By:By Nicholas Sakelaris

Fort Worth Star- Telegram

(photo By: Nicholas Sakelaris Special to the Star-Telegram )

It’s a pickle that looks like a rocket. Or a rocket that looks like a pickle. Either way, this dill garnered a lot of attention in the Pickle Parade.

The Pickle Queens were barely finished throwing their beads to finish the 8th annual World’s Only St. Paddy’s Pickle Parade & Palooza and people were already clamoring to be part of next year’s parade.
John Pressley, president of the Pickled Mansfield Society, said they averaged 45,000 people over the two-day event March 15-16 and the exposure has more people wanting to get involved.
Construction on South Main Street did change this year’s the parade route and limited this year’s event to 75 floats. But next year, the construction will be a distant memory and they’ll be able to accommodate 100 floats again, Pressley said.

“There are vendors and parade entries already applying,” Pressley said. “It will be beautiful next year when they get it finished.”

When complete, the new South Main Street in front of The LOT Downtown and Twisted Root will have  room for food vendors on both sides while leaving room for the parade to go down the middle, Pressley said.

There was a late entry to this year’s parade, as the Timberview boys basketball team won the school’s second Class 5A state championship in three years on March 9.
“If you win a championship, they usually throw a parade for them,” Pressley said. “We were actually able to get Timberview’s basketball team into the parade just like the pros.”
The team rode in the back of a white pickup truck and soaked in all the cheering from the crowd.

The second annual beer keg races on Friday night had more entries this year and they got to show off their driving skills in the parade on Saturday.
“It turned out to be a huge success, everyone had a magnificent time watching the homemade golf carts with kegs on them racing up and down main street,” Pressley said.

The baby parade was four times bigger than last year.

Russell LaBouve and his 7-month-old daughter, Cade, won the grand prize for the baby parade with their moon rover float. Building the converted wagon meant many sleepless nights for the LaBouves, who traveled from Louisiana for the parade.

Being from Mardi Gras country, they’re serious about their floats. LaBouve is a welder by trade so he originally envisioned a moon lander with legs but the project evolved.
“Let’s turn it into a rover if we can, put some wheels on it, put some fake solar panels, i call them our ‘fauxler panels,” LaBouve said.
He bolted her high chair to the wagon and attached wood and then painted it to look like a rover.
The new cornhole tournament on Friday was also “received tremendously,” Pressley said.

By Emma Lord

Bustle

Photo by:  Grillo’s Pickles

Grillo’s limited edition pickle shoes.

Ah, the struggle as old as time: knowing in your heart that pickles are the superior snack to end all other snacks, but not having a way to properly communicate that belief in a nonverbal way to strangers on the street. Well, friends, that’s all about to change. Grillo’s Pickles is releasing a sneaker called “The Pickle” with Ewing Athletics, making it that much easier to go about your day while reminding everyone within a 360 degree radius of you that pickles exist, and that human existence only has two true states: enjoying pickles, and the rest of your boring regular life.

The limited edition shoes, which drop on the Ewing Athletics website on March 4 and will retail for $140 a pair, are every bit as much a labor of love as Grillo’s actual pickles; in fact, there’s not a single square inch of the shoe that hasn’t been specifically branded to the pickle lover’s lifestyle. Per a press release from Grillo’s Pickles, “The clear soles and plastic lining of the laces represent the brand’s farmer’s market-styled jar filled with seven natural ingredients — cucumbers, salt, dill, garlic, water, grape leaves & vinegar. The green suede represents the organic dill, while the green leather is a nod to the crisp, crunchy cucumbers used to make each handpicked jar. The white laces represent the fresh California-grown garlic.”

The back of the shoe also displays an image of Grillo’s iconic mascot, Sam, Sam the Pickle Man — plus, if you look inside the sole, you’ll see an image of the OG Grillo’s Pickles cart. That image, as it turns out, has a bit of an ~origin story~ more linked to the new sneakers than you might expect. The cart, which originally opened in Boston in 2008 selling two pickles for a buck, was founder and CEO Travis Grillo’s new pursuit after Nike turned him down for a job as a sneaker designer. So basically, this full circle pickle moment is a pretty big dill.

Since that launch in 2008, Grillo’s has not only taken up so much space in the pickle market that they’ve not only solidified their place on the sides of all our sandwiches and in our actual legit human hearts — they’ve also launched a whole slew of pickle merch, designed by founder Travis Grillo. You officially live in a world where you can rep pickles on your shirts, your hats, your water bottles, and even your beach pong paddles, all of which are available on the Grillo’s online shop.

That said, I doubt anything beats the pure unadulterated and ridiculous joy of skipping in a pair of pickle sneakers down the sidewalk, a specific kind of joy Grillo’s and Ewing Athletics are bestowing on us with this collab. “Ewing Athletics is always looking to collaborate with companies that would typically be outside of the box for a sneaker brand and Grillo’s is a perfect partner,” Ewing Athletics President, David Goldberg, said in a press release. “Premium Pete made the connection and we were able to come up with a great design with a fresh look to match the pickles. We have done other food related projects in the past and we try to make each one better than the last.”

Just know that if you want to snag a pair of these, you’ll have to act fast — they go on sale on March 4 exclusively on the Ewing Athletics site.

