Ex-cucumbers are only a starting point.
Just about any produce can be preserved in brine. At the most recent Pickle Day festivities, diligent seekers of free samples could taste not only garlic dill, half-sour, and horseradish pickled cucumbers but also pickled tomatoes, green beans, and okra, sauerkraut and kimchee, even pickled pineapple, watermelon, and mango. Prepared fare for purchase included the vegan platter below, from Tiengarden, whose pickled components included black beans, ginger, chayote, and wood ear mushrooms; a sandwich from Black Tree sporting both pickled and roasted beets with ricotta; and a goat cheese ice cream sundae, from Luca & Bosco, dressed with pickled beets and balsamic vinegar. Another time, perhaps just the balsamic would do.
Also shown, from previous years, when this event was known as International Pickle Day: turnip from Sahadi's, watermelon rind (not the flesh, the rind itself) from The Grey Mouse Farm, and apples from Café Katja.
Lower East Side Pickle Day (previously also known as International Pickle Day)
Orchard St. between East Houston and Delancey Sts., Manhattan
www.LowerEastSideNY.com/events/lower-east-side-pickle-day
(The 2013 festival was held on October 27)
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