The misshapen map above is from a 2011 USDA report, but it gives you the idea.
Pickles are big business in Michigan. With cucumber farmers located near pickling processing facilities, the state is the largest pickle producer in the country.
Rene Wisely of the Detroit News reports that Michigan is followed by Florida and North Carolina in pickle production.
Wisely reported on the expansion of Detroit and Brooklyn based specialty pickle maker McClure's. The company plans to move into an old manufacturing plant in Detroit:
After searching Troy, Clawson and even New York City, where Bob is based, they found it in Detroit at a former American Axle plant. They begin setting up their new 20,000-square-foot leased home in a week or so, more than quadrupling their size. "This extra space will help in many ways, right down to our glass jars," Joe McClure said. "I can place an order for more glass jars, which willsave costs because the bigger the order, the smaller the price. We didn't have enough storage to do that before."
Wisely writes that McClure's has come long way from its beginnings in a 1,100 square foot space in Ann Arbor. The company has 25 employees and made $1.6 million in revenues last year.
