went for it.”

They got into the pickle business because they couldn’t find pickles that were produced without artificial ingredients or preservatives.

“So my husband I just decided that we would make them ourselves,” explained the self-professed foodie. She noted that while she and her husband are not “over-the-top foodies,” they try to steer clear of too much sugar (in their diets) and other less healthy food choices.

In order to start the business, the couple cashed in their 401(k) retirement accounts and used that money to get started, but they didn’t anticipate all the challenges that would materialize and how much funding they really needed.

Allison Cesati said they were so optimistic about their ability to succeed in the endeavor that they may have not planned as well as they should have.

“If we would have really thought logically about it, we might not have jumped in,” she said with a laugh. “We’ve also heard from other entrepreneurs, ‘If we knew then what we know now, we might not have done it.’”

Despite the trepidation, having already made the leap, they needed a way to fund their company and keep it going. That’s when they sought help from a local bank that suggested they take out a loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, something a number of local companies have done increasingly this year.

The agency provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses with its mission “to maintain and strengthen the nation’s economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses and by assisting in the economic recovery of communities after disasters.” The agency accomplishes those goals through capital, contracts and counseling.

SBA loans are made through banks, credit unions and other lending partners. The agency provides a government-backed guarantee on a portion of the loan.

The number of approved SBA 7(a) loans — the most common type of financing offered by the SBA — increased 13 percent in the administration’s Utah district during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The 7(a) program offers up to 25-year, fully amortized loans that can be used for most business purposes, including the purchase of real estate for business operations, acquisition of equipment and working capital, said SBA lender relations specialist Ted Elliott.

The agency’s Utah district office fields hundreds of loan requests through local lenders annually, he aid, for loan amounts up to $5 million. Last year, the Utah district office approved 1,183 loans for more than $400 million — an all-time high amount for the state, Elliott said.

Those funds have helped create thousands of jobs and help bolster the local economy, he added.

On average, small businesses employ 500 or fewer workers, though that number can be higher, he noted. With more than half of the nation’s workforce employed at a small business, they are the life-blood of the state and national economy, he said.

“We want (small businesses) to be successful because then they are hiring people and paying wages, paying taxes, and it comes back to us,” he said. “It’s the circle of (economic) life.”

The agency also provides support to its counseling partners, including SCORE — a nationwide volunteer mentor corps of retired and experienced business leaders, approximately 900 small business development centers typically located on college campuses, along with more than 100 women’s business centers around the country.

Elliott said that the agency will fund every aspect of a business entity except for profit, in an effort to help sustain their operation.

“We will help them make their payroll, their marketing, purchasing equipment, (as well as) their receivables and payables,” he said. “We’re very flexible with what we will help them with.”

For North Ogden business owner Philip Child, being able to access the resources of the SBA through his lender Zions Bank enabled him to launch a new entrepreneurial venture after spending 38 years as the owner of a grocery/hardware store.

Child, 54, sold his first business in May, then dove right into a new endeavor. This time, he is opening the first of what he hopes to eventually become two stand-alone Ace Hardware stores.

The initial location will be in a building he is leasing that is currently being renovated and is scheduled to open in January. When it’s up and running, the store will create 11 new jobs with the SBA loan he received.

“(Now) with the help of the SBA, I have the potential for opening two stores instead of one,” Child said. “I probably couldn’t have done it without them.”

He also said that having the assistance of SBA and his bank has helped him realize his dream of entrepreneurship.

Similarly, Allison Cesati said she is grateful for the education and funding provided by the agency. Today, her company has signed significant commercial deals with Whole Foods Market and Associated Foods to sell their products in stores across the country, along with several smaller local retail agreements.

She added that while there have been highs and lows during the more than four years they have been in the pickle business, the peaks have been greater than the valleys. At this point, they are “all-in” for the long haul, she said.

“There are definitely challenges and struggles,” Cesati said. “But as our business is more able to sustain itself, it’s becoming more and more fun.”

