Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, King Kullen among clients of Long Island couple’s pickle business

East Northport natives Cori Anne and Randy Kopke both grew up with lots of gardeners in their families, and eating pickled things made from their crops was something they especially enjoyed.

“Watching plants grow and picking fresh vegetables from the garden was a fun and magical part of our childhoods,” said Cori Anne of herself and her husband, Randy. “Many of our family members also made their own recipes from whatever was growing outside. There were jams, relishes, pickled green tomatoes, pickled hot cabbage and cucumber salad to name a few.” She added, “At Randy’s grandparents’ house there were always plates of garlic pickles served with sharp Cheddar cheese.”

But the Cutchogue couple had no idea that pickles one day would become their bread and butter. They’re the owners of Backyard Brine, a wholesale artisan pickles business whose clients include Whole Foods Market, King Kullen, Stop & Shop, Stew Leonard’s, Uncle Giuseppe’s, Tops Friendly Markets and Wild by Nature.

“Our first year we sold about 15,000 jars and now to date we have sold over 1 million jars,” said Cori Anne.
Randy, 50, said the idea for a pickle business sprouted from Cori Anne’s brother’s May 2013 wedding. At the time, Randy owned a Northport-based tile and stone masonry business and Cori Anne was a dance teacher and accountant. The couple would make pickles at home from cucumbers in their garden and give jars to friends and family as gifts.

When 100 jars of pickles were purchased as wedding favors, that was a game-changer, Randy said. The Kopkes started Backyard Brine, and by February 2014 their pickles were in their first big store — IGA.
“The pickles [for the wedding] were a hit and Backyard Brine was born,” Randy said. There was one sour note, however. “We had no idea how to create a food business and sell in stores.”

The duo met with an adviser from Stony Brook University’s Small Business Development Center. “She gave us a book with all the requirements to get our product on shelves,” Cori Anne, 48, said. “We got to work learning about UPCs [Universal Product Codes or bar codes], scheduled processes [commercialized recipes] and labeling requirements. Pickles are also an acidified food and require a canning certification.”

Randy became certified in shelf stable canning, and, for a commercial kitchen, the couple used the Stony Brook incubator in Calverton that startups can rent hourly.

“Randy and I would go there after work with our dads, who graciously volunteered their time helping chop the vegetables and stuff all those pickle jars. Back then we didn’t have fancy commercial equipment, just some sharp knives and mandolines … I remember lots of Band-Aids.”

To get the business off the ground, the Kopkes would spend weekends at local farmers markets and stands, and it was “persistence and luck” that, Cori Anne said, got Backyard Brine onto the shelves of retail giants as well as smaller stores. Other offerings the brand features are gourmet mustard and barbecue sauce.

About a year into using the incubator kitchen the Kopkes found they needed a larger facility so they moved operations to a space on Cox Lane in Cutchogue. They now have a co-packer in the Hudson Valley and work remotely from their home on Long Island and another in St. Augustine, Florida.

Their cucumbers today come from throughout the country and are no longer products of the Kopke’s garden and North Fork farms.
“Our production kitchen in Cutchogue could only make 500 to 700 jars a day and now our new production can make 6,000 per day,” Cori Anne said.

She added a new goal is to expand Backyard Brine’s footprint in the south.

“The pickle industry has grown over the last couple of years,” Cori Anne said. “More and more people are getting educated on the benefits of pickles — whether it’s the electrolytes or probiotics that they provide. 

“There are also a lot more good pickles on the market now to choose from aside from the traditional, older brands; and the charcuterie trend has definitely added to the pickle consumption,” she said.