All Hail the Mighty Pickle

November 14th was National Pickle Day in the United States.

This auspicious day, which celebrates the centuries of work put into perfecting the original pickle, traces its origin back to the Pickle Packers Association in 1949 when it took pride of place in National Pickle Week.

Learning of National Pickle Day gave us pause (for a number of reasons….) but we thought it was a good excuse to take a quick look at that most interesting fruit – or is it a vegetable?

This is a question that we’re sure has been dividing families for generations.

A pickle is a cucumber which has been preserved in vinegar or brine. So, vegetable, right? Actually no. Cucumbers are grown from flowering plants and produce large quantities of seeds used for growing future cucumber plants. It is because of this primary function that they are classified as fruits rather than vegetables.

So, now that that’s clear as mud, it leads to the obvious next question – since pickles are cucumbers that have been soaked in a pickling solution, is a pickle a cucumber? Once again, the obvious becomes murky and families are torn apart by the debate.

Some people (us included) would say “no”, that once the cucumber has been soaked in the pickling solution, it has been deliciously transformed into a pickle. Others say that a pickle is simply a cucumber that’s been preserved in vinegar and spices. I guess that answer depends entirely on who you ask.

The world “pickle” comes from the Dutch “pekel” or northern German “pokel”, meaning “salt” or “brine”, two very important components in the pickling process. Throughout history pickling was a necessity, being one of the best ways preserving food for a long period of time.

The popularity of the pickle date back thousands of years to 2030 BC when cucumbers were brought from their native India to the Tigris Valley in Mesopotamia. It is here that the tradition of pickling them began.

And the pickle quickly became famous. They are mentioned in the Bible. Aristotle praised the healing effects of cured cucumbers. Cleopatra.....

Julius Caesar fed pickles to his troops in the belief that they lent physical and spiritual strength. Shakespeare peppered his plays with references not only to pickles, but new uses of the word as a metaphor: “Oh, Hamlet, how camest thou in such a pickle?” (Hamlet Act 5, Scene 1).

Christopher Columbus brought pickles to the New World by growing cucumbers for the purpose of pickling on the island of Haiti in the late 1400’s. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, said:

In 1985, Steven Trotter became the youngest man to go over the crest of Niagara Falls in a pickle barrel, actually two plastic pickle barrels surrounded by rubber inner tubes.

So, as you can see from this brief homage to the pickle, there are nearly as many different uses for the pickle – from literature to conquering armies, from beauty secrets to extreme survival techniques – as there are different types of pickles to crunch on – from Dill’s to Gherkins, from Bread & Butter to Sweet & Sour.

And make your plans now how you will celebrate National Pickle Day next year.

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