Alex Meier   –   ABC7 New York

To New Yorkers, the pickle is more than a salty cucumber that pairs nicely with a burger.

“New York City should be called the Big Pickle instead of the Big Apple,” says Alan Kufman of The Pickle Guys.

But what makes the pickle more “New York” than a bagel or a taxicab?

According to Lower East Side Tenement Museum associate Adam Steinberg, the pickle is – both literally and figuratively – a preserved memory, unique to the region.

“The pickle represents a New York that is disappearing, as it becomes a more gentrified, corporate chain store kind of place. We hunger for the artisanal, old-fashioned, handmade, personal relationship,” he said. “It makes us feel like New York is unique and not just another big city.”

In fact, New York City pickles are older than the city itself. The Dutch, and later the English, brought pickles from Europe. Without modern refrigeration, pickles provided these early settlers a way to eat veggies during the barren winter months.

But by the turn of the 19th century, the influx of immigration caused an explosion in pickle production. Unable to speak English, immigrants of Polish, German and Jewish decent employed themselves through buying pushcarts and selling pickles on the streets.

The first pushcart peddlers opened shop in the 1860s, said Steinberg, but by 1900, there were about 3,000 in the city, primarily in the Lower East Side. By 1910, the stench of dill and garlic clogged Essex Street, leaking into the walls of tenements and spilling into surrounding neighborhoods. The airspace was also overwhelmed with the sound of mothers haggling with pickle peddlers over mere pennies.

“Pennies were the difference between having to treat their sick child and burying their child,” said Steinberg.

In time, a coalition of police, health and safety officials and store owners fought to jar up the pickled pandemonium. By 1940, New York City outright banned street commerce. Over the years, more and more pickle stores began to close up, leaving only a handful, like The Pickle Guys.

“People in all the stores get old, and their children don’t want to go into this business because it’s a lot of work. They smell like pickles. So they go and become dentists or accountants,” said Kufman.

Still, Patricia Fairhurst, owner of Clinton Hill Pickles, sees a bright future for the pickle business.

“A lot of people, they’re into healthier food, and a lot of kids, they eat more healthy,” she says. “So it’s kind of going in full circle.”

Did you know that you can pickle just about any vegetable you can grow?  Pickling is a great way to preserve food that would otherwise spoil! It enables us to enjoy vegetables year round, even when they are not in season. We’ll learn how the process works and use herbs, spices, and vinegar to make a pickle mix that adds a whole new flavor to a variety of veggies. Girls should bring an 8 oz jar to take home the veggies they pickle. SoFAB will have a limited number of jars for sale on the day of if you forget!

There will be three hour-long sessions, with a maximum of 25 girl scouts per hour. Please purchase your tickets for the correct hour.

Tickets

Please be sure to purchase your advance tickets by Friday, November 13 to ensure we have enough supplies for your group.

Special Girl Scout discount rate of $8 per participant which includes the activity and entrance to the museum. SoFAB allows up to 3 free chaperons for each troop, additional adults will be charged $5 for museum entrance. Troops must reserve participation slots in advance by calling 504-569-0405 or purchasing a ticket below. Participation slots are available on a first come, first serve basis. Tickets are also available for the February 20, 2016 Girl Scout Class: The Art of Pasta Making. Please be sure to choose the correct date!

For more information, please contact Jennie Merrill at camp@southernfood.org or 504-569-0405.

Please choose the date and time you would like to attend below. If you have any issues with the ticketing software or would prefer to make your reservation on the phone, please call us at 504-267-7490 during the week or 504-569-0405 on weekends. Tickets may be refunded or exchanged up to 48 hours prior to the event. After 48 hours no refunds will be available.

• Saturday, November 14, 2015
• 11:00am 2:00pm

• Southern Food and Beverage Museum1504 Oretha Castle Haley BoulevardNew Orleans, LA, 70113United States

About SoFAB

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum and The Museum of the American Cocktail host a variety of programs in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and beyond. See the below schedule for upcoming cooking programs, lectures, and tastings. Interested in booking your next private event at the amazing Southern Food and Beverage Museum? Learn more here!

