Pickles are the third most consumed fast food in the USA.
Pickles are the third most consumed fast food in the USA.
Pickle It Up didn’t start as a large company. It started as one man, one Charleston factory, and a traditional pickle recipe that refused to cut corners. All of our products today, from homemade E-Z Pickle kits to spice blends, trace back to that same starting point in South Carolina.
In the 1970s, Jack Kahn launched Jack’s Pickleworks with a simple mission: bring real, small-batch kosher dill pickles to a Charleston community that took its food seriously. No cooking. No shortcuts. Just a carefully developed spice blend, and a cold-brine method that lets time do the work.
It caught on fast. At his busiest, Jack and Alexis was supplying artisan pickles to more than 50 restaurants across the Lowcountry, from neighborhood diners to white-tablecloth dining rooms. His kosher dill pickles, half-sour pickles, and pickled vegetables quietly became part of some of Charleston’s most-loved dishes.
In 1996, longtime friend Alexis Kong-Van De Wiel, joined the business, with her friend Nora. A one-person kitchen became a real, three-person team. They expanded the product line, strengthened relationships with local farmers, and introduced Pickle It Up to Charleston’s farmers’ markets for the first time, putting jars directly into the hands of home cooks rather than just restaurant kitchens.
That direct contact changed everything. Customers weren’t just buying the pickles anymore; they wanted the recipe. They wanted to know the spices, the timing, the method. That demand is the reason a homemade Pickling kit exists under the Pickle It Up name at all.
Thirty-five years later, the recipe hasn’t changed, only how you get it has. You can now buy pickle kits online instead of tracking down a farmers market stall, and every kit still uses the original 1990 spice blend and cold-brine method.
If you want to buy supplies for a kosher dill pickle kit, our E-Z Kosher Dill Pickling Kit is the closest thing to Jack’s very first batch, with a spice blend, containers, and instructions included, enough to make up to 8 quarts.
If you’d rather buy half-sour pickle kit ingredients for a milder, fresher-tasting cure, that same 1990 method scales down into our E-Z Half Sour Pickling Kit.
When stocking a kitchen from scratch, our complete range of homemade pickle supplies, including containers, spice blends, refills, and seasoning rubs, has everything you need for your first batch or to develop a weekend habit.
Alexis Kong-Van De Weil joined the team in 1996, after a long friendship with Jack led her to see potential in what had been a one person kitchen operation. Alongside her friend Nora, Alexis helped turn Pickle It Up from a solo project into a real, three person team. Together they expanded the product range beyond the original kosher dill and deepened relationships with local farmers. They also brought Pickle It Up to Charleston’s farmers markets for the first time, putting jars directly into customers’ hands instead of only supplying restaurants.
It was that direct contact with home cooks that sparked the idea for the pickle kit itself: people didn’t just want to eat the pickles, they wanted to know how to make them. Alexis has been part of translating that 35 year old recipe into something anyone can make at home, kit by kit. That’s the whole team, and that’s exactly how we like it. If you want the fuller story of how a two person team in Charleston ended up shipping pickle kits across the United States, our About page walks through the entire journey, from Jack’s first batch in 1990 to the kits we ship today.
We’ve also been lucky enough to have that story picked up by outlets like the Post & Courier, which covers a lot of the food culture here in the Lowcountry.
It’s a strange thing to be recognized for, honestly we never set out to be written about, we just wanted to make good pickles the way Jack always had. But if a small team doing things the slow, old-fashioned way is worth a mention, we’re not going to argue with that.
If you’re curious what the next 30 years of this team looks like, the honest answer is probably a lot like the first 30. Same kitchen, same spice blend, same two names on the label.
Jack Kahn founded Pickle It Up in 1970, originally known as Jack’s Pickleworks. He developed a small-batch kosher dill pickle recipe using a distinctive spice blend and cold-brine method. His passion for quality helped establish Pickle It Up as a trusted Charleston pickle supplier, with his pickles reaching more than 50 local restaurants. His original recipe, methods, and commitment to quality continue to shape Pickle It Up today. His legacy lives on through the E-Z homemade pickle kits, allowing home cooks to enjoy the same pickle-making tradition Jack started more than three decades ago.