Hey, Pickle People!
There’s no question about it. Pickles are an all-American treat! It’s a favorite condiment for hamburger fixings—one of the most American foods in the country.
While pickles can be incredibly complementary, sometimes there’s just nothing else that will satisfy your taste buds save a big, salty pickle completely on its own, packed with explosive pickle juice. If I close my eyes and think about it, I can almost taste that bursting bite into a perfect pic
kle right now. YUM!
So, I’m sure you’re all asking yourselves, why am I talking about pickles? But the question should really be why aren’t YOU talking about pickles? After all, today is National Pickle Day and pickles deserve all the praise that they receive. Not enough people are aware of today’s significance. However, for a holiday that was created only six years ago in 2007, its popularity has grown immensely. People care about pickles.
I’m sure that most of you already know pickles started out as nothing more than cucumbers. The cucumbers were then pickled. Pickling a vegetable is simply preserving it in brine or marinating it in vinegar. Pretty much any vegetable can be pickled—it doesn’t really even need to be a vegetable. Popular foods for pickling, besides cucumbers of course, are okra, onions, peppers, olives, cabbage, eggs, herring, sausage, pigs feet—the list goes on.
So how did this nationally delicious holiday get started? Pretty much because it didn’t exist even though it ought to. The date was picked arbitrarily (though it was set for the very near future when it was first pickled out—er, picked out, I mean—so that the wait for National Pickle Day wouldn’t be too long—who would want to wait to celebrate after having such a delicious idea).
If you love pickles and you love National Pickle Day (and why wouldn’t you?) then get out there and spread the word about it. After all, you need friends around to make it a celebration! As the slogan of National Pickle Day goes, “Eat a pickle, Hug a friend.”
- John