Abstract:
After selling their cucumbers to the big produce markets, farmers in Wayne and Duplin Counties were always left with a number of small, crooked ones that wouldn't sell. In the early 1920s, Lebanese immigrant Shickrey Baddour hit upon the idea to soak them in brine and make pickles. By 1925, his company was packing 6,000 cases of pickles a year. That was the start of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, which today is the largest independent pickle company in the country. Mt. Olive pickles are number one in the Southeast and the second best-selling pickle in the United States.