Most of us love eating pickles and going to
festivals. So a number of communities have combined
the two. In the US, the St. Joesph (Indiana) Pickle
Fest is this month. Other community pickle parties
are held in in Mount Olive, NC, Hewitt, MN, Atkins,
AR among others. There's even a Christmas Pickle
Festival in Michigan.
Russians
love pickles and have pickle festivals too.
Here is the logo and a couple of their kids
in pickle costumes in Vladimir-Suzdal, Russia.
Here's a US radio station with a pickle theme?
Americans even drive cars with
giant pickles on the roof.
In
Europe they have the pickle Christmas tree ornament.
As the story goes, two boys were traveling home
from boarding school for the holidays. They
stopped at an inn where the evil innkeeper robbed
them and stuffed their bodies in a pickle barrel.
That evening St. Nicholas stopped also at
the inn. He rescued the boys, who were able
to continue home successfully. Through time,
the custom of hanging a pickle as the last ornament
on the tree developed. The first child to
spot the partially hidden pickle on Christmas morning
receives a special gift.
In
the 19th century, people pickled their own or bought
them in bulk from barrels in the grocery store. In
either case they were kept on the dining table in
galss or ceramic pickle castors like the one pictured
above. Pickles were as much a tabletop feature as
salt and pepper. Notice the cucumber vine and flower
decorations on this pickle castor. These items are
highly prized antiques now. they all came with a pair
of tongs hanging from the handle.
Of
course, pickles all start as cucumbers. And the cucumber
started out in India.
The following
pickle history comes from Mt. Olive Pickle Company.
(Don't they wish their hometown were Mount Pickle,
NC?)
The history
of pickles stretches so far back into antiquity
that no definite time has been established for their
origin,
but they are estimated to be over 4,000 years old.
- In 2,030
B.C., cucumbers native to India were brought to
the Tigris Valley. There, they were first preserved
and eaten as pickles.
- Cucumbers
are mentioned at least twice in the Bible (Numbers
11:5 and Isaiah 1:8) and history records their usage
over 3,000 years ago in Western Asia, ancient Egypt
and Greece.
- In 850 B.C.,
Aristotle praised the healing effects of cured cucumbers.
- Cleopatra
attributed a portion of her beauty to pickles --
though we're not sure which portion.
- Pliny's writings
mention spiced and preserved cucumbers; in other
words, pickles.
- The Roman
Emperor Tiberius consumed pickles on a daily basis.
- Julius Caesar
thought pickles had an invigorating effect, so,
naturally, he shared them with his legions.
- The enjoyment
of pickles spread far and wide through Europe. In
the thirteenth century, pickles were served as a
main dish at the famous Feast of King John.
- Pickles were
brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus,
who is known to have grown them on the island of
Haiti.
- In the sixteenth
century, Dutch fine food fanciers cultivated pickles
as one of their prized delicacies.
- Cartier found
cucumbers growing in Canada in 1535, and they were
known to the colonists of Virginia as early as 1609.
- Queen Elizabeth
liked pickles. And Napoleon valued pickles as a
health asset for his armies.
- Samuel Pepy's
diary mentions a glass of Girkins as something to
be highly appreciated.
- In 1659,
Dutch farmers in New York grew cucumbers in what
is now Brooklyn. These cukes were sold to dealers
who cured them in barrels and sold them from market
stalls on Washington, Canal and Fulton Streets.
As it turns out, these pickle purveyors started
the nation's commercial pickle industry.
- A fondness
for pickles has always been a national characteristic
of the American people. It's a good thing, since
our country's namesake, Amerigo Vespucci, was actually
a pickle peddler in Seville, Spain. He supplied
ships with pickled vegetables to prevent sailors
from getting scurvy on long voyages. While Columbus
is credited with discovering America, Vespucci was
apparently a better PR man. We're named for him.
We became the United States of America -- instead
of the United States of Vespucci. And that's probably
a good thing, too.
- George Washington
was a pickle enthusiast. So were John Adams and
Dolly Madison.
- Pickles inspired
Thomas Jefferson to write the following:
"On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting
than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like
from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below
the stairs of Aunt Sally's cellar."
We're still trying to track down Aunt Sally's recipe.
- In colonial
America, the pickle patch was an important adjunct
to good living. Pickles were highly regarded by
all of America's pioneering generations because,
under frontier conditions, pickles were the only
zesty, juicy, green, succulent food available for
many months of the year.
- In colonial
times, and, much later, on farms and in villages,
homemakers expected to "put down" some pickles in
stone crocks, and to "put up" some pickles and pickle
relishes in glass jars.
- In 1820,
Frenchman Nicholas Appert was the first person to
commercially pack pickles in jars.
- In 1905,
this post card was sent from Fall River, Massachusetts
to a New York City address. The man signed
"Papa" was indeed "in a pickle" as he says he has
lost his gloves in the cellar and his
hat at the office. He wanted them mailed
to him in Belfast.
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