Strubs Food in a pickle over insolvency issues

Strubs Pickles, part of Strubs Food Corp., is in a crunch as it faces potential acquisition because of insolvency issues. The once go-to pickle for popular Toronto delis (Zane Caplansky was a fan), Strubs’s potential demise is kind of a big deal, not only because the pickle is, as a charmingly over-the-top Toronto Star article reminds us, “the essential accessory to one of God’s greatest creations (the double-fat smoked meat sandwich),” but also because Strubs is the last sizable home-grown pickle processor left in Ontario. The news has been particularly jarring to the public, with one Twitterer calling it an “international tragedy,” and the Star reporter claiming that “the Euro crisis pales in comparison.” Bick’s, another popular Ontario pickle company, was taken over by American-owned J.M. Smucker Co. back in 2004, and last year the parent company shut down the local plants. The end of Strubs, then, could mean the end of the locally produced supermarket pickle, a big blow for those who, like Caplansky, believe a sandwich is not complete without the accompanying briny cuke. We anxiously await a court ruling to find out what will happen to Strubs (it looks like it’ll be acquired by Quebec’s Whyte’s Food Corp.), but in the meantime, feel free to relish in the glory days of Ontario-grown pickles. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »