Photo courtesy of Hippie Wayne
Wayne "Hippie Wayne" Wojciechowski
Wayne Wojciechowski, better known as “Hippie Wayne,” began cooking professionally in 1969 for the Howard Johnson’s hotel and restaurant chain’s Oshkosh, Wis., location. “The Galloping Gourmet,” a TV show that aired from 1969 to 1971, further influenced his passion for food and cooking. He retired after a long career in the food industry, but he still wanted to stay active and connected to food. That led to Hippie Wayne’s line of dill pickles, pickled eggs, jams and salsas, and Green Tomato Artisan Market & Kitchen, an affordable commercial kitchen space in Appleton, Wis., that has launched several foodie businesses over the past eight years.
“Everybody in my family canned. I helped my mother pickle fish. We pickled anything,” he recalls. Although his original post-retirement plan was to launch a food truck with hot beef sandwiches, a mentor from SCORE, a network of volunteer business mentors, encouraged him to pursue something more unique. Wojciechowski reached back to his family’s pickling recipes, as well as other recipes he’s researched and modified, to create the Hippie Wayne’s product line.
Wojciechowski started selling pickles and jams at farmers markets in the northeast Wisconsin region in 2010. Soon, he was on the shelves at small local businesses such as Planeview Travel Plaza and Market Boutique on Main, in Oshkosh, and Eaton’s Fresh Pizza, in Fond du Lac, Wis. Through Trust Local Food Distribution, his products found their way to the shelves at Outpost Natural Foods. But don’t look anywhere else. “When you get really big, it becomes a job. I’m retired!” he says. “I want to enjoy what I’m doing and not have to get up at 2 a.m. to get 20 tasks done.”
Customer favorites include the pickled eggs, pickled mushrooms, black bean and corn salsa and strawberry rhubarb jam. Looking for classic, old-school dill pickles like grandma use to make? Hippie Wayne’s nails the nostalgia not just with taste, but also with the packaging. Products come in traditional Ball jars. When the lid is popped off, you see garlic cloves and dill neatly packed in with the pickle spears.
Other jams include varieties like Mom’s Apple Pie in a Jar, with chunky seasoned apples. Wojciechowski sources most of his produce locally from farms that are either certified organic or grow with organic methods. Due to the volume of eggs he uses, he sources those from V. Marchese. “I can tell people where everything in the jar came from. It’s a great way of doing business,” Wojciechowski notes.
Eight years ago, Wojciechowski took over the lease of a processing kitchen he would transform into Green Tomato Artisan Market & Kitchen. He makes Hippie Wayne’s products there and has also helped foster other food entrepreneurs such as Ann’s Gluten Free Bakery, who opened a small café in the space. She offers breakfast, lunch, soups and salads from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
Other businesses in the space include Irresistibly Healthy, makers of all-natural hummus, spreads, sauces and snack mixes, the latter of which are made with their own vegan, gluten-free Worcestershire sauce. There’s also JSA Coffee Roasting and Caribbean Taste catering, specializing in jerk chicken. Their foods are gluten-free and available in the café. Green Tomato also has a retail component that sells products made in kitchen.
Wojciechowski concludes that splitting the cost of commercial space gives everyone an advantage to launch foodie businesses, but he encourages everyone he mentors to have a solid business plan. “You can have a food business as a hobby, but the minute you get a license, it’s no longer a hobby, it’s a job. You’ve got to put your big-boy pants on and make it happen.”
For more information, visit facebook.com/TheGreenTomatoKitchen.
