The Ground Floor: ‘From seed to store’ for Brighton herb farm

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jocelyn Engman said that her background as a chemist has proved useful in her new occupation.

But instead of working with chemical compounds in a laboratory, Engman experiments with combinations of olive oil, vinegar and herbs in a kitchen.

Engman and her husband, Tim, are the owners of Pickle Creek Herbs, an organic herb farm in Brighton. In April, they opened a space in NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids to sell their herb-infused olive oils and vinegars.

'We take the process from seed to store,' Engman said. 'We grow herbs, garlic, peppers and berries and make our own recipes. By and large, everything we grow goes into olive oil and vinegar.'

The Engmans first met at Central College in Pella, where they were lab partners in chemistry class. After college, they moved to Chicago to work as chemists. But their plans changed.

'We volunteered at a CSA farm in the Chicago area and liked it so much that we decided to come home and be farmers,' Engman recalled.

In 2004, they began farming on the 100-acre farm that had been in Engman's family for at least four generations.

'We started out growing lots of different vegetables, but wanted to do something stable that we could sell year-round,' she said.

They decided that herb-based products were the way to go. In 2006, Engman infused her first olive oil — a Greek basil and garlic recipe that she created herself.

'It's still our most popular to this day,' she said.

They started selling their oils and vinegars at the Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and other area farmers markets.

In 2009, they built a commercial kitchen in Fairfield. In 2016, they added a tasting room and retail space next door to the kitchen.

Engman said they had considered opening a shop at NewBo City Market for a long time.

'We needed enough infrastructure and people to make it happen,' she said. 'We knew it would be hard to add four days in Cedar Rapids on top of everything else we do.'

Then the owner of Zaza's Pasta suggested a labor-sharing arrangement. The two businesses are located next to each other and take turns staffing the combined space.

Pickle Creek Herbs currently offers nine kinds of infused olive oils and eight varieties of vinegar, which visitors to the NewBo City Market shop may sample. The business also sells dried herbs and herbal body care products such as soaps, salves and balms.

Engman said that she and her husband eventually would like to expand the business by opening retail stores in Des Moines and Davenport as well as other locations in Iowa.

'We came here to NewBo to learn how to be bigger than the farmers market,' she said.

[naviga:h3 style="padding-left: 30px;"]AT A GLANCE

Owners: Jocelyn and Tim Engman

Business: Pickle Creek Herbs

Address: 1100 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

Telephone: (319) 694-3054

Website: www.PickleCreek.com

Know a business that's been in operation for less than a year that would make a good 'Ground Floor'? Contact michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com