Rosendale Pickle Festival Part I (?)

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!