Our story doesn’t begin with Ba-Tampte Pickles’ extraordinary success; it goes back for at least four prior generations to an area in Eastern Europe known as Jezierney, sometimes part of: Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Germany, Russia, and even the Ottoman Empire. Mid-nineteenth century, Aaron Zylberstein married a pickle man’s daughter. In those days they pickled everything: fruits, vegetables, fish, even meats. Every month they would traipse across the Dniester River to the big city, Czernowics, to sell their products. What to do with the new brother-in-law? After all, their sister had to eat… They gave him rights over this hard to process fruit/vegetable, Kirbys. It didn’t process like the other produce; vinegar softened it, it would ferment itself until it became mush, taste was also a problem. After much experimentation, and near-starvation, he got it right. He did not share his secrets with the brothers-in-law. Instead, he taught his son, Reuven Shlomo, all he learned and, what not to do.

Reuven Shlomo took his trade to America, where he improved on the family business model and peddled his wares daily, not monthly, on a pushcart. His sons, Meyer and Boomie, took it to the next level and sold from a stand, in the Essex Street Retail market.

The “jar business” eventually took off, but the Silberstein family always remained true to the effort and commitment to the product that has been our legacy, in every sense of the word, from its inception.