Hi, I’m Naomi - the one-woman band behind Ugly Little Gherkin.

I’ve long been a foodie, but that journey has evolved in recent years. I’ve developed a passion for canning, fermenting, food preservation and scratch cooking. Sometimes things can get a bit random in my kitchen - because why wouldn’t you try a super complex recipe for the first time when you have twenty people coming around?

I started pickling and canning several years ago, when a neighbour got a job at a cucumber farm. I had a summer where he would appear every other day with a shopping bag full of cucumbers - far more than my husband and I could eat. So I googled “What do you do with a lot of cucumbers?”, and my food preservation journey began.

I’m a bit of a homestead dreamer; at the moment, this is all happening from a very suburban 350 square metre block in Sydney, Australia.

Why “Ugly Little Gherkin”?

Gherkins are actually quite lovely (I was that weird kid who would get extra pickles on their cheeseburgers!). It’s a play on an old Australian TV commercial from about ten years ago; something quirky that fits well with what we’re doing here, and hopefully an unforgettable name!

Check out the origins of “ugly little gherkin” on YouTube (you’ll forever hear it in an accent after this!)