Lisa Moeller will share stories about her travels and work during a PowerPoint presentation titled ‘A Day in the Life of an International Pickle Consultant’ at Steele Memorial Library on Thursday, Sept. 7, from 6-7 p.m. This presentation is free and open to the public. (Lisa Moeller|Courtesy photo)
Lisa Moeller, left, enjoys dinner on the Danube while discussing a current project she is working on with USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) in the Balkans. (Lisa Moeller|Courtesy photo)
In Periyar National Park in India, Lisa Moeller is working on sustainability initiatives. (Lisa Moeller|Courtesy photo)
Lisa Moeller, right, travels throughout the world as a consultant. She recently spent two weeks in India. (Lisa Moeller|Courtesy photo)
How is it that someone who lives on a farm outside Mount Olive can see toucans, caimans, and anteaters in the course of a typical workday? Well, it’s possible when that person lives near Mount Olive but works in exotic locales around the world, as is the case with pickle expert and consultant Lisa Moeller.
Moeller will share stories about her travels and work during a PowerPoint presentation titled “A Day in the Life of an International Pickle Consultant” at Steele Memorial Library on Thursday, Sept. 7, from 6-7 p.m. This presentation is free and open to the public.
Moeller grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of California, Davis, where she majored in agronomy. Her interest in agriculture, coupled with the fact that she saw North Carolina as a good place to buy land and raise a family, brought her to a farm outside Mount Olive, where she’s lived for almost 40 years. She developed her pickle expertise during a 25-year tenure at Mt. Olive Pickle Company; as Environmental Quality supervisor, she oversaw quality assurance of the tank yard water and wastewater, and helped create new products.
Upon leaving the pickle company, her career took her in a different direction — literally. “From 2015 through 2018, I had a residency permit in the country of Turkey,” says Moeller. “I had a place to stay in an olive grove on the Marmara Sea. I went to a factory with the owners of Zey-Tur-San [a manufacturer of olive and pickle products] every day and became part of their family. We produced Burger King Hamburger Dill Chips for Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, and half of Europe, as well as retail products for the Turkish and European markets under the Berrak label. Turkey became my ‘home away from home’ and I fell in love with the people there.”
Another place special to Moeller is Brazil. “On one particular project I stayed in a fish camp on a river in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, next to the Paraguay border,” she recounts. “When I went to work in the mornings there were toucans in the trees and anteaters in the fields. The wastewater system had caimans around the bank. It was a very unique setting and lovely experience.”
In recent years, Moeller has been spending more time working remotely from her home, although she does still travel. Recent trips have included a two-week stint in south India and a one-week stay in the Balkans, both for the purposes of developing new products and markets.
To hear more about her work, and to see photos of her travels and adventures, join her at Steele Memorial Library on Sept. 7.
Steele Memorial Library is located at 119 W. Main Street in Mount Olive.
