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I’ve rambled on for 100 posts already and trust me people, I’m just getting started.
It’s taken me this many posts to realize that I’m really and truly a “blogger” and now that the term “blogger” no longer makes me feel dirty I’m taking the next step; I’ve just Tweeted for the first time.
Who just tweeted? That’s right, I just tweeted. Still sounds dirty.
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My friend Jeff interviewed me while I was home in Aberdeen, MS for Xmas and wrote this great article about Pickle Freak for the Monroe 360 Journal.
Aberdeen was such a small town that growing up we all recognized the car of the newspaper’s photographer. I can remember debating whether or not to run through the sprinkler in the front yard or the back yard depending if I wanted my picture in the paper in my mickey mouse bathing suit(courtesy of Tots to Teens of course)or not. Not much has changed but now it’s my friend Jeff that gets recognized everywhere he goes on behalf of the paper…and I always run through the sprinkler in the backyard these days. Thank you Jeff for the article!
>A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a total stranger asking me to come over to his apartment and to talk to him about pickles, which is weird because I don’t even have an eHarmony account… but then a few days after that I got an email in my picklefreak inbox from a guy with a first and last name who was starting his new year with a resolution to learn something new every month. First on Tyler’s list? Noooo, not soliciting sex on the internet—learning how to make his own pickles!
Tyler and his guests provided the booze, brine supplies and produce
and I brought the jars, a few spices, and a little bit of know how…
oh yeah and a bartender—my friend Becca! She used a few spare jars and filled ‘em up with pickle martinis for everyone.
Assembled was a fearless group of picklers-we pickled cucumbers, green beans, carrots, cauliflower, eggs and even watermelon based on a family recipe from the Ukraine*.
While we boiled our huge batch of brine, we sipped our cocktails and labeled our jars with the amazingly nifty labels made just for the party!
It was a really, really fun party and I’m impressed by how many jars we made and the variations everyone tried. We took a “one-brine-fits-all” approach to our pickling so I’m really curious to see what everyone thinks of the pickles they took home. It’s my hope that what everyone really took from this party was a fun pickling experience that will encourage then all to keep experimenting and tweaking their own recipes.
And if you were THERE, then you know why I included this last photo: HOT LIDS!!!
I really want to thank Tyler, his girlfriend Iliana and EVERYONE who came. I had a fabulous time and hope to hear feedback from you all when you open your pickles on February 1st (if you can make it that long!!!) I also can’t wait to hear what they learn how to do next month…keep me posted Tyler!
*the watermelon was not pickled with vinegar but water, salt and sugar…I’ve never experimented with watermelon before but I have to say, it’s next on my list to be de-mystified!
The Pickle Club and Pickle Freak invite you to join us for an ongoing series of pickling…from the inside out! We’re meeting at Uncle Vanya to drink vodka, eat pickles and talk about pickles and meet other friendly freaks who enjoy the same.
All YOU have to do is show up with $5 or a jar of something homemade and pickled!
If you’re a pickle vendor bring two jars of your pickles..and don’t forget to bring extra jars in case someone (ok ME) wants to buy them.
Please RSVP by either leaving a comment on this post or by emailing me at picklefreakblog@gmail.com or info@thepickleclub.com
Here are the details:
Where: Uncle Vanya
Date: Jan 19¸ 2010
Time: 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Address: 315 West 54th Street (just off 8th Avenue)
>I’ve been waiting for years for two things:
1) to be able to go to the Rosendale Pickle Festival and
2) to see Jack Oblivian play in New York
Damnit if they didn’t fall on the same day: Sunday, November 22, 2009.
I decided to make it the best day ever, albeit a looooong one. The morning began at Port Authority where I met Jennifer Takaki. Yes, THE Jennifer Takaki of www.thepickleclub.com. We jumped on the bus only having briefly met one another at Pickle Day about a month before, and talked about pickles the whole drive up to Rosendale. The 2 hour drive flew by, at least for us. I felt sorry for the other passengers because we did not shut up about pickles the whole way and I snacked on the fragrant pickles she was awesome enough to bring me, probably the last thing most people on the bus wanted to hear or smell at 9 am…ok, there are worse things to smell on a bus but still I was sure the other passengers were apprehensive.
When we arrived at the bus stop we only had to cross the street to enter the 12th Annual Rosendale Pickle Festival. I felt drunk as soon as I walked in.