By: Erica Chayes Wida

Today 

Grillo’s Pickles created a bouquet made of its finest pickles. And it’s easy to make.

( Photo by:Grillo’s Pickles)

Guys, Valentine’s Day is coming up and it’s a really big dill.

It’s a great time to remind all loved ones (spouses, moms, dads, dates, baes and kids included) how much they really mean to you. While a card or some roses often fit the bill, why not go the extra step on Feb. 14 with an edible bouquet made out of … pickles!

Sure, fresh flowers may smell like fairies bathing in a glistening glen, but pickles are also pretty magical. Plus, pizza bouquets are so last season.

A pickle can be sweet, it can be sour (anyone else drawing a parallel to love?) and best of all, it won’t wilt over time — as long as it’s eaten quickly.
Grillo’s Pickles, the Boston-based pickle company behind the novel idea, isn’t actually selling pre-made pickle bouquets, but their founder told  TODAY  Food why the brand wants its loyal followers to make their own this year.

“Not only is a pickle bouquet more beautiful than a dozen red roses, and healthier than a standard box of chocolate, it’s also far more creative,” Grillo’s founder and CEO Travis Grillo told TODAY. “Grillo’s Hot Italian Dill pickles make it easy for consumers to spice things up with their hottie, while the brand’s Bread & Butter pickles offer a low-cal treat for sweeties nationwide.”

Grillo said that his team drew inspiration for the bouquet from the traditional, 100-year-old Italian family recipe the company still uses today: Cucumbers, salt, dill, garlic, water, grape leaves and vinegar. That’s why they added whole bulbs of garlic and fresh dill to the pickled arrangement.

“We know there are a lot of pickle lovers out there that would love nothing more than to get a Valentine’s Day gift loaded with their favorite snack,” Grillo added.
If reactions on Twitter are any indication about the popularity of pickles, Grillo is spot on.
For years, pickle fiends have been fantasizing about a tangy edible arrangement.

Since Valentine’s Day is a holiday that celebrates love, it’s probably best if pickles are prepared to look pretty decent.
Straight from Grillo’s expert florists — pickle-ists? — here’s how to craft the ultimate pickle bouquet.

Pick up a selection of your favorite pickles. Grillo’s recommends using a few different kinds like dill, hot chips, bread and butter and a variety of spheres and whole pickles.
Arrange the pickle spears and chips into a bouquet shape using bamboo kebab skewers and toothpicks.

Garnish with your choice of festive (or delicious) extras, from fresh herbs to colorful peppers.
And if you really want to try your hand at craftiness, try rolling little slices of pizza into the arrangement. After all, pickle-topped pizza has won over pickle fans in the past.

Health

By:Kasandra Brabaw

Here’s what you need to know before swigging brine from the jar in your fridge.

When you wake up with a pounding head and cotton-dry mouth the night after one (or a few) too many drinks, you’ll likely find yourself Googling ways to get rid of your hangover, fast. And when you do, you may stumble upon a suggestion to throw back some pickle juice.

Some claim that pickle brine is the reason Polish people don’t get hangovers. Even Dr. Oz has endorsed pickle juice as a hangover cure. According to him, the salts in pickle juice replenish electrolytes that you lose while drinking, which can make your headache disappear. But is getting over a hangover really as easy as taking a swig from the pickle jar in your fridge?

Well, probably not. “The main thing to understand with hangovers is that they usually happen because people are dehydrated, and then also you probably didn’t get much sleep,” Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, a practicing family physician in Long Island, New York, tells Health. So yes, salty pickle brine might help with the electrolytes you’ve lost if you peed a lot, or maybe even threw up, the night before. But taking a shot of pickle juice in the morning won’t make your hangover disappear if you’re not also drinking lots of water and nursing your hangover with a nap.

Alcohol acts as a diuretic, which means that it’ll make you pee more than usual. That’s why you may find you have to go so often during a boozy night out and one of the reasons you feel so dehydrated the morning after. Yes, you lose electrolytes in pee—but it’s the water that really matters. “When you’re losing water, you need to continue to replace that,” Dr. Iroku-Malize says. She suggests that people drink a whole glass of water with every alcoholic drink to make the hangover sting less.

The only way to really prevent a hangover is to not drink too much, Dr. Iroku-Malize says. Her definition of “not too much” is one drink a day for women and two for men. Of course, it’s not exactly realistic that you’ll stick to only one drink every day, especially when special occasions like birthdays, holidays, and New Year’s Eve roll around. The next best thing to do is drink lots and lots of water—not gulp down some pickle juice.

If you had a particularly sweaty drunken night, a sports drink might help the resulting hangover, Dr. Iroku-Malize adds. Sports drinks are specially formulated to balance athletes’ electrolytes. Once upon a time, scientists thought pickle juice might do the same thing. In 2014, a small study of nine runners tested whether or not drinking pickle juice before exercising would keep them from cramping. “This is maybe why people think pickle juice will help with dehydration,” Dr. Iroku-Malize says. There was one problem though: The study didn’t show any difference in performance or cramping between drinking pickle juice or drinking plain old water.

Then again, it didn’t do any harm, either. So if you’re invested in the idea of pickle juice as a cure—and you don’t mind the taste—go ahead and drink around a quarter cup next time you’re in need of hangover relief. But follow your pickle juice swig with a few cups of water, some aspirin or ibuprofen, and maybe a nap.