No Rest for the Pickled

Yes, I went on vacation and got out of the city for awhile, but listen to me...I never, EVER, go on vacation from my pickle devotion. Nope. Not ever. A friend and I, the lovely Rebecca (she makes me pickle martinis), flew down to North Carolina and just had our way with the state and some of South Carolina too. We frolicked in waterfalls and floated down a river, we ate boiled peanuts and drank Sun Drop and Cheerwine...and, yeah, I found some pickles. The very first night we got into Asheville, NC, I found a jar in the fridge labeled Smokey Mountain Dill Spears and got a good feeling for the rest of the week...

So, yeah, I'm always looking for pickles, but actually my main focus for this trip, besides drinking while in water (beer+water=vacation), was to find and eat as many boiled peanuts as possible. If you aren't Southern, chances are you have no idea what I'm talking about and for that I'm sorry. Google "boiled peanuts" and then set out for parts below the Mason Dixon Line or click here. The next morning we checked out a farmer's market (they are plentiful in Asheville) and officially began the search for peanuts and pickles. I scored a tube of homemade chapstick, but it wasn't until the following day that we hit the jackpot.

In the South you'll see roadside stands all along the highway selling peaches, corn, tomatoes, watermelons and if you're lucky, boiled peanuts, and if you're blessed by the sweet baby Jesus, you'll also find rows and rows of pickles. I love stopping at these stands (and gas stations)and this one had more types of pickles than I have ever seen before. I chose 2 jars, (just 2), and hoped we'd continue to strike gold as we drove across the state.

The first jar I cracked open as we drove to the Green River to go tubin' was the Carolina Hot & Crunchy Dills. They were "hot", because they'd been sitting outside for days, maybe weeks, and they were not in any way crunchy. But guess what? I ate them anyway. They were kind of like Wickles, but not as good-because nothing comes close to Wickles! Then I cracked open the Carolina Spicy Garlic Dill Chips and ate almost the whole jar with my bare hands ( I really should travel with a pickle fork) while everyone else was chugging beer before getting to the river. The jar was chock full of cayenne pepper, so much so, the pickles had a crunch to them just from the crust of cayenne on them. I know they would have been a million times better if I had let them get cold first but I just couldn't wait.

I've done a google search for both the "Carolina" pickles and the "Smokey Mountain" pickles that I found in the fridge and found neither available online. I suppose one just has to GO there to get them and I am SO GLAD I DID. If anyone out there has had these or knows if you can get them online, let us all know!

I took my Carolina pickle trio out onto the front porch for a photo shoot and this El Gato showed up and shooed away the squirrels and made himself comfortable.


He barely moved once he laid down and was still there the day we left...I can't blame him, I wish I was still there.