The Pickling Siren

You may not have heard of Dr. Claw or the infamous Grilled Cheese Guy, but each made headlines last year selling great food product out of their apartments in New York.  Dr. Claw sold lobster rolls and the Grilled Cheese Guy, operating as "Bread.Butter.Cheese" sold gourmet-style grilled cheese sandwiches.  Yes, each were in violation of health codes by doing so - Dr. Claw was eventually forced to shut down by the department of health and Ronnie, the Grilled Cheese Guy, in deciding to pursue his passion of cooking by getting a culinary job, shut down on his own.  Out of this recession have emerged creative entrepreneurs like Ronnie and Dr. Claw, who operate sometimes illegally on shoestring budgets. We were lucky enough to find another budding food entrepreneur in Dallas by the name of Camille Cortinas.  Yes, that's her real name, and she says she's able to avoid any health code violations by offering her homemade pickles - literally made from her house, under suggestion donation prices - donation being the key word ($10 for a quart, $5 for a pint).  

This past winter, Camille became inspired to make pickles by her Mom, who eventually purchased a complete pickling set for her daughter. We caught up with Camille on one of her manufacturing days.  Make no mistake, Camille is serious about the manufacturing process and the fact that everything has to be meticulously clean and sterilized.  But you can tell she really enjoys doing it, and her passion is certainly reflected in the quality of her product - delicious pickles with a perfect balance of sour, salt, and sometimes, sweet flavors. Juicy and plump, while still very crisp. 

Most of her product is either organic or grown in her yard.  Her current product offering includes dill pickles, bread and butter pickles (sweeter), pickled vegetable/pepper medley, and pickled okra.  She recently started making a special mix for the martini and Bloody Mary drinks, and she's constantly experimenting on new things to pickle.  Oh yes, and Camille is also a very talented singer songwriter who has just released her full length album "Taken Apart."  You can catch her around town, or hear her on the stereo at Starbucks, who's "Hear Music" division has recently picked up two of her songs.  

If you'd like to buy her pickles, she sells the pickles at her concerts or you can simply go to her Facebook page and place an order - she does do delivery, you get $0.50 off if you bring back an old jar, and she takes all forms of payment including barter.  Camille's music can be found on both iTunes and Amazon.