Mount Olive Giant Pickle Drop
A New Year’s Tradition of the Mount Olive Giant Pickle Drop
Who wouldn’t want to see a giant pickle drop from a pole to ring in the New Year? When I read about the Mount Olive giant pickle drop on New Year’s Eve, we had to go. I mean, come on, a giant pickle dropping from the sky! Couldn’t pass on that. Such a great piece of Americana.
The pickle drop was started fifteen years ago in Mt Olive, North Carolina by the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. The company has been in business since 1926. Mt. Olive Pickle Company produces some mighty tasty pickles. We came across them while living in Kentucky and were tickled to find out they are a local company when we moved to North Carolina.
We always have a jar of pickles in our fridge. While I’m not much of eat-a-pickle-out-of-jar kind of person, I use pickles in my tuna, salmon, and chicken salads. My family enjoys bread & butter pickles while I prefer Kosher dill pickles if I’m going to eat a pickle. I remember growing up outside of New York where pickles are Kosher dill whole pickles pulled from big barrels and served in waxed paper bags. For me, that’s the only way to eat a pickle.
I know this is a food blog, but back to the pickle drop. We joined about two thousand people at the Mt. Olive Pickle Company’s factory to ring in the New Year at 7:00pm. That’s not midnight you are thinking, but they ring in the New Year at midnight Greenwich Mean Time. Very handy for us with little people. (Or us old farts who can’t stay up beyond 11pm anymore.) It was a really nice family-friendly event with live music and refreshments where the kids were part of the event.
It was fun to watch the three-foot lit pickle descend the company’s 45-foot flag pole into a redwood pickle tank. It was over in a blink of an eye, but well worth the drive to be part of a piece of Americana.
And here is the pickle drop…
Hello! I'm Ann Marie and I wear the well-worn apron. Join me as explore plant-based eating while I live on an island off the U.S. state of Rhode Island.