Events and Updates

If there is one “a-ha” moment that I can point to which defines why I started a pickle company, it would have to be winning the blue ribbon for Best In Show at the 2001 Rosendale International Pickle Festival.  Up until that point, pickling was for me a lark… a fun hobby, a great way to experiment in the kitchen.  The blue ribbon for my Windy City Wasabeans was a kind of validation that I didn’t even realize I was looking for, but once it happened, I became very focused on pickling.

Blue Ribbon Euphoria. Should have gotten a haircut prior to the photo op.

The Rosendale Pickle Festival is the brainchild of Bill and Cathy Brooks, who originally organized it as a fun way to entertain guests from Japan.  A dozen years later, it is must-attend for all the pickle people in the region and their legions of fans.  In addition to the pickle contest, there is a pickle toss and a pickle-juice drinking contest, which is not for the faint of stomach.

Bill Brooks officiates the pickle toss with characterisitc discipline. He is also the town barber and the town florist.

In the early years, I used Rosendale as a kind of focus group to see which pickle ideas that I thought were cool were also appreciated by the community.

Sampling pickles. In the early years, I printed labels with paper from Staples and gluesticked them on.

Now, it’s a wonderful milemarker and and something to look forward to every single year.  I hope you can make it this weekend.   I’ll be circling back to this post to add more details when time allows.