Pickle Festival Fundraiser for Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association is everything pickle
Seventeen-year-olds Reese Nitekman, left, Juliet Gianfranco, Mackenzie Campbell, Caroline Gilhuley, and Sarah Blitz of Greenlawn enjoy the annual Pickle Festival Fundraiser on Saturday. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Four decades ago, the Greenlawn event that celebrated the brined cucumber was a homemade pickle sale at a public library, said Sarah Brown, executive director of the Greenlawn-Centerport Historical Association.
In her office, Brown keeps a jar of lime pickles said to be from the hamlet's first-ever pickle festival. The product has likely expired.
The annual Pickle Festival Fundraiser looks different from the 1980s iteration: on Saturday, vendors sold pickle sandwiches, fried pickles and crocheted pickles at John Gardiner Farm in Greenlawn. At its close, Brown estimated the event had drawn 3,500 to 4,000 visitors.
"It got so big that it outgrew the library, and moved to the John Gardiner Farm," Brown said in a phone interview on Friday. "Ever since then, it's just been expanding, expanding, expanding."
From left, Kayleigh Fitzpatrick, 18, and her brother, Gabriel Bua, 7, both of North Bellmore, check out the crochet booth of Brenda Flores. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Food vendors this year included Yaphank Deli, which brands itself "Home of the Pickle Sandwich." Instead of bread, the deli uses a halved pickle.
"The first time you give people a pickle sandwich, or a hot dog on a pickle," said deli co-owner Jennifer Flynn, "they're kind of blown away."
The deli participated in the festival for the first time last year, Flynn said. This year's menu spanned the spectrum of pickle-involved fare — pickle lemonade served in a quart container with a floating spear, pulled pork sliders alongside homemade pickle slaw, macaroni and cheese with fried pickle topping.
But the contemporary pickle festival offerings extended beyond pickle-themed items. There were hay rides and the restored Lollipop Farm Train, antique cars, baked goods, flowers and dozens of craft vendors.
Vicki Dollin, a retired Walt Whitman High School art teacher, coordinated the crafters. Some makers sell candles, kaleidoscopes and pet treats that look like human food, she said.
"I have one vendor who's making a whole bunch of pickles, she's crocheting pickles," Dollin said Friday. "Those go so fast."
Strands of soft, emerald green yarn spilled out of Brenda Flores' bag. She had crocheted 20 stuffed pickles, 10 pickle key chains and a pickle pillow in preparation for the day. While there, she said, she would finish up five more pickle products.
"I'm just going to put the fluff inside and then make the face and everything," she said. "That way, they can look fresh."
Flores, 35, who moved to Huntington from El Salvador 25 years ago, also sold a jungle of crocheted animal plushies at the event.
Attendees traversed the farm holding pickles on sticks and inflatables.
Port Jefferson residents Alan and Elena Jamros brought their 12-year-old twins, Evangeline and Josephine.
"The pickles were very high-quality," Evangeline said.
The family left with pickles, shirts, Italian food and popcorn. The highlight, they said, was the pickle on a stick.
The festival is a fundraiser for its host, the nonprofit historical association.
A 1989 news clipping from The Long Islander described that year's festival at the Harborfields Public Library.
"Members of the historical association spent hours this summer preparing pickle and cabbage products," the article reads.
Personal pickle preparation has since been replaced by more professional processes.
"You know how the department of health is," Brown said. "You couldn't do that anymore."
Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.
