A Trio of Pickle Festivals — and More!
August isn’t Pickle Month (July is), but the best Pickle Festival will be held in St. Joe, Indiana, August 13, 14 and 15, 2009. Not only will there be fireworks, but all things pickle (including ice cream) — and tours of the local pickle factory.
Two more are the International Pickle Festival, which doesn’t happen until the Sunday before Thanksgiving next November in Rosendale, New York, and next April’s North Carolina Pickle Festival.
Meanwhile, over in Germany, the Spreewald is the epicenter of pickle-dom. If you’ve never had a pickled gherkin from this Slavonian region of the former East Germany, you haven’t really tasted a pickle! The 185-square-mile region was declared an official biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1991, and special zoning was implemented to protect the indigenous flora and fauna — some 1,800 animals and 1,600 plants. There’s a Pickle Museum in Lehde, and even a Gurkenradweg (Gherkin Bicycle Path) through the region — the logo is a smiling pickle. The best way, however, is by punt: there are more waterways than roads in the Spreewald.