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The day Chissies was born..
One Saturday in 1989 having met my now wife of 30 years I decided I wanted to make a batch of VEG ATCHAR … we were looking at pickling spices at Checkers in Overport city Centre in Durban and an Indian Gentleman leaned over to us and asked what we were planning to make … we said we wanted to make an atchar and he said “only use THAT SPICE” WELL THAT WAS THE BEGINNING of CHISSIES .. People often ask why we called the business Chissies and its because our surname is Chislett and my nickname was“ Chissie” during my soccor games in my youth … we just added an S and that began our little hobby … the atchar was made in a pot in our kitchen and we cut all the vegetables by hand but used a blender to shred the carrots and cabbage.
Enjoyed by everyone who ate it, I decided to experiment again …left over onions sliced , in the bottle , spice and vinegar and our CURRIED ONIONS were born ….a few more months later and I Liquidised a few chillis and a few onions together , cooked them and bottled them and our next product, the CHILLI AND ONION was born …
Gosh , now we need to find a steady supply of bottles and we need a label ( my sister Ingrid in Joburg to the rescue … wish I could find the 1 st label she designed for us … Kerry will keep searching for it and we ll share it once we find it … )
In 1998 Our 2 boys are 7 and 3 and our neighbours , Beryl and Stuart Webster living in our little house across the valley ask us if we want to join them on a Saturday at the polo field down the road in Assagay while they are selling vege packs from the back of their bakkie . they suggested us selling boerewors rolls there .. my father in law Des Donne was the” best butcher” in KZN and worked at Knowles in Pinetown .. he made our Boerewors and I can remember selling 18 rolls from a TV tray and a skottle braai that 1 st morning ..we paid R10 to have a spot on the lawns there and added our atchar and a bbq sauce as add ons with the wors rolls …
As the Shongweni market grew and moved to new premises we grew too… come rain or shine we’ve traded every Saturday since 1999 and we now have 11 frequently made products and have supplied Pickles and sauces to loyal friends , family and customers alike for 30 years now … I manufacture every bottle with the help of our assistant – Pretty who joined our family in 2009 and when we get very busy we are alllll hands on deck …I am Kerry s ATM ( she spends all the profits and pays the bills )
Not only do we market our range at the Shongweni Farmers Market every Saturday morning, but our pickles and sauces are sold at our local Kwikspar in Hillcrest and a few other spars , one or two Food Lovers market Branches, Seafood Market and Seafood Hyper in Springfield Park and many fish shops in and around KwaZulu Natal. Our Goal is to add ZING to anything so call Chissies Pickles today and we ll get your order to you asap.
A real adventure this has been , lots of tears (from the 1000 s of onions we ve liquidized) and burny hands and eyes from the tons of chillis that are destalked and liquidized but it s soooo worth it when we
See how much our products are enjoyed.
Thanks everyone for your continued support.