When Marylea Moffat's Trucking Company Went Sour, She Turned to Pickles

Marylea Moffat was in a pickle. 

The trucking company she and her husband ran had crashed and burned. Her marriage too. And getting a new job? Well, the way things are nowadays, good luck with that. 

What she did have was a lifetime of family recipes for pickling just about everything that came out of their garden. "We'd do something with it," she said of their bounty. "Nothing went to waste."  

Add a love of cooking and the need to make a living and the result was Pickled Pink, her own line of pickled just about anything, from dills and half-sours to vanilla-infused beets and green beans to killer relishes, like my favorite, a snappy heirloom tomato relish with crispy chunks of onion, celery, and peppers along with chopped tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt, and spices. It's good enough to eat right out of the jar, but it also makes an excellent accompaniment to hot dogs, burgers, grilled or roasted pork, or even rich, creamy cheeses like Brie and Camembert. 

Moffat, who lives in West Palm, began selling her pickles late last year at Lake Worth's Oceanside farmers' market, and now that the market has moved downtown for the summer (every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon), she's there too, selling (and offering samples of) a hand-made product that makes the mass-produced stuff sold at your local gigamarket taste like... well, like mass-produced stuff sold at your local gigamarket. 

Pickled Pink heirloom tomato relish sells for $5.50, with the rest of the line going from $5.50 to $7.50. It's not only local, it's really good. Find the Oceanside market at "J" Street and Lake Avenue in Lake Worth every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.