I wrote about these pickles so, so long ago but hesitated to post it because I didn’t have a good enough photo but today I’m saying WHO CARES? I’ll just stick a random photo in here somewhere… so read on.

One of the best things about maintaining Pickle Freak is that I get to “meet” so many awesome pickle people, who as you know, are the best people in the world. Awhile back I got an email from a man named Dean Smith who has worked for many years in the voiceover business and on the side, makes pickles. He told me that he’s been using the same recipe from his grandmother for over 32 years and has always given the jars out to business associates and clients as gifts. Now his 2 sons and 2 daughters also carry on the tradition of making pickles so crispy, the “crunch like an apple”.

I say Dean and his family have excellent business sense. And taste.

I was lucky enough to be sent a jar of their “Hot Garlic Dills”, which Dean tells me is their hands down most demanded type of pickle. Dean and his obviously awesome pickle-making family also make new labels for their jars every year but the jar that came my way was without one, but that’s OK. I knew where they were coming from and I loved them.

I think that it’s awesome that a family has such a strong pickle tradition and that they take the time each year to design and make new labels. These pickles definitely reminded me of the summertime tradition my family had of making pickles, although we were never so organized that we developed any ritualistic patterns besides just the eating of them!

THIS is how pickles get “lost” in my fridge-the Dean Smith jar is hidden away!

At the time I got these pickles, I was sort of “tired” of all the other jars in my fridge and I found myself wanting these all the time. They are whole pickles, and they just taste like good, homemade pickles. A taste I find hard to describe-it’s just something you know when you taste it. Because I was so drawn to them, I actually had to sort of “hide” them inside the door of my fridge. I’m guessing that most normal folks usually keep their pickles in the door, but when you’re a freak like ME, the fridge is full of pickles and everything ELSE is in the door (that would be a a carton of eggs and a bottle of ketchup and Sriracha… aka groceries).

Totally worth hiding. We should all wish we had friends and neighbors like the Smith family!