Chef Don Paleno is Back to Talk All About PICKLES

Don Paleno, Chef/Owner of DJs Pickles, is the original "Silly Dilly" - the name given to the flagship pickle that is the reason DJs Pickles started [after his food truck closed and the people were missing these "hybrid" pickles - a mix between bread & butter and a dill]. Now, the DJ's line of gluten-free, vegan, and no-preservative products includes other fresh and fabulous veggies, fruits, and proprietary brines. Turn up the sweet heat with the "En Fuego", get elegant with the "Basil Balsamic Beet", or pucker up with the Silly's alter ego, "Serious Dill" (named by our fans, packed full of garlic and dill - no sugar!). We have these flavors and more to keep the pickling tradition alive with creative chef-inspired recipes, including sweet red onions with star anise and specialty seasonal items like Ginger Honey apples. From wholesale to local farmers markets and our main retail store, our pickle posse is throughout WNC and is starting to grow into upstate SC and Charlotte, NC. Visit us at www.djspickles.com for shipping, online ordering, and more about us!

FB: DJ’s Pickles
IG: djspickles

02-04-2025

Transcript

Veronica
Host
00:04
Welcome to the Veronica Edwards Show, where we have fun financial conversations that everyone listening can apply to their personal and professional life. I'm your host, veronica Edwards, and I'm so excited to be back here. Season three on bizradious. We have officially reached over 3,000 downloads. I want to thank all the listeners, aka the V Team, for continuing to download the podcast at VeronicaEdwardsBuzzSproutcom and also listening live here at bizradious. So now our new goal is let's try to hit 4,000 downloads before season four next year. So today I'm so excited to have this guest back on. 

00:49
This guest was on earlier in season three in August and we had such a great chat I had to have this person back on for a part two. So today's guest is a chef of over 20 years and the owner and operator of DJ's Pickles. Dj's Pickles is a local pickle company out of Asheville, north Carolina, and the Western North Carolina Farmers Market. I have so many questions on all things pickles. We were just chatting about all the great wellness benefits that pickle juice has, so let's jump right in. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce Chef Don Polino. Welcome back, don. Hey good morning Veronica. 

Chef Don
Guest
01:32
How are you today? 

Veronica
Host
01:35
I am good on this kind of chilly October morning. We pre-recorded this show V Team, so it's early October and I don't know about you, don. I'm happy for it. It's been a very warm summer. 

Chef Don
Guest
01:48
True that? Yeah, I'm looking forward to a cool down as well. It's just to change pace. 

Veronica
Host
01:58
Yes, I always follow my favorite season. So yeah, so Don. Usually at the beginning of the show, we always ask the guest to tell us about yourself, where you're from, how you start your business. But I'm going to ask the listeners to go back to the episode that you were on in August to get that info. But I would love for you to start us off with a recap of how you started DJ Pickles. 

Chef Don
Guest
02:21
Yeah, absolutely Long story short, as they say. I guess in essence my story goes back to me going to culinary school here in Asheville. But recently, within the past five years, I started a food truck. With inspiration from watching Netflix and make it look so cool to have a food truck, but honestly it's some of the hardest work I've ever done as a chef. But I had a food truck for a hot minute it wasn't even a year and on that food truck I was making mostly cold sandwiches. And what does a cold sandwich need for enhancement? As Pickles, right. 

03:09
So I came up with this pickle chip. I pulled it out of my chef brain, just made it up a little of this, a little of that, and I knew I wanted it to be like a refrigerator style pickle, like super crunchy and fresh. So I did that and towards the end of the food truck era I was selling almost more pickles than I was sandwiches. The food truck ended up going away pretty quick and then to have the cash to keep it going. So I ended up taking a couple of chef gigs, but not two years after I shut the food truck down, somebody came to me a friend of mine asking about the pickle recipe. He was a friend of mine, justin. He worked with me on the food truck and I went digging for the recipe and found it and we made a batch. 

04:06
Just well, we thought it was just going to be for us to enjoy in our families but, you know, kind of snowballed from there, shared it with friends and family and then, you know, they shared it with their friends and family, so it was a huge snowball effect. So people are still going crazy over these. We call it a silly dilly pickle chip. We call it silly dilly because it's a hybrid pickle. It's a cross between a dill and a bread and butter. Now a lot of people hear bread and butter and they kind of cringe. 

Veronica
Host
04:44
I was just saying I wasn't going to say nothing. I was like, oh, bread and butter. 

Chef Don
Guest
04:49
And why is that? Because typically a traditional bread and butter is pretty sweet and I think a lot of people have an aversion to sweet pickles for a multitude of reasons. A lot of times, what did grandma put in her potato salad back in the day was probably some nasty sweet relish that we didn't enjoy. So yeah, it's a cross between a dill and a bread and butter, so it's a little bit sweet, but it's not nearly as sweet as a traditional bread and butter and people love that that. 

