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Throngs swarm LES for pickle fest

By Justin Rocket Silverman, amNewYork Staff Writer | jsilverman@am-ny.com

September 17, 2007

An estimated 50,000 pickles met their end Sunday afternoon as the devoted, the curious, and the merely hungry descended on Orchard Street for the 7th Annual NYC International Pickle Day.

"I thought this would be a magnanimous event and didn't realize pickle lovers were such ravenous vultures," joked Douglas Calhoun, 23, of Brooklyn, as he munched on a jar of pickled Okra.

The line for Guss' Pickles on Orchard stretched down most the block, and free samples of pickled turnips, onions, cabbage and other veggies were snatched up as fast as the 15 venders could serve them up. A local pizzeria did a brisk business in pepperoni and pickle slices.

The day-long festival commemorates a time when the Lower East Side was the heart of the city's pickle industry.

Many of the immigrants who arrived here 100 years ago found their first jobs as pickle vendors. Eventually they might save up enough money to buy their own pickle cart.

In the LES of the 21st Century, with its hip bars and trendy boutiques, only a few pickle shops remain -- making this day-long festival bittersweet for some.

"This is the iconic neighborhood for the Jewish Diaspora in America," said Laurie Tobias Cohen, executive director of the LES Jewish Conservancy.

"The fact that you get such a huge crowd out for this festival shows that the Jewish mystique here is still very much alive."