Last summer a documentary called "Pickles, Inc.," aired on public television. Produced by an Israeli, the film told the story of a group of eight Arab Israeli women living in northern Israel--all of them widows-- who had decided to band together to make and sell pickles, and along the way, gain some semblance of independence. ( 1.2 million Arabs are Israeli citizens.)
That cucumbers preserved by pickling could liberate women from local strictures and lack of economic opportunity makes me delight once again in the power of plants, and, of course, in the power of women united by an idea. But I do wonder about the fate today of the Azka Pickle Cooperative.
Elsewhere on the pickle front, the NY Food Museum ( inspired in part by The FOOD Museum, yes...) is celebrating its 6th annual Pickle Day on September 17th, on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side.
We at bobspicklepops.com are all for the drive for pickle power. Thanks for sharing this with all of us.
Posted by: David Millar | June 27, 2008 at 10:14 PM
Hi again, Just uploaded a story on pickles in Mumbai.
Rushina
Posted by: Rushina | March 27, 2007 at 06:28 AM
OOps--still have not done so! Thanks for the reminder.
Posted by: foodie | March 02, 2007 at 08:10 AM
Hi,
Apologies for the huge delay in replying but I was unable to access typepad addresses all this time. And now all of a sudden I can!
So did you get around to trying Indian pickles? What were your conclusions?
Rushina
Posted by: Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal | March 02, 2007 at 03:21 AM
Great! I will explore your world of pickling pronto, thanks.
Posted by: foodie | September 06, 2006 at 09:55 AM
Thanks for the great post about that Pickles Inc. documentary, I'll have to see if I can find that somewhere to view. I'm a pretty big pickling fan myself, I run a website of my own over at http://www.howtopickle.com
Check it out if you'd like. I look forward to seeing more pickle related posts!
Posted by: Jonathan Heusman | September 05, 2006 at 06:57 PM
Thanks, Rushina--what a pickle opus!
The other day I was in my favorite small supermarket, debating between a big jar of pickles from India and one from Bulgaria. ( I never buy typical USA commercial pickles as they hav artificial color and other undesireable ingredients.)As I had tried the Bulgarian pickles before and loved them, I went with the familiar. But next time, India.
Posted by: foodie | August 30, 2006 at 08:26 AM
Usha Prabhakaran is the self published author of “Ushas Pickle digest”, “The perfect Pickle book” as it says on the cover. A thick volume of 365 pages, the book contains exactly 1000 recipes this book is meticulously researched, perfectly cross-referenced. Read my interview of her on my blog - http://celebrating-women-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2006/04/interview-with-usha-prabhakaran-author.html#links
Rushina
Posted by: Rushina | August 29, 2006 at 11:31 PM