Pickled Thoughts
Who invented pickles?
I don’t really know, but I know I sure love them. And, while eating a pickle this weekend, I started to wonder about them. What does it say about a culture to have started making pickles? Lots of cultures have pickles of one kind or another, and have had them for a long time.
First of all, it indicates a certain level of agrarian culture to produce the produce that goes into the pickle. Or does it? Several Scandinavian cultures have pickled fish, like herring, so it’s not limited to a simple agrarian culture.
Secondly, there has to be a need of some kind. No one ever invented anything that has lasted without trying to solve a need of some kind. So, what need drives the invention of pickles? Simply put, the need to preserve food. Why a culture needs to preserve food is another matter. War? Famine? Seasonal hardships? All are possibilites and reasons to hoard food. Food hoarding implies some kind of preservation techniques, of which pickling is just one.
So, that covers the absolute basics, but how do pickles fit into a culture? Are they a delicacy? A staple? Or, does it depend on the time of year? Or, perhaps, what has been pickled?
As you can see, lunch is never simple at my house. Even something as simple as a pickle can generate questions and ConWorld possiblities. Worse yet, it may inspire me to do something like try to reproduce the technology myself! Come Fall, we may just find ourselves pickling any number of strange things.
But, this all illustrates a point that I try to make over and over again when it comes to writing and exploring created cultures: never stop asking questions. Question everything from how bread is made to how water is moved to how sewage is removed to how the average citizen makes their living. Anything and everything, if studied carefully, can provide information or inspiration for a conculture or conworld. Even pickles!
