Put in a pickle early in life, Dallas resident’s relishes a player at Rangers concessions

Sometimes life has a way of giving a person lemons, terribly rotten lemons. When that happened to LaToya Moppins, she made … pickles?

Yes, Glorious Gherkins, in fact.

Now, Moppins has made it to the major leagues.

Moppins has gone from homeless mother to the exclusive provider of the two relishes that will be used on The RWB (Red White & Blue) Dog this season at Globe Life Park.

All of the new menu items at concession stands this Texas Rangers season and in the Rebecca Creek Club were unveiled Monday for an annual media sampling, including The Fowl Bowl. The 2-pound chicken strip can be had for $27.50.

The RWB Dog comes with Lay’s chips and costs $11. It features Moppins’ Spicy Mango and Garlic Chicken relishes that she created at her retail shop in Oak Cliff, Glorious Gherkins (4515 Village Fair Drive, Suite B46B).

She is hoping the arrangement with the Rangers and Fort Worth-based Best Maid Pickles will bring increased exposure to the business she said she started as a means to help feed her children.

“I hustling, I was selling, and I was trying to take care of my kids,” Moppins said. “I won’t every be homeless again, I’ll tell you that. But the experience of homelessness can be from circumstance and doesn’t always have to be because of drugs. I will never have to eat out of another trash can ever.”

Moppins didn’t reveal much about her homelessness, though she said it covered four years from age 16-20 around 20 years ago. She started cranking out the gherkins in 2008, first selling them out of her car and then generating enough business that people were asking if she delivered and shipped.

Eventually, she needed a store front and a website (www.gloriousgherkins.com). Overhead is low, as she employs only a cousin and a nephew. She uses Best Maid pickles to make a wide range of gherkins that includes birthday cake, chocolate ice cream and alcohol-infused Greene Lantern.

Best Maid’s business relationship with the Rangers led to the connection with Moppins, who said that they taste-tested four flavors of gherkins before Spicy Mango and Garlic Chicken were selected for The RWB Dog.

“That’s when they asked, ‘Can you do relishes?’” Moppins said. “I said, ‘Yeah. I do now.’”

An amateur palate might not be able to pick up the flavors on the Texas Chili all-beef hot dog at first, but the flavors and sweet-spicy combination make for a pleasant bite. The relishes are red and blue, and onions make for the white.

The Fowl Bowl is as advertised, a big chicken strip. It is one of 16 new items at concession stands.

It might generate all the attention this season, but the relish on the RWB Dog is the best story.

“I’m very grateful,” Moppins said.