05:26
It has all those elements that your taste buds want. You've got the salty, you get the vinegar punch, you got a little bit of sweet and a little bit of savory from garlic and we also, in that particular pickle, the silly dilly. We also put clove, a little bit of clove, crushed red pepper and turmeric to turn them kind of like a yellowish color, like a bright green yellow color. So, yeah, you have the bread and butter flavors, but you also have a bunch of dill in there. So it's kind of weird on your brain when you first try it. But that's still our it's probably our most killer pickled chip right now. So we do three different flavors of cucumber pickled chips and we call them chips because they're sliced. 

Veronica
Host
06:27
Gotcha, Because when you said that, I was like are you actually making like potato chips? 

Chef Don
Guest
06:31
No. 

Veronica
Host
06:31
I have the pickle flavor Gotcha Well before we talk about, like your bestsellers and like unique flavors. I definitely want to jump back to how you said you had a food truck, said it was for a hot minute and then two years later, it comes up that people are still asking about this recipe. And I love hearing that because I want the listeners to know that in entrepreneurship it can be rough and you could try a lot of stuff out, throw a lot of things on the wall. Not everything sticks and I love that. You tried it. 

07:02
It didn't work and you just kept on moving and, yeah, you had to pick up some other gigs, but you landed back on your feet and, like you said, you found something that worked and it took somebody else asking you about it and that happened. So much in entrepreneurship, where we're just doing things, we're not realizing that this is a great service or that people are gravitating to it. So I just want to shout out, justin, for reaching out to you and bringing this back to life, because you're making really good money and a sustainable business out of, in essence, cucumbers, out of pickles, so that's amazing. 

Chef Don
Guest
07:39
Yeah, it's true. When I first saw people's reactions when they're trying this product, I knew right away that I was probably gonna have to jump on the pickle train to see where it went. 

Veronica
Host
07:58
And Don so, like you're my first person, especially like in this area that specifically has a business that's just pickles. Have you come across any other businesses in the area or do you kind of have a monopoly in the pickle industry? 

Chef Don
Guest
08:11
Well, I mean, there's definitely other people making pickles, but not refrigerator pickles like we make, and you know there's people out there. There's a lot of fermenting happening. We are not fermenters. We use vinegar in our pickles as the preservative. So, yeah, there's plenty of people fermenting and there's also there's some farmers out there that are doing some pickling, but they do the. They take their pickles through the canning process, so that's totally different than us. We don't do any canning. Everything we do stays in the refrigerator. 

Veronica
Host
08:59
That's interesting. I have a. My mother-in-law does a lot of canning and I've been told that could be dangerous, which I had no idea. But I love that it's a generational thing. It's something that her mother did and her mother did. I would love to learn how to can, but I'm a little nervous. 

Chef Don
Guest
09:15
Driving to work is dangerous also. 

Veronica
Host
09:17
That's a good point, doug. That's a good point. I might have to try it out. Well, let's talk about some of your best sellers. You mentioned, like the hybrid of the dill and the bread butter, what would you say are like your top three or five pickles. That usually gets fly off the shelf. 

Chef Don
Guest
09:34
Yeah. So, like I said, we have three different pickle chip flavors made out of cucumbers. They're all sliced a quarter inch. Billy Dilly was the very first pickle we ever made. After that we made one called En Fuego, which means on fire. That came about through another. A chef friend of mine called me and he said congrats on starting a pickle business. I've been buying these hot pickles at I think he said it was Sam's Club or something else. He's like they're good, but I'd much rather buy something that's a local product. Can you make me a spicy pickle? And I said absolutely so. You know, chef brain took over and I created a pickle that was using the same apple cider, vinegar, salt, but instead of the dill I'm using fresh jalapenos and fresh habaneros. So the En Fuego pickle chip was the second invention. It's about a five out of 10 hot, so it's on the medium side. It's flavor first and then you get the habanero, which burns a little bit, but you know it's not going to make you sweat that much, right. 

Veronica
Host
11:00
That's delicious. 

Chef Don
Guest
11:02
Yeah, the third pickle chip flavor we have is called a serious dill. So when we opened our pickle shop down here at the farmers market, the WNC farmers market we had a lot of people coming in asking for something that was sugar free. So they would ask for like a kosher dill or a classic dill or just a straight up dill. So we came up with this one. It is zero sugar, lots of dill. The same apple cider vinegar, obviously salt, lots of garlic. We put extra garlic in this one. 

Veronica
Host
11:46
I love garlic. 

Chef Don
Guest
11:47
So when we first came out with this one, we asked all our followers on social media to help us give it a name. So we gave them like five different options to choose from and took a vote, and my name that I wanted to call it was salty garlic dill, but serious dill won the vote. 

