Ailamma Pickles

Ailamma Pickles started right in my kitchen at H. No -2-38 in Upparapally. I have been making pickles for my family for years and then people started asking to buy them. Now the whole house smells like chili powder and mustard oil most of the time. We use the big jars that sit in the sun on the roof to get the flavor right. Warangal is a good place for this because we get very good mangoes and lemons nearby in the market. It is mostly just me and a couple of other women from the street who come over to help with the cutting and peeling. Our hands are often stained red from the spices but that is just part of the work. We don't have any big machines so everything is done by hand with knives and big mixing bowls. It takes a long time for the pickles to be ready but you cannot rush it. If the sun is not bright enough it takes even longer. We sell them to the local shops and sometimes people come directly to the door to get a jar. We don't have any fancy labels just some paper stickers we write on. It’s a lot of hard work especially when it is hot but we enjoy talking while we work. The kitchen is always a bit of a mess with seeds and peels but we clean it up every evening.