A Craster man sells pickles to raises over £17,000 for charity and local causes

Ex-RNLI crew member and design company director, Peter Angus felt inspired to start making pickles after he found himself unwell and unable to work for six months.

After a psychiatrist suggested he find an activity to keep himself occupied, he founded the idea as a way to give back to the community and has now raised a total of £17,244.75 with Gift Aid for local charities and causes.

He said: “I started with just a few jars which I gave to friends but the feedback seemed good so I decided to keep at it and any money I made I would donate to charity.

“As the pickles had literally saved my life, I would use any money generated to improve other people’s lives.”

He expanded: "At first all the money I raised went to the Craster Branch of the RNLI where I had been a crew member for 10 year in the late 80’s.

"They have been recently raising money to build a memorial garden near the lifeboat house so all my efforts had been on that.”

This Christmas, Peter used his fundraising efforts towards helping North Northumberland HospiceCare, raising a total of £1662 in memory of Andrea Frater and Karen Carr – family relations and friends who had received care from the hospice in their final weeks.

In previous years, he has also donated to causes such as: Coquetdale Red Squirrel Group and Cancer Research, as well as a local Shilbottle family who’s children were suffering from Metachromatic leukodystroph (MLD).

He added: “I now buy jars in bulk 500 at a time and make batches of 45 jars at a time, when I've made all the varieties I offer them for sale and the money goes to charity, every penny, I keep nothing back for ingredients or jars.”

“My wife, Mel helps with the lime pickle production as we make a huge batch in February to last the whole year.”

"It's made from an old recipe I found in my Mams books, all-natural and fermented for 10-12 weeks in a barrel – natural fermentation makes the pickle probiotic so it's good for your gut health too!”