“to buy a pickle…” so goes an old ditty my dad used to break into spontaneously on occasion. I love most pickles, really love them. I love kosher dills, half sours, hamburger dills….most anything but sweet relish and bread and butter. IxNay on those. I’m not quite old enough to remember pickle “barrels” but I am old enough to remember pickle “jars” at corner groceries and at the movie theater concession stand. Don’t remember how much they cost – more than a nickle, but certainly less than a quarter.
Today’s version of the ‘pickle barrel’ can be found in C-stores and gas station, with individually wrapped pickles. There’s one brand that has different (ample) sizes, and different heats, and yesterday I ran into a new brand (to me), “Oh, Snap!” Dilly Bites brand, made by GLK Foods, from upstate Wisconsin. They were priced at 75 cents each, you could get a whole pickle or “chips” (slices). Unlike the other brand I referred to, where you have to be careful to negotiate your way around the amount of brine in the package, GLK calls theirs “brineless,” and they aren’t actually, they just have a very small amount of liquid in the package. I opted for the “sliced” variety, and the package boasts that they are “Super Crunchy.”
Got to say I really enjoyed them and will be a regular customer. By the way, GLK claims to be the largest manufacturer of sauerkraut in America.