The pickling gene runs strong in Laraina James’ family — one that thrived as it migrated from New York to Louisiana to Colorado. Her great-grandmother taught her grandmother how to pickle and preserve the harvest from a big garden. She passed those skills to Paul James, Laraina’s father.
“These pickles are basically the same ones my grandmother made,” James says.
The founder of Boulder-based Mountain Girl Pickles can’t recall a time when canning wasn’t part of her life: “My first canning memories are of my Dad making strawberry jam.”
At 9:30 a.m. on a recent Thursday, James is carefully packing glass jars with fresh green beans in an East Boulder catering kitchen. Filling the jars with vinegar, she lifts them into one of eight huge pots of boiling water. Crew members are measuring spices and large garlic cloves into other jars. Cases of small okra pods await their turn to be pickled.
Becoming an award-winning pickler was admittedly not top-of-mind for James as she worked nine years ago at the legendary mountain roadside hideaway, Sundance Cafe.
The now-closed eatery near Nederland was serving a popular bloody mary (complete with pickled vegetables) when Paul James came to visit his daughter.
“We were talking about our family’s pickling history, and the owner of the cafe asked if we could make some pickles for the bloody marys,” the younger James recalls. “Customers liked them so much, they asked if they could buy some garlic dills.”
That’s how Mountain Girl Pickles was born. Since 2014, it has slowly expanded into a nationally distributed artisan product.
“I love doing it because I’m feeding people. I like hands-on work,” James says. “The pickles taste great, and they’re good for you. You take something from raw to pickled? [That is] deliciousness that people can eat right from the jar.”
Courtesy: Mountain Girl Pickles
In 2022 and 2023, Mountain Girl’s pickled okra and corn relish took home Good Food Awards, the Oscars of American cuisine. Mountain Girl Pickles giardiniera and pickled beets are finalists in the 2024 Good Food Awards’ pickle category.
The company sources virtually all its in-season produce from local farms: Miller Farms in Platteville, Monroe Farms in Kersey and Switch Gears Farms in Longmont.
“I like using friends’ crops,” James says. “People really care about who grows and makes the food.”
Other seasonal products include pickled garlic, pickled asparagus and pickled brussel sprouts, all popular on charcuterie boards. Debuting soon are pickled jalapenos, Ela Farm peach salsa, pickled red onions and the brand’s first traditional bread and butter pickles, which James promises “won’t be too sweet.”
Mountain Girl Pickles are available online and at the Boulder and Longmont Farmers Markets as well in stores across Colorado including McGuckin Hardware, Black Cat Farm Stand, Hazel’s Beverage World, Lucky’s Market, Mountain Fountain, Moxie Bread Company and Natural Grocers.
As Colorado’s farmers market and farmstand season commences, James’ advice for pickle-curious locals is to try making refrigerator pickles. “You just pour a mix of hot vinegar and spices over vegetables in jars, and when they cool, seal them and refrigerate,” she says. “They’ll last for months.”
Also, never toss that pickle juice when you are done with a jar. Use it in sauces and salad dressings or drink it straight. “A lot of people drink pickle juice to help with leg cramps,” James says.
The best way to understand how she won over the judges and thousands of fans is to crack open a jar of the original Mountain Girl garlic dill pickles. The spears retain a verdant color and an audible crunch. This is not a shy pickle — it’s tart and herbaceous with a noticeable garlic mustard seed heat. For a real palate wake-up call, fish out one of the whole pickled garlic cloves from the jar.