Mt. Olive pickles are a ‘big dill’ in eastern N.C.

You might say pickles are a “Southern food,” because America’s largest independent pickle packing company is based in Mount Olive, a small town at the bottom of Wayne County in eastern North Carolina. 

This is the home of Mt. Olive Pickle Company, Inc., and the company headquarters really is on the corner of Cucumber and Vine.

 

The 500 or so year-round Mt. Olive “pickle people” who work in the fields, canning plants, distribution centers and offices are proud to be observing the company’s 95-year anniversary in 2021. 

The official company color is described as “sassy-grass green.” That sets the tone for the “corporate culture” of the place. 

Mt. Olive pickles used to be available in just the southeastern part of the United States. But now, products are sold in all 50 states.

 

Mt. Olive recently took over second place in total pickle jar sales – surpassing Claussen and trailing only Vlasic. (Both of these primary competitors are owned by giant corporations.)

The pickle people at Mt. Olive are more concerned about being “the most loved pickle company,” offering its customers a diverse line of pickles, peppers and relishes in more than 80 combinations and flavors. 

The personable company mascot, Ollie Q. Cumber is the “ambassador of fun.”

 

As the Mt. Olive official “spokespickle,” Ollie says he has found his dream job. “And I couldn’t be happier! In fact, I’m dill-irious! Mt. Olive Pickles are pickle-icious!” (No surprise here: Among his favorite hobbies, Ollie lists pickleball.) 

Just for the record, there are no olives at Mt. Olive, and there are no mountains in sight. 

Town historians say a small settlement popped up here after the railroad came through. The Wilmington & Weldon Railroad was completed by 1840. 

The little village needed a name when the post office was established in 1853, so a leading citizen, Benjamin Oliver, who was a devout Baptist, selected Mount Olive, as a tribute to the biblical Mount of Olives. 

During the Civil War, Union troops burned down the railroad depot and busted up the railroad tracks, but Mount Olive bounced back and was chartered in 1870. 

Ironically, the original “pickle person” was Shikrey Baddour, who had come to America from Lebanon in the Holy Land region. He saw a market for taking excess cucumbers from the field and putting them in tanks to make salt brined cucumbers into pickles. 

Baddour recruited George Moore, an experienced pickle-maker, to come up from New Hanover County, to join him in this enterprise. They struggled to make a go of it in the mid-1920s. 

To the rescue in 1926, a group of 37 Mount Olive investors put their money down to create a “community pickle company.” 

Isham Faison Witherington, who owned a local insurance company, emerged as the company’s leader, and he successfully ran the operation for about three decades. Upon Witherington’s death in 1955, Johnny Neal Walker, 31, was selected as Mt. Olive’s pickle president. 

Walker, who hailed from Graham, N.C., had earned an MBA degree from Harvard University.

 A writer at Encyclopedia.com said: “Walker was a serious businessman who was lighthearted about pickles. He became known for his pickle paraphernalia, and pun-laced conversation and correspondence, habitually closing letters with ‘Dill then.’” 

“More than anyone, he fashioned Mt. Olive’s long-time marketing approach emphasizing that pickles are fun, based on his belief that consumers don’t view pickles as a staple item.” 

What’s your favorite pickle pun or joke? 

Why shouldn’t you shoot pool using a pickle? Because you’ll find the cue cumbersome.