While tourists stream up to New Hampshire for the annual fall colors, many take in the local town fairs.
And recently, the town of Winchester held its annual 'Pickle Festival'.
The event held on Main Street does offer a wide variety edible and ornamental pickled cucumbers, but perhaps more importantly it offers the feeling of belonging to a community.
Giant pickle people.(Cheryl Senter, NHPR)
(Parade sounds of a marching band)
Bev and Jean "This is our first time here. We decided to brave the rainy weather and come...to see the connection with the pickles."
(More parade sounds)
Randy Hicken " We're from Dummerston Vermont, we have a farm there and we make pickles. You can see we are doing the pickle-on-the-stick here today for the Pickle Festival and we're having a lot of fun.
We have about seven kinds here, dill pickles, mustard pickles, bread and butter and we have some brine pickles, an old fashioned maple icicle' a smokey joe, a peppered pickle. Uh, Peter Piper got that wrong because these are peppered pickles and not pickled peppers."
Randy Hicken's pickle table. People in background, Dell, Rose and Roger Needham.(Cheryl Senter, NHPR)
(More parade sounds, horses hooves clomping on the pavement)
Rose Needham (laughing)"I'm going to try the peppered pickle because I like spicy."
(Sounds of a juicy pickle being bitten) "Hmmmm, (laughing mouth full) hmmm, they're very good!"
(Sounds from another pickle tent where children are doing the serving)
(Shouting) Dill, we need another dill! Ryan, another dill! Another dill already, oh my gosh!
Would you like a pickle? Let's see, what are my choices. (In unison) We have dill, spear dill, half sour, garlic, and sweet. Um, I know I don't want a garlic one...not yet (laugh). A half sour? A spear dill? How about a dill? I'll have a dill. Hey, I need a baggy someone!
(Young server) I've served 60-50 pickles today!
Tractor pulling a float in the parade(Cheryl Senter, NHPR)
Marilyn Worcester " It's a nice event on a nice day. And, it's good for the town, it's just a nice time. I don't know who thought up the idea. I like making magnets. I have pickle magnets of all kinds. I'm not a pickle eater but I love making them!
(Sounds of a tractor going by)
Would you like to try a free sample of a pickled egg? My name is Cathy, Jeanie's cousin, and I'm glad that the town has brought this out. It gathers the community together. It's touching. It has sentimental value.
(Crowd sounds)
Dawn Lincoln "Today I'm working at the pickle festival committee booth and we're selling memorabilia. T-shirts and we have hats and we have travel mugs, and pins and pickle earings. Well we have our pickled earings made by a woman in Keene I believe, and we also have the pickle pendants that go on a chain. We have pickle ornaments and we have pickle (squeaky toy noise) squeaky pickles, and don't forget the
Booths in the center of town(Cheryl Senter, NHPR)
-I love pickles- wrist bands for the kids. And the pickle poppers, these are fun for the kids too. You put them down for a while and when you least expect it they bounce up into the air. We have pickle pens, we only have one left so we'll have to order more for next year!"
(A sale being made) The earings are three dollars. Can you take a big bill? Sure, a big one, a five! I don't know.(laugh)
Don Hunter "A pair of pickle earings for my bride, 52 years."
(Parade sounds)
Kenneth Rumrow "Best thing in the world is have things like this happen for a town. The people get a lot more friendlier when we have the pickle fest. Yup. The parades are becoming better. More people setting up. More people are getting involved. They got everything you can imagine, there's something for everybody. Rain or shine. It'll be nation wide, you watch. It'll be as good as the Pumpkin Festival!
Cheryl Senter/NHPR
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