National Pickle Day, November 14, 2009

Photo by cafemama

Hey folks! It’s National Pickle Day! A day devoted to pickling is designed for preserving folks like us. It’s the perfect time to make pickles, eat pickles, or decide what homemade pickled items we want to give as a gifts.

Almost anything can be pickled. A pickle is: “An edible product, such as a cucumber, that has been preserved and flavored in a solution of brine or vinegar” (definition from Answers.com). Although almost any food can be pickled–don’t forget that Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers–the food that we in the US usually call “pickles” are most often pickled cucumbers. And, there is a whole range of pickled cucumbers on our shelves, with dill pickles and bread and butter pickles being the most commonly known. And there are food items other than pickled fruits and vegetables to explore, like pickled pig’s feet and pickled eggs.

Of course, pickling can be said to apply to humans, as well.  We can be “in a pickle,” which means we are in some sort of trouble, and we can be “pickled,” which means we have had too much to imbibe.

What have you been pickling? Let us know! Don’t forget that we have many pickle recipes on our recipe page–check them out!