Pickle Fest in Upstate?!

A few years back, I used to come home from my first job as cashier with a jar of pickles... every single night. This eventually got me the nickname, Pickle, amongst my mom's friends, and since it has been a long inside joke strung with pickled everything given to taste test. Bonus: Pickles are (usually) gluten-free. Win for me.

Naturally, I had to attend the pickle festival after being asked to go an unbelievable amount of times from the Lyndon-State alumni club (shoutout, I guess).

Think of every fruit or vegetable you can name, and it was probably pickled in some large barrel here. Mangos, pineapple, green beans, carrots, cukes (obviously), garlic, and more. I went into the taste test of mangos and pineapples with the lowest of hopes, shockingly these hopes were exceeded. I'm not sure how, or why you'd get the idea to pickle fruity items, but I caved and bought multiple jars so I'd say it's easy to tell how I felt about the mixtures. Rather than a sour flavor, there was a tang behind the sugary notes that accentuated their natural essence. I have enough pickled items to get me through the year, thank you Pickle Guys.

ALSO, something I'd never expected to have the will-power to try was pumpkin spice pickles because, as we all know, pumpkin spice season does some crazy things to our senses. The best way I could describe this taste was weird, very weird, but the kind of weird that I bought two jars of because I planned to make everyone I know try the concoction. Epic Pickles also had classic dill, and taco seasoned pickle chips, naturally, these will also be in my diet for a long while. Taco pickles felt a bit closer to normalcy, compared to the pumpkin special, and a well-planned mild spice in the aftertaste following their crispy texture.

PICKLES ON STICKS!! The best part by far (I am a gullible consumer). There's no better way to spend my $3 in this economy than putting two pickles on a stick and telling everyone I know. We tried new dill and kosher, while today I finally found out what new dill meant (yikes). The new dill offered a garden-like taste with slight dill flavor, and kosher was the equivalent to my favorite jar from the grocery store, but this was better because IT WAS ON A STICK. In today's day and age, vibes matter more than anything, and The Perfect Pickle knew exactly what to do.

Pickle Fest 2023 is the Comicon for pickle connoisseurs, and I apologize in advance to my fans (friends) when I force you all to try pumpkin spice pickles. Shoutout to the guy next to us in line that said pickles were "mean" and described everyone there as "over the top obsessed" — you're not wrong. LSC alum, you're welcome for this, here's a new convo starter on your weekly Zoom calls. "Pickle goes to pickle fest!" I'll be back next year!