Rosendale prides itself on being the Festival Town, and one of its longest-running celebratory traditions is the International Pickle Festival. It was founded in 1997 by local garden center proprietor (now town historian) Bill Brooks, his wife Cathy and their Japanese expat friend Eri Yamaguchi, who missed the traditional tsukemono of her homeland. What started out as a Japanese dinner party for 200 soon turned into a celebration of all things pickled that attracted about 1,000 people the first year, and by now, as many as 6,000 or 7,000 annually. From the beginning, it has also been a fundraiser whose proceeds benefit community projects in and around Rosendale. The Rosendale Chamber of Commerce took over running the event in 2013, but the two not-for-profit entities went their separate ways in 2020.
According to that timeline, Picklefest is now hitting its silver anniversary. Unfortunately, as we know all too well, a deadly global health crisis put the kibosh on such intimate social gatherings for a couple of years. We’ll let the Festival organizers take up the story: “Our top priority remained the health, safety and well-being of our community. We hoped to continue our annual tradition of celebrating pickles, food, crafts, music, family and friends, but given the ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks and America’s stay-at-home orders, we made the difficult decision to cancel two years of festivals. In order to maintain our 23rd and 24th annual status, to spite the Festival cancellations, the Pickle Festival organizing committee met both years at the pickle pavilion. We gathered in our masks, socially distanced, and ate pickles among the ghosts of tents, vendors and visitors.” Their new tagline: “We have fermented long enough!”
So, the good news is that the Festival is back, and reaching for the silver this coming Sunday, October 16 at the Rosendale Community Center on Route 32. In recent years, increasing awareness of the importance of a healthy gut biome has spurred interest in probiotic fermented foods, whose regular intake promotes exactly the kind of diverse intestinal flora that supports our immune systems’ ability to repel nasty invaders such as viruses. You might want to think of paying a visit to this year’s Picklefest as an investment in your own future health. Or you might just come for the fun. Repeat visitors know to expect live music and dancing from many ethnic traditions – as diverse as there are types of pickled foods around the world – for most of the day. Much of the activity goes on outdoors under tents, rain or shine, so dress warmly!
A highlight is always the county fair-style competition for home-fermented concoctions, but most attendees are more interested in tasting pickle products than in creating them. Of the 90 vendors currently slated to set up shop both inside the Rec Center and in and around the large tents outside, 18 (22 if you count cheesemongers as fermenters) will actually be selling fermented foods of myriad descriptions, including the legendary deep-fried pickles-on-a-stick. Other prepared foods to round out your meal, in addition to crafts and packaged gourmet products, will also be available for sale. An ATM can be found the Rec Center lobby, should your appetite grow to exceed your pocketbook.
Judging of entries in the picklemaking competition begins at noon, and samples (two jars of each entry) must be dropped off at the Rec Center by 11:45 a.m. Eligible categories in the Home Pickling Contest this year include Dill Pickles, Sweet Pickles, Dilly Beans, Pickled Fruit, Pickled Root Vegetables and Pickled Vegetables. Competitors may enter as many categories as they wish (limit one entry per category). Each jar should be labeled only with the category under which it should be considered. Jars must be unopened with a proper seal (wax or broken seals will not be accepted).
Judging is blind; you will be assigned a number for each entry when you drop off your entries and fill out your entry form, which can be downloaded in advance at https://rosendalepicklefestival.org/the-contests. Scoring is by assignment of one to ten points each for appearance, flavor, quality and texture, up to a maximum of 40 points. Prizes will be awarded for First and Second Place in each category. Best of Show is based on overall score; any tiebreaker is decided by consensus of the judges. For non-cooks, there’s also a chance to get competitive in the form of the annual Pickle Triathlon: a Pickle-Eating Contest, a Pickle-Juice-Drinking Contest and a Pickle-Tossing Contest.
Admission to the 25th annual Rosendale International Pickle Festival costs $5 per adult; kids get in free. The event goes on from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 16. The Rosendale Community Center is located at 1055 Route 32, just south of its intersection with Route 213.
Note that parking at the Rec Center is very limited, so you should plan to take advantage of the UCAT shuttle service to the Festival from the following lots: Tillson School, 56 Grist Mill Road, Tillson; Bloomington Fire Department, 14 Taylor Street, Bloomington; Rondout Municipal Center, 1921 Lucas Avenue Extension, Cottekill; Brookside School, 11 Tanhouse Brook Road, Cottekill; and Binnewater Kiln, 720 Binnewater Road, Rosendale. There’s now an app you can scan for directions at https://rosendalepicklefestival.org/off-site-pickle-parking. The Adirondack Trailways bus between Kingston and New Paltz stops right across the street from the Rec Center, and you can bicycle to Rosendale via the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail.
To learn more, visit http://rosendalechamber.org/pickle-festival or www.facebook.com/rosendalepicklefestival. And check out the humorous animated event trailer at https://youtube.com/shorts/U2hI2LHuXzE?feature=share.
Join the family! 
