Welcome to the world of the peanut butter and pickle sandwich, and a successful pickling business in Big Sur.

Kara Stout does her pickling deep in Big Sur, where she lives, right off a ridge. The Random Pickler’s cottage has a stunning view, and verdant does not only describe the immediate thicket around the little house she inhabits, but also the inside. Kitchen walls are painted aquamarine, a combined tribute to the forest, the ocean and the sky.

On a recent weekday, Stout is wearing a long summer dress the color of young grass; her big reddish hair is gathered in a bun at the top of her head. The space is glistening with jars, filled and empty, but then there is another row of smaller glass containers located at the top of the counter, on the level of Stout’s reach. Those are the spices essential for pickling: salt, sugar, garlic, mustard seeds and “co-ri-an-der” – Stout lyrically whispers this confession, but also pledges that, in pickling, coriander is “not too absurd.” You would not even know it’s there.

Despite a hilarious name – The Random Pickler – the business Stout created in 2019 is anything but random. In her family, they are all about peanut butter and pickle sandwiches – it’s their favorite peanut butter sandwich. Understandably, such families need pickles, and Stout’s grandmother and mother have been pickling away their whole lives. Stout herself spent a lifetime in the food industry. Called the Tamer of Chaos by Bitter Ginger, a Big Sur bitters company run by Brian and Lacey Mazurek, Stout will be joining them and The Saucy Maiden in a merge with Karen Anne’s Granola under the umbrella of A Full Irish, LLC. Their kitchen will be located at Forest Hill Shopping Center in Pacific Grove, with a retail outlet being two doors down at A Wild Coast.

At The Random Pickler, dill pickles are running the show, but Stout also offers dilly beans, spicy carrots, sweet and savory beets and her “most complex” product, turmeric cauliflower – enchanting due to its characteristic yellow hue. Stout calls them her “standard six” or “the usual suspects,” and is barely able to keep up with growing demand.

Weekly: How often things go wrong when pickling?

Stout: From time to time something will not seal, but the business turned out to be a great call, or at least that is how it felt before Covid. I have been working for years, still do, with [another Big Sur company] Bitter Ginger and I first made pickles as garnish for their cocktails. I have been in the restaurant and hospitality industry for a long time. Then I thought it would be easy to just buy jars and start making pickles. What can be easier, right? It’s a cottage industry.

So what happened?

I can’t find jars, especially clean glass jars with nothing on them. I used to be able to find them in every store and now I have to wait. Ordering on my website is on hold [until early May 2022], because I’m not able to keep up with orders. I’m spending time trying to source jars instead.

How did you pick up the name?

I didn’t have the name at first, but then it just came to me one day. I thought: I guess, I’m a random pickler. There was no better name.

What have you learned as a professional pickler since 2019?

For example, at first I wanted to use sea salt. But that would make the brine milky due to an acidic reaction. So if you want to have clear water with your dill pickles, no sea salt. Most people don’t mind, but I think clear water looks better.

What’s the future of The Random Pickler?

Before Covid, I was talking with a big chain grocery store. Things seemed to be moving the right direction. Covid changed everything and really impacted my business, the supply chain. I’m sure I will get back to it at some point, but at the moment I’m happy to keep it slow to make sure I’m keeping up with deliveries.

At the same time, I see more and more pickles. A few years ago there was nothing, and now one can find pickled garlic, pickled asparagus at grocery stores.

And now please explain the sandwich in all its weirdness.

The peanut butter and pickle on toast is still my favorite. The pickles have to be dill, not the sweet ones, and the peanut butter has to be real, with no sugar. The bread has to be toasted. I would always make this sandwich and then sneak an extra pickle or two and lick the peanut butter spoon.

The Random Pickler is at therandompickler.com