The sole supplier of McDonald's pickles in Australia has re-emerged as the king of gherkins, after a turbulent decade which saw his original company placed into liquidation and his crops wiped out by drought.

"We're on the positive side of the ledger and we're digging our way back out and it's good. We see a bright future," gherkin grower Tony Parle told Landline.

The story behind the loved and loathed burger condiment is a tale of extreme highs and lows.

Twenty-four years ago, the Parles were struggling rice and wheat growers near Griffith in New South Wales, and were considering getting out of farming altogether.

Instead Tony Parle took a punt on pickled cucumbers, despite some logistical challenges at harvest.

"They're hard to grow cause they're so quick and ruthless," he said.

"If you're 48 hours late, goodbye, you bypass the paddock and move onto the next one, because at a certain point they double their size in 24 hours."

As other producers packed it in, the Parles progressed from handpicking to machine harvesting and processing.

A few years after getting into the gherkin game, they secured the deal with McDonald's, which is now worth around $4.5 million annually.

When Mr Parle spoke to the ABC's Landline program in 1993 he was enjoying the perks of his successful pickle business, Parle Foods.

"One time I was sitting in a motel room on the 33rd floor looking out of the window on this beautiful harbour view, saying to myself how the hell did I get here," he said at the time.

Crashing down

Ten years later it all came crashing down when the company, which had taken on investors and expanded into frozen rice and vegetable processing, went into receivership and later liquidation.

It’s a collapse that Mr Parle says was largely due to the poor relationship between shareholders.

"At our peak we were worth $16 million and we lost the lot, we went to the cleaners," said the farmer-turned-food manufacturer.

He wasn't the only one to lose out.

Some creditors never got the money they were owed.

But Tony Parle never gave up on the humble gherkin.

When the company's assets were sold to cover bank debts, he struck a deal that enabled him to buy back the pickle operation, which he used to kick-start a family-owned business called Australian Frozen Foods.

However, after one good year, efforts to rebuild collapsed when the drought took hold.

"We had to cut the water on all our crops, because there was no allocation and all the crops died," said Mr Parle.

To get by and keep McDonald's stocked with gherkins, the Parles started processing gherkins imported from India.

"Tony's not the only one of our suppliers to go through highs and lows in the last few years," said McDonald's spokeswoman Jackie McArthur.

"We want them to be with us through all the highs and lows in the same way we promise that we'll be with them through the highs and lows."

Pull the plug

In 2005 Mr Parle threatened to pull the plug on the partnership, in protest over the multinational's move away from some local suppliers.

But that row was quickly resolved and these days the pickle producer has nothing but praise for the fast food giant.

"Every relationship has its bumps. I mean 21 years, what do you expect." said Mr Parle.

"I'm sure that there's probably occasions where they wish I wasn't bloody here sometimes, but no it's a good relationship."

The partnership, and Tony Parle's persistence with pickles, is now paying off again.

For the first time in 8 years his farm is growing enough gherkins to meet McDonald's needs.

And while he may not be making millions yet, he's content to not be in a pickle anymore.

"Life is an experience... it's a package deal. You don't get to chose which part you keep and don't keep," said Mr Parle.

"You just got to live with it and you've got to go forward."

For the full story on Australia's only large scale gherkin grower, watch Landline this Sunday at noon on ABC1.