Pickle & Myrrh - So Marvelous!
MERRICKVILLE - Welcome to a shop winning over customers with pure sweetness and ingenuity.
The Pickle & Myrrh store in downtown Merrickville is fairly new but the company is already quite famous online for its handmade artisan sea salt caramels with all-natural ingredients.
"Time sure flies when you're making caramels and having the time of your life," says Owner Erin Kergen, an energetic entrepreneur. Her online sales continue to climb and she has a loyal, passionate social media following. Her shop - considered a destination - is filled with her sought after caramels, gift and foodie specialty items as well as local artwork and crafts.
"I love the idea of celebrating the talent in Merrickville so this is a true curated space. The person who buys my caramels is the same person who is going to love a hand-thrown mug by Honey Field Studio or art by Mary Loos of the Merrickville Artists' Guild," says Erin.
Pickle & Myrrh recently celebrated its second year with a storefront. Erin's husband, Tyler, and 8 employees make up the full production team.
"We grew in a very organic way and now we are so much more than our caramels," says Erin. "We're part of a lot of people's special celebrations throughout the year." Gift baskets and boxes are a large part of her business. This fall she introduced Advent calendars and they sold out in a day. She restocked and they sold out again.
“We feel so incredibly grateful that our products are so well loved and welcomed into homes across Canada and beyond," says Erin.
It all started in Calgary. Erin was on a maternity leave from her corporate crisis marketing job. That's when things "got cooking" so to speak. Erin and another mom started selling baked items and caramels in a Water Valley general store. They called their sideline business Pickle and Myrrh - after their daughters' nicknames.
In 2017, Erin bought out her partner and returned to Ontario to be near her family. She started making her caramels in the Merrickville Legion kitchen. Soon Erin was selling them at pop-up locations, farmers' markets and later The Village Bean, owned by mentor and friend Robyn Fredrickson, and Mrs. McGarrigle's Fine Foods. The rest is history.
"It has totally changed our lives," says Erin of the business. When she first opened the doors in October 2020, there were line-ups and production needed to dramatically increase to meet demand. "That's when I realized people really love this brand," says Erin. Her husband Tyler, who was still working and commuting from Alberta, came home to help and never went back.
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