Bluegrass band. Chickens. Fried Pickles. Bagpipes. Pickles.Freezing cold. Japanese Tea Ceremony.Pickles. Flop-eared bunnies. More fried pickles (duh). Pickled cantalope. Pickled beets. Blue Ribbons. Farmers. Pickle vendors. More pickles. Trash talkin’. Pickle tossing. Pickle eating and pickle juice drinking… and yep, the whole day ended with vomit.
You can catch your own pickle buzz and see what I mean when you watch this video from www.thepickleclub:
Jennifer did a great job despite not having much audio control on her camera and I had my own camera problems. My camera died pretty early in the day and I’ll admit right here that I got really distracted by those chickens and barely managed to capture much of anything else. But one person did manage to capture something that day: my total admiration.
Her name is Joya Carlton and she is one half of Brooklyn Brine. I talked her into entering the pickle juice drinking contest with me just seconds before it started. She sat down next to me, hesitant, but full of quiet confidence. A 16 oz jar of Mount Olive Spicy Jalapeno Dills JUICE with a drinking straw was placed before each contestant-the MC shouted GO and about a minute later a winner was declared. I was stunned. I’d barely gotten started and I was really suckin’! I looked down and saw I’d barely reduced my jar of juice by an inch, and then I look to my right and saw Joya’s EMPTY jar.
The next events happened so fast I saw it all at once. Joya’s hand moved instantly to her mouth and her shoulders hunched. The 7 year old little girl at the end of table was in tears. Joya runs for the door. I staggered from the table and mumbled “holy shit” and followed her out the door. I’d already missed it: 16 ounces of Mount Olive juice regurgitated, Joya holds a one gallon jug of water triumphantly over head. Not to kill the heat of the juice, no, she’s not a wimp like that 7 year old, but to get the taste of the brine out of her mouth. She makes Brooklyn Brine pickles, by god, and has no tolerance for anything less. But she still finished the jar. Now that’s classy.
I felt drunk, tears were shed, someone had vomited, but the night was just beginning.
Joya and Shamus from Brooklyn Brine will be interviewed this Friday on All Things Considered. I can only hope this story comes up, but I suppose they’ll have plenty of other things to talk about…tune in!
>Happy New Year Everyone!
I’ve made ONE resolution for the New Year and that’s to talk MORE about pickles. This means I’ll have to buy more pickles, make more pickles, eat more pickles and celebrate more pickles. All for you. Because you’re worth it.
This also means I have some catching up to do since I wasn’t as “resolved” last year (just about the talking, well, more specifically the BLOGGING part). So here we go, let’s get caught up shall we? Try and keep up.
I shouldn’t even have to go any further, I mean, come ON, they’re called THUNDER PICKLES. From now on, when I’m driving my big rig, that’s my handle. But if you insist on knowing more, click here and read how they got the awesome name and about the cool, 60 acre, organic farm where they come from. Katchkie Farms produces fresh, um… produce, for a catering company called Great Performances which began as a waitress staffing company to help support women in the arts to supplement their meager artists’ wages. Awesome. They continue to do amazing things and I’m just thrilled that pickles are a part of their legacy!
I picked up my first jar of Thunder Pickles from the Spuyten Duyvil store in Williamsburg on my way to a bar for a “quick drink”. It’s funny, but as soon as people hear you have pickles in your purse, they just go crazy. Matthew, the bartender at The Abbey was especially enthused to have a pickle spear snack and there’s nothing better than an excited bartender.I made it home that night (barely) with ONE LONELY Thunder Pickle left in the jar. I saved it for weeks.
When I finally ate it, I marveled at the sophistication of this pickle. It’s so many things at once, dill, spicy and sweet, but not sugary sweet, sweet with mystery…is this what Thunder tastes like?
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I rang in the new year in New Orleans under a full blue moon last night so you should 1) be jealous and 2) be surprised that I can even move today. I barely can. My bravery to leave my amazingly comfortable cradle was rewarded with boiled peanuts, a pulled pork tamale, a satsuma orange margarita, chorizo tacos, a delicious strawberry ale and a taxidermy purchase that I can’t even start to tell you about today. Too exhausted.
BUT, I can say that so far 2010 has been the best year of my life. I love New Orleans and these dilly beans in a liquor store are a simple illustration of why.
Yeah, snacks in a liquor store… Happy New Year everyone.