Home of potluck feuds, scandalous pie contests, and the best sweet tea this side of the county line. Picklefork tales can be found at the end of most of the audio files - they are listen only.
Population: nosy. Motto: "Picklefork. Where the casseroles are hot and the gossip is hotter."
If you've ever eaten pie off a paper plate while someone's Aunt Thelma whispered bless her heart with enough venom to kill a grown man, then you already know what Picklefork feels like. It's the kind of town where your hair better be high, your skirt pressed, and your casserole bubbling-or the church ladies will smell your shame before you hit the parking lot.
Picklefork isn't on any map, but it is written in cursive on every recipe card passed down through the generations. It exists somewhere between 1962 and "Don't tell your daddy," where people still iron their linens, have very firm opinions on margarine vs. butter, and consider Jell-O a food group.
You won't find any influencers here-just Reva Mae, who's been running the potluck committee since the Nixon administration and could win a street fight with a wooden spoon. There's a woman who talks to her tomato plants, a man who wears socks with sandals on purpose, and a city council meeting that once turned violent over the correct way to layer banana pudding.
And yes, the town mascot is a raccoon with a picklefork. No, we won't explain it. You had to be there in '87... 1887.
This page is your personal invite to sit a spell and catch up on all the tales, rumors, and borderline-illegal recipe swaps that make Picklefork what it is. Every story here comes tucked inside a recipe-some sweet, some savory, and a few that'll singe your eyebrows off. Just how we like it.
So fix yourself a glass of something cold, pull your chair up to the linoleum table, and start listening. *We can't promise it's all true… but we can promise it's entertaining.
*The stories are based on real people and places - it's best not to tick off a writer. love, marye
Main dishes
"We don't air our dirty laundry in Picklefork-we hang it on the line and let the neighbors talk." Anonymous Submission, scribbled on a church bulletin:
- Buttermilk Brined Roast Chicken - Vernita Jo's Secret Soak
- Frito Chicken Casserole - How a Casserole Shifted the Social Order in Picklefork
- Copycat Cracker Barrel Hamburger Steak - The Great Hamburger Steak Off
- Slow Cooker French Onion Pot Roast - Fall In Picklefork
Desserts
"If God had wanted us to use store-bought pie crusts, He wouldn't have given us butter and high expectations. Reva Mae (Chair of Everything Important Since Forever)
- Shoney's Strawberry Pie Pies Are Serious Business in Picklefork
- Strawberry Pretzel Pie - Reva Mae Speaks Her Mind... with Pie
- Pumpkin Spice Cake - Ocie Belle and the Bake Sale
Breads
"If you can't say somethin' nice, come sit by me and bring a Bundt cake." Eula Jean
- Amish White Bread - The Holy Loaf War
- Easy Sourdough Bread - Dough, Lies, and Alibis
Copycat recipes
"I'll give you the recipe when Mildred gives back my Tupperware from 1983. Which is to say-never." Velma Goforth when asked for her dipping sauce recipe.
- Campfire Sauce -The Campfire Coup of '77
Side dishes
"If the good Lord didn't want me meddling, He wouldn't've given me opinions and a phone with unlimited minutes." - Edna Mae Blevins, self-appointed ambassador of everybody's business.
- Crispy fried potatoes -The Great Fried Potato Incident of '63
- Refrigerator pickled okra - Moonshine, Okra, and Other Menaces to Decency
- Southern yellow squash casserole - Why We Don't Mess with Perfection