Pickling cucumbers are in the local farmers markets and you know what that means, don't you? Time to make some dill pickles. When I make pickles I have to hide them from my husband or he will eat every last one before anyone notices. My family enjoys them and I like to use them in recipes and have them on hand for grilling and barbecues if there are any left.
Here are a couple of interesting tidbits about pickles:
Did you know that dill pickles out sell sweet pickles 2 to 1? I didn't, I thought it was the other way around.
Did you know that the word "pickle" was derived from the middle English word "pikel" which was originally was a spicy meat sauce that accompanied meat? Me neither! I have read that when it was hard to preserve meats that sauces and spices were used to mask the unpleasant flavor or odor of the meat. Sounds appealing, eh?
Did you know that pickles played a role in the discovery of America in 1492? An Italian merchant and explorer named Amerigo Vespucci was involved with Columbus's voyage and stocked the ship with vitamin C rich pickles. At the time, a vitamin C deficient disease called scurvy was cause for the failure of many voyages. Vitamin C is not at its peak levels in pickled food but is enough to prevent scurvy outbreaks which were fatal at the time. It is also believed that America was named after this merchant/explorer's name, Amerigo.