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is partnering with Girl Scouts of America to host occasional cooking classes. Only Girl Scouts are eligible to join these classes at this time.

By Carmen Machado | NPR

The Pickle Index app — one way to experience Eli Horowitz’s newest novel and multimedia project — opens with what looks like an ad for an Apple product. Millennials gather to feast together in a stylishly decorated home, laughing and communing silently behind a veneer of electric pop. They lay down newspaper; they tuck napkins into their shirt collars. But instead of plates of steamed seafood or roasted vegetables, a tray is overturned before them, and there are … pickles. Huge, meaty dill pickles. The hip young friends joyfully pick up the pickles. (Sorry.) They gnaw on them with relish. (Sorry, again.) They laugh and laugh and smile and laugh through pulpy mouthfuls of masticated cucumber. By then, it’s less of a commercial for an iPhone and more of a surreal illustration of the kind of life you could have in a world where everything is pickled and pickles are everything.

But to the story, that is to say, the actual narrative of The Pickle Index in all of its iterations: In an oppressive autocracy, Zloty Kornblatt and his sad little circus couldn’t get a laugh if they tried. But then one fateful night — through a series of comical mishaps, and without trying at all — he is unintentionally funny, and accidentally impersonates The Prime Mother of their government, Madam J, and her beloved pet octopus Simeon. Zloty brings down the house, but unfortunately, there’s an informer in the audience. The next day, he is gone, taken in the night, leaving his inept, ragtag group of performers to head to the capital city to find him and bring him home.

This story, told in alternating chapters, is narrated by Flora, Zloty’s assistant, and is ostensibly being written down by her and fed into The Pickle Index, the city’s cumbersome cucumber (Forgive me!) network, full of briny and fermented recipes for citizens to make in their own homes. The chapters between Flora’s narration take the form of columns from the local newspaper, The Daily Scrutinizer. Zloty has been taken, Hank Hamper writes, because of his subversion. But Hank’s absurd allegations have a sinister edge: Zloty is in danger of perfunctory trial and a seemingly infinite menu of outlandish execution methods.

There are three ways to experience The Pickle Index, all of which can stand on their own. The first is its paperback novel, which is entirely text aside from small black-and-white woodcuts. The second is a hardcover, two-book set. These books are gorgeously illustrated by Ian Huebert, but they stand out for other reasons. The two books are not simply the paperback with color; instead, they are the two types of chapters separated: the “News” (from The Daily Scrutinizer) and the “Snacks” (Flora’s more or less straightforward narration of the story). These books can be read separately, but the illustrations in each encourage the reader to read the books back and forth, or at the very least turn and twirl the illustrations to see how they connect with, compliment, or contradict each other.

As for the app, it is different thing entirely, while still being more of the same. Within the app are the two sections yet again: the newspaper, and Flora’s chapters nestled amongst the Index. Once the reader has read the necessarily elements, they can progress through the story in real time, or with the narrative accelerated. Additionally, the app has one-off jokes and minor side plots — including two soldiers trapped in a submarine together, squabbling in the Q&A section. You, the reader, are also integrated into this frustrating world, and have to (among other things) manipulate the Index’s deliberately clunky interface.

Eli Horowitz is known for his multi-platform, interactive literary collaborations, including The Silent History, which tracked a fictional epidemic of muteness across time and distance, and was a print novel and an app. He has an active interest in form. And in many ways, The Pickle Index is a delight — the narration is laugh-out-loud funny. There is a certain pathos, though, that doesn’t quite come through; this is a project with slightly more style than substance.

In an ideal world, each form wouldn’t have just been its own experience; together, they should have generated new questions, something greater than the sum of their parts. But for readers who are interested in the potential energy of form, or Horowitz’s oeuvre, The Pickle Index is a fun, strange romp through (last one, promise) an absurdly cured world.

Carmen Maria Machado has written for The New Yorker, The Paris Review and AGNI, among other publications.