Pickles are the name of the game for Peter Piper’s in NewBo City Market

Bob Szczesniak, proprietor of Peter Piper’s pickle shop, has always been a pickle guy.

“When I eat them, I wipe out a whole jar,” he said. “When I was a kid, family members would wonder where the pickles went.”

He and his wife, Barb, opened their shop in Cedar Rapids’ NewBo City Market over the Fourth of July weekend, selling gourmet pickles in a variety of flavors, including the popular Bloody Mary flavor — which does not include any alcohol.

“We love to say that it’s a snack and a drink,” Barb said. “When you’re done with the pickles, the brine is a good mix. It’s really a unique product we’ve brought to this area, but honestly the idea was just me loving Bloody Marys.”

They also offer various spicy flavors, classic dill and others.

The couple live in Robins, and Bob is a full-time sewer maintenance worker for the City of Cedar Rapids when he’s not pickling.

Bob, who originally hails from Chicago, has pickled for more than 15 years.

“This has been our hobby and now we’re taking it to the next level,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve made them for family and friends, and we’ve been told to be in the Farmers Market many times, which we haven’t done yet. Eventually we will, but we just got up and running here and the response has been fantastic.”

Just pickling at home, the couple went through 900 pounds of cucumbers in July 2021. While their garden does get bigger each year, they order their cucumbers through a Marion distributor.

“We used to grow our own but we simply can’t keep up with that,” Bob said. “There’s just no way.”

Now, they get around 200 pounds a week and do a four-hour cook, four to five days per week.

“It keeps us busy and off the street,” Bob joked.

“I often get things going, washing and prepping before he gets home from work to give us that head start,” Barb added. “It’s quite the operation for us.”

While they haven’t been to any farmers market, their shop in NewBo screams pickle. The ivy along the window and the inflatable pickle that was part of Bob’s birthday at the city market are great, inviting touches for customers. And the wall paint color name even had the word “pickle” in it, Barb said.

The pickle game is an extremely serious business venture. Bob has had to take hours of online courses about better process controls with the FDA. The system for being permitted to make and sell acidified foods is more extensive than for opening other food businesses.

“Our recipes have to be OK'd and proofed by a process authority, a microbiologist in food,” he said. “We work with a university in Nebraska and our recipes have been lab-tested and checked with a fine-toothed comb. ... It’s a costly start up, but once we have those recipes approved, they’re good indefinitely. But I can’t change them at all without going through the process again.”

Bob said they have started to also pilot bruschetta and are looking at expanding into salsa and other canned varieties in the future.

“We are a two-person operation and we are held to the same industry standards as the conglomerates,” he said. “No matter how many we put out while they sell millions, we’re at that same standard. It’s good and it’s been a learning experience.”

The couple have been approved, open and selling pickles, and enjoying the space at NewBo. Barb has enjoyed getting to know and work with the other businesses in the space.

“The other vendors are so great,” she said. “We’ve teamed up, doing pickles for Caribbean Kitchen and Torch. So it’s been kind of fun. Everyone pulls together and supports each other. It really is very much a family in NewBo.”

“NewBo has made this really easy,” Bob added. “They’ve given us a great home base with folks that come through the door on a regular basis.”

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