A few passing clouds. Low 56F. Winds light and variable..
A few passing clouds. Low 56F. Winds light and variable.
Matt Wilder and Tina Brown perform a final inspection of pickles before they are packed for customers.
This signed photo from the late Frank Sinatra is on display in the showroom at Sechler’s Pickles.
Tori Beagle pours brine into jars of newly packed pickles.
Max Troyer has been with Sechler’s Pickles since 1997, serving as general manager for 10 years before purchasing the business in early 2008.
Ralph Sechler established Sechler’s Pickles in 1921. He worked for the D.M. Sears Co. of Fort Wayne when it built a pickle receiving and salting station in St. Joe. In 1920, Sears leased three of the stations to Sechler.
The showroom at Sechler’s Pickles features a large assortment of pickles and other products packed at the factory in St. Joe. While tastings are not allowed at this time, the showroom is open for visitors.
Sechler’s employee Cindy Resor hand-packs pickles.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent this letter to Sechler’s Pickles after an assortment of pickles was delivered to the White House in 1954.
Sonda Doctor conducts an inspection of pickles before they are cut.
Frank Sechler became involved in his father’s business while still in high school in the 1940s. Frank retired from the business in 1996.
A vat of pickles is ready for packing at Sechler’s Pickles.
Matt Wilder and Tina Brown perform a final inspection of pickles before they are packed for customers.
This signed photo from the late Frank Sinatra is on display in the showroom at Sechler’s Pickles.
Tori Beagle pours brine into jars of newly packed pickles.
Max Troyer has been with Sechler’s Pickles since 1997, serving as general manager for 10 years before purchasing the business in early 2008.
Ralph Sechler established Sechler’s Pickles in 1921. He worked for the D.M. Sears Co. of Fort Wayne when it built a pickle receiving and salting station in St. Joe. In 1920, Sears leased three of the stations to Sechler.
The showroom at Sechler’s Pickles features a large assortment of pickles and other products packed at the factory in St. Joe. While tastings are not allowed at this time, the showroom is open for visitors.
Sechler’s employee Cindy Resor hand-packs pickles.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent this letter to Sechler’s Pickles after an assortment of pickles was delivered to the White House in 1954.
Sonda Doctor conducts an inspection of pickles before they are cut.
Frank Sechler became involved in his father’s business while still in high school in the 1940s. Frank retired from the business in 1996.
A vat of pickles is ready for packing at Sechler’s Pickles.
ST. JOE — There’s something special about crunching into a sweet orange strip or dill pickle from Sechler’s Pickles.
For 100 years, little has changed since Ralph Sechler established the company just outside of St. Joe.
According to its website, sechlerspickles.com, the company said many of its processes of making pickles have changed very little, if at all.
Today, the business offers more than 50 varieties of pickles and salsa.
In addition to the factory and showroom at St. Joe, Sechler’s also operates an outlet store in Fremont. While plant tours and tastings are not available due to COVID-19 restrictions, visitors can still buy pickles, showroom manager Kathy Pearson said.
While other companies have switched to high-fructose corn syrup, sugar continues to be a key ingredient in the Sechler’s sweetening process, owner Max Troyer explained.
Cucumbers come to St. Joe from growers throughout the Midwest. At the factory, the cucumbers are separated by machine and graded into several different sizes.
After grading, cucumbers that will become fresh pack varieties are rinsed and cleaned before they are cut and sliced for packing. Fresh pack varieties include Polish dill pickles and kosher spears.
Sweet, fresh pack pickles pass through one sweetening process prior to cutting. Sweetened fresh pack varieties include sweet bread and butter cucumber slices, sweet bread and butter onions and sweet sliced green tomatoes.
Cucumbers destined to become processed, sweet or candied pickles are first cured in tanks before they are rinsed and cleaned.
After rinsing and cleaning, sweet pickles go through one round of sweetening. Candied pickles go through a second sweetening process before they are packed and labeled.
Examples of sweetened process products include sweet gherkins and sweet pickle relish. Candied products include sweet heat and candied sweet orange chunks.
The business was established in 1921, but the company’s roots go back to before the First World War.
In 1914, the D.M. Sears Co. built a pickle receiving and salting station in St. Joe near the former grain elevator.
Ralph Sechler, who was a teacher, worked for the Sears Co. during summers before and after his service in World War I.
After his military discharge in 1919, Sechler returned to work for Sears and was eventually placed in charge of the company’s 11 receiving stations. In addition to St. Joe, there were receiving stations in Butler, Hamilton, Angola, Fremont, LaOtto, and Edgerton and Edon, Ohio.
Sechler would deliver “brine stock” — freshly-picked cucumbers in salt brine — by horse-drawn wagon to St. Joe, where it would be transported by rail to Sears in Fort Wayne.
By 1921, Sechler leased two pickle stations from the company, getting his start in business under the name St. Joe Valley Brands, while shipping brine stock to other companies, such as Heinz.
The initial pickling operation took place in the back kitchen of the Sechler household, which still stands and continues to be used as office space next to the factory north of St. Joe on S.R. 1.
In later years, the home’s basement was enlarged so pickle barrels could be repacked there. By the early 1930s, Sechler sold pickles and relish in bulk, using wooden kegs and barrels. Some were sold directly to restaurants.
According to a company brochure, Sechler’s wife, Anne, hand-packed jars for consumers in the kitchen, often with help from some neighbor ladies.
The business eventually became too big for the house. A barn on the property was converted into a factory. The barn burned in a 1937 fire, and a masonry building was constructed as a replacement, which continues to be used today.
When Ralph and Anne’s son, Frank, joined the business in 1948, it was renamed Ralph Sechler & Son.
Following Ralph’s death, Frank took over management of the company. In 1990, Frank partially retired, with his son and daughter, Dave and Karen Linn, taking over management of the company.
By 1996, Frank retired as president of the company. Troyer, who joined the company as general manager in 1997, purchased Sechler’s Pickles in early 2008.
Troyer remembers his family raising onions for Sechler’s, and he worked for the company during college.
He pursued a degree in horticulture at Michigan State University, working for Heinz, and later joined a regional company based in Louisville, Kentucky.
After completing his master’s degree, Troyer joined Sechler’s as general manager.
“You grow up on a farm, and you have a little bit of that entrepreneurial background,” Troyer said. “I’ve looked at my education as three different levels: at home, growing up on a farm; at MSU going to college and working for Heinz.
“It gave you a different perspective on the world.”
The business has changed, and the company continues to evolve.
When Troyer joined Sechler’s, the recipe book was about two inches thick. Now, he said, there are multiple books at least that thick.
“We’re probably a better company today,” Troyer said. “It used to be that a lot of the stuff was in people’s heads. They’ve been here for 20 years and ‘This is the way we do it.’
“Sometimes, you’ve got to re-learn it,” he explained. “This structure is more conducive to the environment we’re in. You don’t necessarily have the 30-year employee or the 40-year employee.”
While the business has evolved, a Sechler’s pickle still has that great crunch and taste.
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