CLEVELAND, Ohio – Kiaran Kabat gamely put up with rough morning sickness four and a half years ago before giving birth to her daughter. Little did she and her husband Josh know, but that time of their life also would give birth to an idea.

"She had terrible morning sickness," Josh said. "It was really bad. It was scary. We couldn’t believe how sick she was. She was just craving pickles. When she wasn’t puking, she was eating pickles."

This year, the Fairview Park couple officially transitioned from Cleveland Pickle's restaurant to a full-time pickle business. They closed the restaurant in January, refocused on their line of gourmet pickles, and this week inked a deal for Preggo Pickle at their first local retail outlet, Second Thyme Around in Olmsted Falls.

Timing has worked out.

"The last year at the sandwich shop I was becoming a little disenchanted with the restaurant business," said Kabat, who has worked at Aurora Inn, Treva in Akron and Lola in Tremont. The Kabats also ran Reddstone. Josh is from Aurora, Kiaran is from Cleveland Heights. Both are 40.

"Our (Cleveland Pickle) lease was coming up and we had to make a decision. Stay in the business or head out in a different direction. … We came to a point we can't operate one or two locations. We had to open six or eight or 10. With the influx of restaurants and almost oversaturation, we didn’t want to open more. This is a good time to get out."

Getting out meant getting into gourmet pickles. And one of those lines is Preggo Pickle.

"I always knew the nausea-relieving (properties) of ginger. My mom had always given us ginger ale for stomach aches. So I'm going to make a ginger pickle, fresh ginger infused into the pickles. She (Kiaran) tried them; she loved them, and it helped her morning sickness. We looked at each other and had this 'a ha!' moment.

That epiphany led to the creation of four flavored pickles that aim to relieve some of the problems associated with pregnancy:

• Gingerly: To relieve nausea.

• Crispy Fresh: Has lavender and fresh lemon, equating to having a cup of tea for stress relief.

• Garlic dill: Because taste buds are amplified and some women crave bigger flavors.

• Sweet Hots: To satiate sweet-tooth cravings.

A 24-ounce jar of spears costs $8.99.

"Every one is low in sodium. They top off at 40 milligrams. For a pickle, that's super low," Josh said.

Pickles are low in cholesterol, protein and fat while being a source of iron,

Vitamins A and K, potassium, manganese and calcium. (Here's more on pickles' nutritional values.)

"I've always loved pickles growing up," Josh said. "It's weird where life takes you. We did not see ourselves as pickle people. If you saw 'Ferris Bueller,' I like to say I'm the Abe Froman of the pickle business." (In the 1986 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Ferris tries to worm his way into a fancy restaurant by name-dropping Froman, the reported sausage king of Chicago.)

The Kabats also teamed up with Malley's Chocolates to make 10,000 chocolate-covered pickles, the salty-sweet combination hitting the spot, Josh said.

Preggo Pickles "make a great baby-shower gift," he said. "It is kind of a wives' tale, but there is something that makes their brain crave a pickle."

The couple hopes to create a product-development company that targets specific outlets like Buy Buy Baby or World Market.

Their main line of pickles is served at Mabel's BBQ and Gypsy Beans & Baking Co. in Cleveland's Gordon Square neighborhood. The pickles are perfect for restaurants' charcuterie boards, he said, and they hope to pitch the idea for breweries to buy them to serve as snacks.

Because of Preggo Pickles' lower sodium content, hospitals want to include them on menus, he added.

While the couple seeks distribution deals, the jars tout the company’s rather appropriate slogan: “The crunch only a mother could love."