What If? Starting a Business from a Pickle Jar
There is no recipe at the bottom of this essay.
And technically, it was a jar of pickles AND peppers.
It started with a question of course.
What if a pickle jar could be a candle?
How about a jelly jar?
A mustard jar?
A pot jar?
Turns out a lot of people on the internet had already answered yes several times to those questions. And with some brilliant answers - check any Pinterest or Instagram page devoted to candles and you’ll see some brilliant Makers coming up with ingenious new ways to reuse things - especially when it comes to candles.
But the question kept nagging me: what if I could take the discarded bits of our dinners and lunches and make them usable again? What if, instead of being tossed out and forgotten on the curb, they could find a new purpose?
In our household growing up , you didn’t just throw out a good jar or a good box…because you never know… (aaaand that’s how you enable hoarding folks!)
Then the Holidays hit and necessity became the mother of invention.
Turned out you could make a candle out of a pickle jar. And whoooo boy does my family love pickles (yes we’re the wierdos who drink the juice straight outta the fridge.) Turns out that there’s a whole world of info out there for a girl with a decent shnozz for stories and a love of yummy smells. And turns out that the process is really engrossing and by its very nature forces you to be present with the alchemy of liquids and solids and time and transformation.
Wow - this was… dare we say… fun?
Hang on a tic. Those lids…we can’t give those as gifts to people as they are - they’re yellow and scratched for god’s sake! Yes, we had to do something about those lids.
What if those lids looked like the inside of a snowglobe?
You know, the part you always wanted to touch as a kid, but never could?
After a pearl here and a sequin there, you’d never know that little light started as a jar of relish.
And as it usually does, one question turned into an avalanche of questions:
What if I could do this all day?
What if I could mix scents that connected us right back to a certain place and time?
What would it feel like to leap out of bed every morning because I couldn’t wait to get to work?
What if I could make more moments outside of the snowglobe for folks to find delight in?
What if I could find more moments for us to be Present?
What if I could start a business inspired by my loved ones who have passed on?
What if we transformed trash back into treasure?
What if we reclaimed a little joy for ourselves every day without apology?
Cos I know I’m not the only one who likes pickles.
So here we are, a few months later, after a bunch of mistakes and triumphs and little moments in between. Thanks for supporting a small business and a crazy dream and helping me answer a few more nagging questions. Maybe we can help each other reclaim more of our Presence together or just light some good smelling things along the way.
I’m just glad you stumbled on this little corner of the world and excited to share more with you.
Breathe deep,
Luna
