PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — One Ybor City native is taking his love of pickling on the road, turning his passion for saving money and food into a full-time job, and his classes are packed.
For John Peter Barbie III, owner of Tip Top Canning Co., buying expensive pickles at the store isn't something he's prepared to do, and he doesn't want you to do it either.
"You're the master of your own food," Barbie told ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska.
Paluska attended one of Barbie's pickling classes held on the first Wednesday of the month at URBAN Brew and BBQ on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg.
"So what do people want to learn?" Paluska asked.
"Honestly, they come to the class with an expectation of just learning how to do pickles, but I'm going to teach you everything. I'm going to teach you about the salt. I teach you the difference between sodium and salt. I teach you about the vinegar and the acid in the vinegar. I'm going to teach you how to develop your sense of smell and taste and train your palate," Barbie said. "We're going to smell and taste everything every step of the way."
Barbie said interest in his classes is up as more and more people want to save money.
According to the Consumer Brands Association, the prices of steel cans could increase by 9% to 15%, meaning the price of a can of vegetables, currently costing $2, could rise by 18 to 30 cents.
"If you want to save money across the board, anything that you could buy at the grocery store that is subject to those tariffs, you can make it yourself," Barbie said. "Find a local farm, there's plenty of them. There's local farms coming out of our ears."
Barbie has a deal with Life Farms in Clearwater. They give him free produce to pickle. He keeps half the jars, and the farm sells the other half in their farm store. The farm produces its honey on site, offers gardening classes, and holds pickling classes led by Barbie, all while striving to ensure they have the best fruit and vegetables available.
"Our whole plan here is to grow healthy, nutrient-dense food for the family, for the community, get people out of the fast food places and get them here," Rowland Milam, owner of Life Farms, told Paluska. "John is a big help, a big part of our business. He has a lot of the vegetables we have; he'll pickle them for resale, but he also does pickling classes here on the farm. And when he brings in, we usually have 12 to 18 people, and it's pretty interesting."
Growing a garden is also a great way to save money at the grocery store. However, if you plan to garden, it may be a good time to pickle.
"Sometimes you're going to have a surplus of something, and so it kind of follows that you would get into canning or pickling or preserving or something like that," MiMi Houston, the florist at Life Farms, said.
Barbie said he's seen a 4-cent increase on the metal lids he uses to jar his product. It seems like a slight increase, but if you are pickling 50 to 100 cans a week, it can add up. Still, he is keeping his prices right where they are and doesn't plan to raise them.
Life Farms suffered severe damage during last year's devastating hurricane season. All of their crops were wiped out, and key infrastructure like their grow tunnels were destroyed. The farm launched a GoFundMe to help them get back to full growing capacity.
