When Mike Wuller ’83 was at TCU studying biology, he got himself a dilly of a summer job one year working for pickle company Best Maid.

“I had taken med tech classes and since I had the background in bacteria and fermentation and all the things that are necessary in taking a cucumber and making it into a pickle, I walked in and said, ‘You probably use this kind of bacteria in your process,’ and they were amazed.”

Although food-processing methods today sometimes bypass them, traditional pickle-fermentation methods rely on microbes such as Lactobacillus brevis and Pedigococcus mesenteroides to sour and soften the cucumbers.

Wuller’s propensity for translating esoteric science into the pragmatic practice of pickle production paid off, and today he’s the technical director for Best Maid, which is headquarted in Fort Worth and has a tank yard in Mansfield.

He’s responsible for drawing the specifications for the company’s dozens of pickle recipes and coming up with new formulations, such as the habanero spread he created for ZestFest ’04 that was so popular the company made it a standard part of their line.

“My test tubes now are 800 tanks, and each one holds one 18-wheeler full of cucumbers.” Wuller says. Speaking of college, Wuller recalls making grilled cheese sandwiches in his dorm room in Tom Brown and serving them with pickles from a jar of Best Maid Hamburger Slices. “This even before I had any idea that there were jobs and a paycheck in pickles.”

Now Wuller knows well that pickle producing is a position that can pack a lot of punch. His work his taken him to India where he consulted with the USAID/Farmer to Farmer program in Russia. In October he was elected president of Pickle Packers International.

Of course, Muller acknowledges that pickles are primarily green while his alma mater is passionate about purple. He has a remedy for that: Take a Best Maid Gallon Dill (or sour for more zing) and add a couple of quart packages of grape drink mix and refrigerate for a couple of days. “Better than a snow cone, as they don’t melt,” he said. The purple pickles keep better in an opaque container than in the see-through jars that pickles are packaged in, he advises.

Does this “purple” pickle packer object to having a little fun poked at his occupation?

Not in the slightest. “You can’t say pickle without smiling,” Wuller says.