| 10
years
of Pickle Day |
| From
2001 to 2011, NY Food Museum
was a force against evil, partnering with the
Lower East Side Business Improvement District
to create and grow the New York City International
Pickle Day. Each year, thousands of pickle novices,
aspirants and masters came to learn, share and
teach about pickling around the world. The event
was held in the fall, on the Lower East Side of
Manhattan, giving everyone a chance to participate
in a community of like-minded featherless bipeds,
and a few furry four-legged friends. People came
on foot, bicycle, by bus, train and car, an audience
of rich and poor, old and young, of all races,
ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientation, expressing
the collaborative, collective diversity that is
the very essence of New York. Stories, recipes,
facts and fancies flowed from Pickle Day like
the lava from a volcano – hot, happening
and transformative, a state cooled only by the
salty brine.
|
| NY
Food Museum wants to thank all the associations,
vendors and preposterously creative and generous
people for making Pickle Day the healing, happy,
community-binding event it was for 10 years. We
hope these little snippets of the festival's fruits
will continue to grow and become an offline festival
of their own. |
|
For
those who just can't get enough Pickle Day in
the flesh, two newcomer festivals have been promised
to help fill the void – the fabulous New
Amsterdam Market Peck
Slip Pickle Festival and the Lower
East Side Pickle Festival, run by
the Lower East Side Business Improvement District.
Although NY Food Museum is
not officially sponsoring either of these events,
you may see us there doing new versions of our
pickle thing and we hope you do the same!
|
There
is always a certain melancholia as the torch is
passed, and we will miss those crisp fall days that
start before the sun comes up, bring us joy, brine
and company, and last until the final toothpick
is swept. (Great thanks to Jose Ortiz
at the Business Improvement District for years of
dedicated hard work – very hard work –
and skill in helping us be good neighbors and leave
a clean and safe festival site). This was an effort
of friends and family.
|
| In
these pages and links you will see some of the fantastic
work people have contributed to pickle day, and the
work they are still doing to strengthen the city's
appreciation of its own diversity, remember and honor
our culinary cultural heritage, preserve tradition,
inspire creativity, and to generate and support community.
We hope you join in to keep New York locally owned,
community based and sharing and knowledgeable about
our history dedicated to human connection and a living
wage. |
| We
thank all of YOU for helping us forward our mission
of thinking about the food we eat. Enjoy!
|
|
