Pickles (or pickle flavorings) made it into just about every food group in 2024. Tangy Pickle Doritos. Pickle steak seasoning. Portable pouches of pickles. Pickle mayonnaise and hummus. Pickle cookies. 

Nature Made sold pickle-flavored gummy vitamins. Petco introduced 26 new pickle-themed toys for dogs and cats. A woman on a popular social media site encouraged others to give “pickle wreaths” as a gift!

Americans spent millions of dollars on pickle products over the past year.

Why are they suddenly such a big “dill”? There may be a few reasons. Pickles have been a popular topic on social media. This week, one platform reported more than 251 million pickle videos. Some folks pour edible glitter into pickle jars. You guessed it. They’re making “glickles.”

Emily Ruby thinks that pickling in general is growing more popular. And she should know. She is an expert on the history of Heinz. That company sells condiments, including ketchup and pickles.

Pickles are fun to make. You can flavor them in creative ways. Ghost pepper pickles! Garlic pickles! Horseradish pickles! Bread and butter chips!

“I [don’t] come from a long line of picklers. But I realized that a cucumber is a blank slate. And you get to paint it with all kinds of different brines and spices and salts and sugars,” says John Patterson. He founded Pittsburgh Pickle with his brothers in a church kitchen a decade ago.

“A pickle is something you can rely on and count on,” he says. “A pickle is always funny, for some reason. A pickle is never nefarious (villainous) or mean. It’s a peaceful, wholesome business to be in.”

What’s your favorite way to enjoy a pickle?