National Pickle Day

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By Diane Forrest

Last year on my father's birthday I gave him a mandolin food slicer.  This past summer he found a great use for it.  His neighbor planted a crop of cucumbers, and brought some to my dad, and he went about slicing them up and making my grandmother's famous bread and butter pickles.   I have never been much of a pickle eater, but when he brought those pickles out, I could have eaten the whole jar!  They are thinly sliced cucumbers, and thin rings of onions, in a sweet pickling sauce.

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Other pickles I love are included on the side of a sandwich plate.  When I order certain hamburgers, or po’boys, they will place a pickle spear on the side. I don’t' know where they get them, I have tried the ones in the grocery store, but they never taste as good as the ones beside my sandwich.   Another good pickle is the whole pickles I used to get at the movies.  I didn’t really like them, but they were so big and would last a long time, so I could much on them during the whole show.

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Today is National Pickle day.  Pickles have been around for years.  Back in 2030 B.C., cucumbers were imported from India to the Tigris Valley. There, they were first preserved and eaten as pickles.  According to punchbowl.com, in ancient Egypt, people consumed pickles for their nutritional value and because they were thought to enhance beauty. Cleopatra attributed her good looks to her full diet of pickles. Centuries later, Napoleon believed that pickles offered health benefits for his armies, so he offered a huge cash prize to anyone who was able to preserve them safely.

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So, today, whether you eat pickles for your health, beauty, or flavor, enjoy some sweet, dill, or any type of pickle.