National Pickle Day
About National Pickle Day
When is National Pickle Day? This holiday is always observed on November 14
Do you feel somehow like you’re in a pickle today? It’s no surprise, as today is National Pickle Day. To celebrate and savor this special November 14 holiday, add a healthy portion of your favorite pickles to your diet today. For more than one reason, you’ll be glad you did!
Pickling has been around for a long, long time. Pickles are made by taking cucumbers and fermenting them in a brine, including a variety of herbs and spices. After the fermentation process is complete, the pickles are canned and stored for later use. Pickled cucumbers are native to India. Pickling can be traced back to 2,400 B.C. in the Indus Valley civilization of India. They preserved cucumbers and other vegetables by pickling. European merchants brought this food preservation technique from the Far East to Europe. Pickling was unknown in the Americas until Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492.
There’s great news about eating pickles… They’re good for you! In addition to providing the health benefits of most vegetables, they contain probiotics.
Today’s Tongue Twister (We’re sure you can say it): Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Did You Know? People love this holiday so much that they do not relish the thought of it ending.
Home Gardeners Love Their Pickles
Home gardeners often pickle and can cucumbers and other vegetables grown in their gardens. In addition to preserving their crop for later consumption, they are often creative, producing some fantastic and unique flavors.
Pickling provides a means to preserve a variety of vegetables. Cucumber pickles are by far the most popular. Pickling other vegetables are common, too. You can pickle a wide variety of vegetables, including beans corn, cauliflower, peppers, and more. A special variety of small cucumbers, called “Pickling Cucumbers” produce the perfect size. Over hundreds of years, the process of pickling cucumbers spread across the globe. Each culture used some of its favorite herbs and spices, to create new, flavorful varieties of pickles. Notably, these include dill pickles, garlic dills, sweet pickles, gherkins, Kosher dill, hot pickles, bread and butter pickles, and much more.
National Pickle Day Trivia
Here’s some Pickle Trivia that may surprise you:
- Humans have made pickles since 2,400 B.C.
- They originated in India.
- Cleopatra attributed her good looks to pickles.
- They are a good source of vitamin K.
- Christopher Columbus carried them on his ship. He gave them to the sailors to avoid scurvy.
- Pickling cucumbers are easy to grow. the plants are prolific.
- In total, Americans consume over 5,2000,000 pounds of them per year.
- The average person eats approximately 8.6 pounds per year.
- The phrase “in a pickle” was first introduced by Shakespeare in his play, The Tempest.
- Old-time picklers know when there is enough salt in the brine. If an egg floats in the brine, there is sufficient salt.
- In 1993, a 3,078-pound pickle set the Guinness World Record as the largest pickle.
How to Celebrate National Pickle Day
Here are some great ways to celebrate National Pickle Day:
- Eat pickles, of course!
- Give a jar of them to family and friends as a gift.
- Make them at home. It’s not hard.
- Try a flavor you’ve never had before.
- Try other pickled vegetables.
Today's Quote
“Good ideas, like good pickles, are crisp, enduring and devilishly hard to make. ” – – Rushworth Kidder
History and Origin of National Pickle Day
This holiday has been around for a while. The Pickle Packers Association created National Pickle Day in 1949.
We found no congressional records or presidential proclamation creating this day as a national day.
Definition of “National” Days and why it is so important to distinguish nationally declared days.
This Day in History
In addition to today’s holiday, here are some things that happened on this day:
- “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville is published. (1851)
- Yale University goes Co-ed. (1968)
- Painter Claude Monet was born on this day in 1840.
Related Articles
People who like National Pickle Day will also like:
More November 14 Holidays
In addition to National Pickle Day, here are more November holidays and events we’re sure you will enjoy.
More About Today
Famous November Birthdays – Find out who shares your birth date.
Recipe of the Day: Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake
Also See: Pumpkin Recipes Galore and Holiday Recipes
Ecards Send a free Ecard for National Pickle Day or just about any November calendar holiday, occasion, observance, or event. Certainly, it’s fun for both the sender and the recipient.
Holiday Insights, where every day in November is a holiday, a bizarre or wacky day, an observance, or a special event. So, please join us in the daily calendar fun each and every day of the year.
Did You Know? Moreover, in addition to National Pickle Day, there are literally thousands of daily holidays, special events, and observances, more than one for every day of the year. and many of these holidays are new. People and organizations are creating new holidays regularly. November holidays are no exception. Consequently, at Holiday Insights, we take great efforts to thoroughly research and document the details of each one, as completely and accurately as possible.
