L M Pickles

At 76-1-49 in Hemavathi Nagar, you can usually smell what we are doing before you even see our front door. L M Pickles is a small operation where we spend a lot of time cutting vegetables and mixing different spices. It is a messy business with all the oils and jars sitting around. Our kitchen isn't huge, but we make it work by staying as organized as possible. We use old recipes that have been in use for a very long time. There are always big ceramic jars sitting in the sun on the roof or out in the courtyard to let the flavors develop. We have to watch the salt levels carefully and make sure every jar is sealed tight. Sometimes we run out of mangoes or lemons when the season is bad and we just have to wait. We do not use any fancy machinery here, just sharp knives and our own hands. It takes a lot of time to get the flavor exactly right. The labels on the jars are sometimes a little crooked because we put them on ourselves late at night. We sell to the local shops and also to people who just stop by the house to pick up a jar. It is a lot of stirring and waiting for things to cure properly. We do not have a marketing plan. People just like the taste and tell their friends about us. It keeps us busy all year.