Pickles You Need in Your Life

In the 70s, on the west Coast of Wales, my parents married, sold their belongings, bought a tiny boat, and sailed up here to the Scottish Highlands together on a one-way journey, settling in 'Loch Shark', Kylestrome, Sutherland. There, they built a seaweed-clad teepee to inhabit, mainly to escape the cold and the excessive amounts of condensation that develop, unavoidably, in a small fiberglass boat with two people sleeping inside. With determination (and desperation), my father fashioned a bow and arrows from the wood he could source and taught himself to shoot, hang, and butcher wild deer as their main source of food. Secondary to that was gathered seafood, fish, eggs, nuts, berries, leaves, and roots. They lived like this, honing their skills and knowledge for 2 years until I came along. 

I was brought up in Glenleariag, at the head of Loch Nedd, Assynt, Sutherland, until school age and then in Drumbeg until age 16. I spent much of my free time walking, camping, foraging, fishing, and learning skills from my folks, such as tapping birch trees for sap, hot smoking venison to make jerky, and making traps to catch eels and creels to get shellfish. I also collected fungi and seaweed for drying and sought out the first primroses and violets of the season to make candied flowers, and, in recent years, I've started experimenting with traditional methods to create my own proudly Scottish pickles, unique to Ullapool.

My first jobs were in hotels and restaurants, always favoring the kitchen roles over front-of-house positions. Over the years, cooking jobs took me to many interesting places across Scotland, Cornwall, and Ireland, and even to Antarctica on a Greenpeace ship. Cooking and creating with fresh foods,  is one of life's great pleasures, and one for which I am eternally grateful.

At Pickleboxx, sustainability is at the heart of what I do. I strive to minimize waste by using reusable, returnable, refundable packaging in the form of the amazing versatile glass jars by Weck. These toughened glass jars are suitable for boiling when 'canning' foods for extra long shelf life, and even oven proof (up to 200°c!), plus dishwasher and freezer proof; there is not much these beauties can't handle! When returned empty, you will receive a £2 refund, and the whole unit (jar, lid, rubber seal, and clips) will be sterilized and dried, ready to be refilled.

One jar from every batch of Ullapool pickles we make will be donated to the 'Ullapool community pantry' as a way of returning kindness and gratitude. Follow @pickleboxx on Instagram to find out when the next jar is being donated.