A tour group watches as cucumbers are about to be graded.

Farmers from across Northern Indiana, Northwest Ohio and Southern Michigan bring us their freshly picked cucumbers straight from the fields. They are immediately "graded," that is, sorted into seven sizes. From there most will go to tanks for curing. The tanks, mostly of cypress, contain a salt brine solution in which the cucumbers will be transformed into pickles over a period of three months or longer. We're best known for our many varieties of processed pickles.

A view over our tank yard.

Those cucumbers that don't go immediately to the tanks become "fresh pack" pickles. These are washed, usually cut, packed and pasteurized. They can be eaten within three or four days of being packed. For example, Sechler's Bread and Butter Pickles and Kosher Spears are fresh pack.

Nobody takes more time and care in the process of making sweetened pickles. All of our products labeled "sweet" or "candied" have been through this process, the candied having been sweetened twice. We take up to two weeks for the sweetening process alone, (many pickle companies take only one day) to insure our pickles are sweetened all the way through. As we like to say: "We could make them faster, but that wouldn't make them better." All the candied and most of our sweetened products are tank-cured, but you'll also find some among the fresh pack items.

As you'll see while perusing our product pages, cucumbers are only one ingredient among many to go into our product line. Almost all of the cucumbers as well as more specialized ingredients such as mild and hot Hungarian peppers, red bell peppers, green tomatoes and jalapenos are subcontracted to area farmers.

Defects are minimized by our stringent quality control, another tradition at Sechler's. We inspect pickles at the grading stage, after processing and, if they're sliced, again after that.

See articles about Sechler's Pickles by American Profile and American's Heartland.

PLANT TOURS
A group tour of our plant can be scheduled from April - October.  We currently offer tours Monday - Thursday starting at 9am and running every 30 minutes until 11am; start back up after lunch at 12:30 run every 30 minutes until 3pm. Fridays we have limited production, please call ahead to see if we are offering tours.  If you would like to bring a group (6 or more) please call a week prior for a reservation.  If you have less than 6 in your group feel free to stop by during any of the above tour times. For answers to any questions you can call us or e-mail. Phone 800-332-5461 or e-mail us.

Our process pickles are aged in wooden tanks mostly made of cypress.

Fresh cucumbers being graded by size.

Cutting spears from process pickles.

While most of the cucumbers that become our pickles come from independent farmers, we grow many of the more specialized ingredients, including a variety of peppers and tomatoes.

E-mail Sechlers
Mail order inquiries, (including store locations, factory tours, consumer correspondence)
Wholesale & fundraising inquiries
All other questions

Web Site Design: McMillen Design 612.827.2174