The annual St. Joe Pickle Festival takes place July 18-20 this year throughout the city of St. Joe, northeast of Fort Wayne.

The yearly celebration of the flavored cucumber attracts visitors from across the U.S., in addition to the thousands of local visitors who gather to celebrate one of life’s most criminally underappreciated vegetables.

There are a number of activities planned around pickles including pickle-themed activities like the pickle derby, where people put wheels on pickles and race them. An event where people dress up pickles like people with their artistic creations judged in a competition is also a popular draw and provides countless opportunities for selfies with pickles.

If that’s not enough pickle fun for you, then come for the food. There will be non-pickle related offerings available for those who may hold a grudge against the pickle for some reason, but “when in Rome” you need to eat the fried pickles, too. Although all of that’s great, the real fun comes when it’s time for dessert and the sampling of the pickle-flavored ice cream, made from Sechler’s sweet pickles.

Of course, there will be music to provide a pickle-type atmosphere, fireworks, vendors offering pickle and non-pickle related merchandise, and kids rides.

But don’t forget to carve out some time to tour the Sechler pickle factory where you can watch workers dip nets into deep vats to fish out pickles and observe the pickle bottling process for some of Sechler’s 52 varieties.