Veronica
Host
12:10
I like that. It makes me think of like serious deal or you know something like that to play on words. Yeah, I love that. 

Chef Don
Guest
12:16
And so Are you silly or you're serious? 

Veronica
Host
12:19
Yes, and I like that you have that mix, because I did grow up just kind of just liking kosher, but now I'm kind of wanting to try out the silly dilly. So when it comes to these pickles I know this might be a silly question, no pun intended how long do the pickles last for? 

Chef Don
Guest
12:38
Good question. Honestly, pickles don't go bad. That's the whole point of pickling is to preserve it. You know again, we don't do any canning, so everything stays in the fridge. We do not use preservatives, so we put a date on the jar of the day it was made and then it says on the label please enjoy within five months of date on the jar. 

Veronica
Host
13:08
But, again. 

Chef Don
Guest
13:09
I've actually had the pickles a year later and they were still just as crunchy they do, since we don't use preservatives. They kind of change color and flavor just a little bit. 

Veronica
Host
13:20
Oh Don, what color does it change? 

Chef Don
Guest
13:22
Well, I mean it will go from bright green to arming green. 

Veronica
Host
13:25
Okay you know, it's not turning purple or orange on you, nothing crazy. 

Chef Don
Guest
13:29
No. 

Veronica
Host
13:32
And then you know what that's. Living in Western North Carolina, we're very health conscious a lot of vegetarians and vegans and it sounds like this is completely vegan. 

Chef Don
Guest
13:40
Totally vegan yeah. That's wonderful, so pickles are gluten free as well, but we put that on the jar gluten free, vegan. We made it a point to just use, you know, fresh ingredients, no preservatives, no colorings, like some pickles will put a coloring in there to make it look fresher than it really is. Right. So that's what I was talking about. Like I could add something to keep it green or longer. 

Veronica
Host
14:12
But yeah, I don't think anybody cares about that. You know like it's all about the taste, Like these kids nowadays. My son loves to see like ketchup that's green or you know something else that's blue is just. You know, for the effect, but I'm all about the taste. 

14:26
So one of the things that, Don, I was talking about before we jumped on is that there's all kind of health benefits for drinking pickle juice and my aunt, my aunt Ronnie that I'm named after, she's 75 years old, has severe arthritis and she says quite a bit she'll take a shot of pickle juice and it helps. 

14:46
So, Don, I'm just going to read a couple of these things. I'm just curious if you were aware of it. You know I researched and it says that pickle juice can reduce heartburn, that athletes drink pickle juice to prevent muscular cramps and increase post workout hydration, that pickle juice is a good source of probiotics so good, you know that gut bacteria. It helps with digestion and your metabolism. It helps keep you hydrated. It aids with weight loss I know you mentioned the apple cider vinegar, so I think that has a piece of it too and, more importantly, it reduces hangovers. It can help actually freshen your breath and sweeten your breath. So, Don, who would have known all of these amazing attributes of your product that you're selling? Were you aware of all of these great health benefits? 

Chef Don
Guest
15:33
All of those I've been, you know, learning as I go, but you know we've been doing this for three years now and pickle juice has definitely become a lot more popular and people are asking a lot more questions about it and its abilities. And I hear a lot of people say you know, pickle juice is the original green Gatorade. 

Veronica
Host
16:08
I like that Pickle juice, the original green Gatorade for athlete. Yeah, I like that. 

Chef Don
Guest
16:15
But yeah. So for athletes, you know when they're working really hard, what are you doing? You're sweating, you're losing salt and obviously, water and sugar. And so pickled juice can bring you back to life in the middle of a race or, like you said, really good hangover helper, because now, boozing all night, you get super dehydrated. 

Veronica
Host
16:41
Yeah. 

Chef Don
Guest
16:42
Our pickle juice is the real deal because it comes right out of the pickle buckets. You know there's some pickle juice on the shelf in the grocery stores now, but it's it's not real pickle juice, like it's more just the brine. You know what I mean. It doesn't have the cucumber juices flowing through it that help even more, you know, with the potassium and the dehydration and all that. 

Veronica
Host
17:14
Yeah, and I love to play on words, the real deal versus the real deal. But yeah, they said that you could literally use pickle juice as, like a replacement for a high calorie energy beverages. So again, just throw it out there to you. 

Chef Don
Guest
17:28
Now you might want to start selling pickle juice too, but you know, what else we sell over here at our pickle shop is pickle aid. 

Veronica
Host
17:36
Oh, it's bad. 

Chef Don
Guest
17:37
So it's pickle juice and lemonade. 

Veronica
Host
17:40
Pickle aid. I'm gonna have to get it. I'm assuming it is green. 

