“We have a small processing plant where we make 18,000 to 20,000 jars a year, and we grow most everything that we can,” said Galen Klisiewicz, when asked about his glass jarred canning business named ‘Let’s Get Pickled,’ located east of Highway G near this highway’s merger with County Highway S. “We are not organic, but we do not use chemical for bugs or weeds and only use what we mulch back for gardens,” Klisiewicz added of the locally owned canning company. Started almost a decade ago, ‘Let’s Get Pickled’ itself is part of a larger umbrella company also started and owned by Klisiewicz called Otter Creek Sales LLC, with headquarters located at 34019 185th Avenue, north of Stanley.

With 115 retail store vendors spread out “from Shawano to Hudson and Rice Lake almost to the Dells,” Let’s Get Pickled is a locally grown, but still widely known brand across the state of Wisconsin. With the exception of the mushrooms and asparagus, which Klisiewicz said are contracted out by Let’s Get Pickled, the business northwest of Otter Lake starts growing its product in greenhouses on March 1st, with production continuing through September of each year. Now approaching the seventh or eighth year in terms of its sales operations, Let’s Get Pickled began a long time ago, when Klisiewicz first learned how to make canned preserves—but how was that you ask?

“From the grandmas, from the Polish grandmas,” Klisiewicz shared, additionally crediting his mom with helping teach him how to can vegetables for household use, thereby setting the stage for his present business venture. Let’s Get Pickled is registered with the State of Wisconsin, a process which Klisiewicz said requires going to school and getting certified to do acidified (vinegar treated) foods, along with maintaining a commercial kitchen and recipes that are approved by the State.

“To preserve it, (the product) has to be at a certain acid level,” Klisiewicz said of the canning process. Meanwhile, quality standards for outside sale require that this same pH acid level needs to be the same each and every time. As for the finished product, offerings from Let’s Get Pickled on display recently at local retailers included pickled asparagus, pickled Brussel sprouts, Russian dills, Packer pickles, Kosher dill pickles, Sweet banana pepper dills, bread and butter pickle slices, three different types of salsa (including raspberry!) and pickled mushrooms and beets, along with “hot pickled dilly beans,” or in other words ‘long string beans,’ along with German dills, to list just some options. But as for why he got into the canning preserves business?

“It’s a challenge,” Klisiewicz said. “This is America, this is where you have the opportunity to do free enterprise. If you’re good at what you do you can survive on it.”

But before closing out our review, it’s time for a little tasting. Taking the advice of a local seller, we bought some Russian Dills for sampling. Popping the seal back at home and taking one out by fork, the Russian Dills seem less tangy and crisp than ordinary dills, but with a strong briney taste and a unique flavor that’s hard to identify—from the sugar maybe? Whatever it is, they’re worth trying out, along with the other canned vegetable and salsa options from Let’s Get Pickled. Seek them out at a retailer near you!