Have you tried Sacramento’s zestiest, crunchiest pickles? Meet Real Mojo Foods
Growing up in the Midwest, Dee Siazon would travel during the summers from her home in Illinois to annual family vacations in Wisconsin and Michigan. While there, they would pick vegetables and fruit.
To preserve the bounty, the family would make fruit jams, pickles and other shelf-stable goods, preserving not only food but family traditions.
“It honestly is just a fond childhood memory of mine. So when I moved out of state and landed in California for work, I started to kind of dabble back into my childhood hobby,” she said.
Little did she know that that casual hobby would potentially lead her to win a national prize.
Siazon would give her wares to friends, who enthusiastically ate them up, and even started asking if they could buy some from her. That inspired her to take the next step. In 2018, while pursuing her MBA, she decided to turn her passion into production. Real Mojo Foods was born.
“I went down the route of getting an official LLC formed, and now eight years later, we are still in business, but kind of just producing on a larger scale,” Siazon said.
Starting out at craft fairs, events and farmers markets with her mother Delia, a.k.a. “Mama Mojo,” it wasn’t long before she was able to get her product on the shelves of some of Sacramento’s most prominent food markets.
“Our business name actually came from a loyal customer who once said our pickles were ‘magical.’ That stuck with us, so when it came time to officially file, it felt only natural to name the company Real Mojo Foods,” she said.
As demand increased just one year into the business, she turned to a co-packer to increase production without being crushed by overhead and labor costs.
Growth without compromise
Even with scaling in production volume, the recipes remain hers, inspired by the family recipes Siazon used after picking fruit and vegetables in the Midwest, using natural ingredients and old-school techniques.
“We’re proud that we don’t use Pickle Crisp, or calcium chloride, in any of our products to maintain texture. Instead, we rely on a traditional method: an ice-cold water bath (cold shocking) to naturally preserve that fresh crunch without the need for added preservatives,” she said.
And crisp they are, with a satisfying crunch and a balanced sweet-sour flavor. The spicy versions deliver a swift punch and a lingering tingle on the tongue.
Real Mojo makes five flavors of cucumber-based pickle chips: original sour dill, garlic sour dill, zesty semi-sweet, spicy garlic sour dill and customer favorite Hot-n-Zesty Semi-Sweet & Spicy.
That was the one Siazon submitted for consideration in the Good Food Awards in the pickle category — and it’s a finalist.
In addition to the cucumber pickles, Real Mojo also sells pickled green beans and pickled carrots. All jars are $14.
Today, Siazon’s pickles can be found at the Sacramento Natural Food Co-op, the Davis Foods Co-op, Corti Brothers, the Kitchen Table locations, Allspicery in East Sacramento and tiny but mighty Superette Market in Land Park.
If you’re flying through Sacramento International Airport, you can even find them in Terminal B at the DOCO Market shop.
What are the Good Food Awards?
The annual Good Food Awards, held by the Good Food Foundation, honors the country’s sustainable food producers.
Producers submit their products for consideration in a variety of 18 categories including pickles, preserves, cheese, chocolate and even fish.
Products are tasted blind by panels of judges, who rate them on quality and flavor. High-ranking products are vetted to make sure they meet the awards’ standards for ethical practices, transparency and sustainability.
Four products made in the Sacramento area made the cut as finalists this year. Corky’s Nuts and Tsar Nicoulai Caviar are repeat winners; Real Mojo Foods and JUST Creamery are first-time finalists. JUST Creamery is based in the Bay Area, but production is on a farm in Wilton.
The winners of the Good Food Awards will be announced in New York City on June 28.
