Chow-Chow Know-How

We've been doing a lot of thinking about the how and why of our craft relish business, and it really started with our desire to serve the residents of East Cleveland who have supported us at the Coit Road Farmers Market for so many years. Time and again, a customer would be looking through our jams and jellies and ask, "Do you have chow-chow relish?" Born in Nashville, Tennessee, and having lived in Tallahassee, Florida and eaten chow-chow in Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Mississippi too, Andrew was intimately familiar with this "garden orphan" relish, and knew he could be producing it from #2 produce that we often had to compost anyway. Sounded like a win-win for the farm… Sheri Castle says you can find some at your local farmers market or nearest country store of merit, but as far as we could tell, there wasn't a single competitor on shelves or at markets in our area. We realized there are versions locally made all through PA and WV (all of Appalachia really) but they're a bit different than the Southern version that our customers were requesting and that Andrew has always known. You'd never find a green bean or a cauliflower in the Southern version, and rarely a cucumber, but all three of these make it into the chunky Northern version, sometimes kidney beans and corn too. Down South, there are versions ranging from mostly green tomato, some which include garlic and celery stalk, most like ours just have celery seed…  We could discuss variations all day.  There is a whole lot of history about American migration patterns in there. Chow-Chow has a long and debated origin story, none of which we claim to have any knowledge of honestly. But a whole lot of folks came to East Cleveland trying to make a better life for themselves around 80-90 years ago, and their kids and grandkids are who asks us for the Chow-Chow and who inspire us every week to keep making it.
At first, we made a small batch or two, to get some feedback. We settled on a recipe that we then wrote down so it was replicable. Other than the occasional request for a HOT (no hotter) version, we get pretty much consistent positive feedback on the recipe. After a season or two, we began to explore what a larger scale of production might look like, and discovered that we were not allowed to make this product at home! After years of jam and jelly produced for sale under the cottage food laws, and years of home canning and commercial restaurant work, somehow we had not thought twice about whether an acidified food could be produced at home. Of course, we had to stop making it, and that was when we REALLY realized the demand we had created for the product. After many weeks of being told we needed to get that back in stock, we began the long journey of becoming a licensed commercial cannery.
It's been such a long road to get here, with setbacks both personal and professional, but Needham Garden's Chow-Chow Relish is now available for purchase in both retail and wholesale quantities. Licensed as a commercial cannery by the ODA and producing out of the Central Kitchen commercial space here in beautiful Cleveland Ohio. We are so grateful to the many folks who have helped make this launch a reality, the list is so long and growing every week as new folks try our product and decide to stock it at their markets or put it on their menus, and we are so humbled each time. Next up, this dang UPC code...