Peachy's Pantry: Gold's Horseradish
Back in 1932, when it all began, Tillie and Hyman Gold did all the work by hand. Cleaning, cutting and grating the horseradish roots; measuring and mixing the ingredients; filling the jars; pasting on the labels (with paste made at home with flour and water)...all by hand, one jar at a time. Then, as now, it was of the utmost importance to get all natural products to the customer immediately after manufacturing in order to ensure freshness. Even if that meant just one or two jars at a time for each store, freshness was a primary concern.
Whom You Know loves historical brands of quality, and we were recently introduced to Gold's horseradish by one of our restaurant friends. The three varieties we tried of Horseradish were Homestyle, Hot and Horseradish with Beets, which we liked the best of the three because we do like beets!
Today it is Marc Gold that is an integral part of this brand; he's a principal and third generation family member of Gold Pure Food Products, Inc., a 78-year-old manufacturer of some fifty condiment foods. Gold's has a rich history interwoven in old New York and the Flatbush, Brooklyn neighborhood in particular. Gold's signature item is its line of horseradishes, a national institution on family dinnertables. Then comes, their goumet mustards, also nationally distributed and used at several famous stadiums, ballparks, and sports arenas along the East Coast (including for teams like the: New York Mets, State Island Yankees, Long Island Ducks, the New York Islanders, and the Tampa Bay Rays).
Marc Gold's grandmother was one of America's first female entrepreneurs. We have always believed in Women Entrepreneurs at Whom You Know and commend all entrepreneurs of excellence. In her modest, neighborhood walk-up apartment, Tillie Gold (along with her mother from eastern Europe) decided that she could help to bring in money for her husband and children during the throes of, "The Great Depression" by making use of an old grinder she obtained from a relative as part of settling a family dispute.
Tillie figured that dirty, smelly, raw horseradish roots being cleaned, ground, and jarred would be a great modern-day convenience. Tillie and her mother did this in their little apartment. Tillie's husband and her two sons (including Marc's father) went around Brooklyn selling this horseradish.
After a few years, they were able to buy a car and make deliveries around New York, without being dependent on carrying boxes and jars of horseradish through the subways!
Marc, Steve, Howie, and Neil, the grandchildren of Tillie (who today run the seventy employee company) remember going out on deliveries when they were growing up. They worked in a series of Brooklyn-based plants and warehouses as part of their upbringing, "learning the ropes", manufacturing horseradish.
About fifteen years ago, there was simply no adequate space in Brooklyn to handle Gold's future growth needs and expanded operations. Reluctantly, they left Brooklyn and moved to a modern, state-of-the-art plant in Hempstead, Long Island---which is projected to take the company perhaps into their 100th aniversary,.
Melissa Gold, a member of the fifth generation, a daughter of Steve has entered the business since her graduation from Syracuse University. These family members are indeed focused on preserving their legacy, tradition, and cultural roots. Several other fifth generation members are completing school and are prospects to come into the business.
In addition to Gold's horseradish (regular, extra hot, and sweet), Gold's manufactures a ketchup, a borscht, a shav, a Hungarian cabbage soup, a cocktail sauce, and line of duck sauces, and more. (Gold's was the first to offer the plastic squeeze bottle of mustard for sanitary cleanliness.)
Gold's also does what is known in the food industry as private label and co-packing. For example, they own and produceNathan's Mustard, a la the famous Nathan's hot dogs!
If you are a fan of horseradish, you should try Gold's!
http://goldshorseradish.com/new/2.html