Chef Don
Guest
17:45
It is not green, you know. It looks like lemonade, but again to the fact that it tastes like a Gatorade, so it's a salty lemonade. 

Veronica
Host
17:56
It's salty. 

Chef Don
Guest
17:57
Yeah, and I've heard a lot of people say it would make a really good sour mix for a Mark Rita. 

Veronica
Host
18:03
I got so many businesses done. Look, I'm about to be your manager. Look, we can get into the alcohol business. We can get into energy drinks for athletes like Skye's the limit when you're talking about Dill. So before we go down, we're almost to the end of the show. 

18:17
I always like to ask the guests for different tips and jewels for the listeners. And since your business is so unique selling pickles not a lot of competitors the way that you do it and you still have to the brand yourself. So what are some tips on marketing and how you were able to get your brand out there being so unique? Because a lot of people listening they struggle with that. Like, we know that we can use social media, we know that there's ways to advertise, but still there's so many other things that gets people's attention. So how do you think that you were able to really brand DJ pickles? Because I've been following you on social media now since you've been on the show last and you have a good following. So I'm just curious if there's any tips that you can give to the listeners. 

Chef Don
Guest
19:02
We do have a pretty good following Our brand. I've heard it called kind of quirky and cute and fun and obviously silly, but it's got a creative look to it and, honestly, what we've done is just try to stay creative and fun and stay focused on our current customer base, obviously always trying looking for new customers but staying loyal to our followers that we have already. We've never tried to buy any Um new followers on Instagram or Facebook. They're all organic Um they come to us and follow us. 

19:55
We don't pay anybody to go out and get followers for us. 

Veronica
Host
19:58
Mm, hmm. 

Chef Don
Guest
19:59
So I think what we I had a leg up though in the beginning because I was a chef and I had this huge, you know, professional web of chefs to to follow us first and, you know, with their businesses, like food trucks, for instance is a great way to spread the word Mm hmm, you're all over the place. Um, so if you get a food truck, you know, to sell your pickles and put one of your stickers on their food truck Mm hmm, people see you Obviously. I don't know if this still holds true, but it used to be. A customer had to see your had to. You had to be in front of the customer 13 times before they even bought anything from you on a cart. 

Veronica
Host
20:48
I agree with that Absolutely and I agree with your organic um following, because a lot of times that's what's really going to. You know, get the name out there. That word of mouth, that's still number one, you know, and so I know that you have. You know, don't forget the pickles. And you have catchy logos and different things, but at the end of the day, you have a good product too, you know. So it's not really hard to market that. But I love the fact that every time we talk, it sounds like it's your customers coming to you say hey, we want to get something that's hot. Hey, we like this. You're engaging your customers also like what's the name of this? So I feel like you guys are very consistent on social media and it probably doesn't happen overnight, but I love that you guys aren't trying to, you know, create anything new. You're just staying true to yourself. 

Chef Don
Guest
21:40
Yeah, we are, and consistency is key as well, especially with a food item. You know it tastes different the second time they have it. They might never come back, so it has to be the same every time. But we're we do have a great product. You know, Chef crafted, so we use that word and that's attractive, but the local, obviously using as many local ingredients as possible is huge. And we do tons of collaborations with other businesses. 

Veronica
Host
22:18
That's big too, that partnership and cross collaboration. So that's awesome. But, tom, we're already to the end of the show. I would love you to plug. I know we'll probably have to do a part three. We definitely want to plug all your social media, your website, how people can support and try out the silly dilly. Then Fuego and the serious deal. 

Chef Don
Guest
22:40
Yeah, so yeah, our pickle shop at the WNC Farmers Market. The hours of operation right now are every day of the week from 10am to 4pm, except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We come in, we do. We do samples of every product we have every day. So if you want to come in and taste all of that, come on in and then you can always buy from us online. We ship, we ship all over the country and you know we also. If you follow us on social media at DJ's Pickles on Facebook and Instagram, you can keep up with what events we're doing, like this weekend we're doing the cheese festival that's put on by the WNC Cheese Trail and it's out at the Oak and Gris Distillery in Black Mountain Wonderful, we love doing events like that. And we still do tailgate markets throughout the week here and there. We're doing the Canton Market this Thursday. You can also see us at the Brevard Transylvania tailgate market on Saturdays. 

Veronica
Host
23:49
Wonderful, don. Thank you so much, and just now I probably will be ordering lots of pickles for my family for Christmas this year, knowing that you shipped that out. So thank you for taking your time out of your busy day. I want to thank all the listeners for tuning in to bizradious. Please come back. Same time, same place, 10 am on Wednesdays, for the Veronica Edwards Show. And if you missed the live airings, you can listen to all prior shows at VeronicaEdwardsBressSpriotcom.