@ForkReport Hour 2 | Christmas Pickle

The Fork Reporter talks sustainability and introduces us to a fun and quirky holiday tradition!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedre. You're listening to kfi EM six
forty the four Report on demand on the iHeartRadio apps Saturday.
A little hazy, as you heard in the newscast, possibility
of rain in some areas. I haven't seen it in
La yet, but LA's a big place, right just might
not be in my neck of the woods. But I

(00:21):
hope you're having a great day and you're closing up.
The fire has been on at the house and cuddles
have been all over the place in our home with
snacks and treats galower. So I hope you're enjoying your
time with family and friends right now, and try not
to get too stressed out. I want to remind you
that we got great stuff going on on today's program,

(00:44):
including in partnership with our friends at Don Francisco's Coffee.
Love these people. I was talking to my friend Danny
over there and I said, hey, Bob, you want to
do something for the holidays. He goes, absolute, let's give
away coffee for a year. How's that sound? So this
is super duper cool. They're going to make your holidays
brighter with a chance to win coffee for a year.

(01:05):
So one lucky winner in this hour and then one
lucky winner in the four o'clock hour will be able
to choose their Uh, so you select your flavor favorite
select your favorite flavors and brewing methods at Don Francisco's
dot com. So the coffee will be delivered quarterly for shipment.

(01:25):
Even includes two branded mugs, and the price is valued
between four hundred and five hundred dollars depending on the
brewing method chosen, because you know, if you get it
in the little pods, it might be different costs then
in the cans and so on and so forth. But
we'll be giving those away in this hour. Remind me, Kayli,
I don't want to forget. We'll do that near the
end of the hour, and then on the four o'clock

(01:47):
hour we'll do another one as well. But uh, what
did I say? Selmans dot com slash fork right, Yeah,
it's not live. Look at that. The video that I
just took is live on Zealmans dot com. That's Matt.
I literally just took a video sitting here doing the
show during a break, talking about my love of Zelmans

(02:09):
and how I think it's a great to stocking stuffer
and I sent to the guys and now it's live
on on that website. They are on it. I love that.
What's that I said, they're on it? I love that
so much? Look at that. Yeah, that's really cool. That's
why we're good partners. No, but I think it's a
little humbled, and I think it's very cool. They put
together a cool little website and that has, you know,

(02:31):
for for our listeners here, so very cool and continue
to give you that fifteen percent off at Zalmon's dot
com slash fork. Okay, so, uh we were talking about them.
What else was I talking about? I just got distracted
because I'm texting live during the show. But you were
talking about the coffee that they're going to win. That
you about that, and now you're going to get into

(02:54):
the meat, oh, the meat of it. Yeah. Oh okay.
So traditions, you know, the Hall of Days are filled
with traditions, and this is one that I only learned about,
I don't know, probably within the last ten years or more.
But it wasn't like something I grew up with. And
that is the Christmas pickle. No, Kayla, your mind out

(03:15):
of the better. This is something different. Every family has
its own special holiday traditions. Right, So this is a
strange one, but it's popular, and that is the Christmas pickle.
It's a game that some families play during Christmas. And
it might be a mystery to you. I don't know,
maybe this first time you're hearing about it. You can
hit me up on social media at Fork Reporter, at

(03:37):
Fork Reporter if you're like, no, my family's been doing
this for ages, but it's been a fun part of
the holiday celebrations for many people for a long time.
And this is the breakdown of the tradition, the Christmas
pickle tradition. It involves a pickle, but an ornament, not
just the pickle pickle, and it's put not on the

(03:59):
Christmas tree, but in the Christmas tree. So family members
try to find and the person who finds the pickle
usually wins as a prize. Now what the prize is
up to you could be money or a little gift
or something a special dessert or sometimes some people get
a crown or I don't know if they're if you're
doing some sort of game playing that maybe they are

(04:23):
the ones that mc the game or what you know,
like the family stuff, right, like one of the family
traditions on Tracy side, my wife's side of the family
is they play bingo, which is fun as heck. By
the way, with a group of family members. It's a
really fun way to give out extra gifts for kids
and things like that, and it's a fun thing to do.

(04:43):
So the game is fun. It's like a scavenger hunt
everybody in the family can enjoy. Now, I gotta imagine,
if you have a scrawny, tiny little tree, it's pretty
easy to find. But in nowadays, with these big, full
artificial trees, you know, that are covered in a lot
of different decorations, you can lose that thing in there

(05:05):
pretty well. So as far as the origins are, it's
kind of unclear. So because I really wanted to go
back and find out, so like, who said let's hide
a pickle in the tree and whoever finds it wins
a prize. So many people think it's a German tradition,
which is what I thought, but research shows that it

(05:27):
probably isn't. Study found more than two thousand Germans found
that ninety one percent of them had never heard of
the Christmas pickle tradition, So maybe that's not where it
came from. Historians are having issues. They believe it was
created in the US in the late eighteen hundreds by
an ornament salesman. That's how American is that, you know,

(05:48):
a salesman coming up with a way to buy more
stuff wanted to sell more decorations. At the time, many
ornaments were imported from Germany, and that might explain where
the confusion comes. By way of so people thought, oh,
it's got to be a German tradition, but some believe
the tradition could also come from a Civil War story
about a soldier who survived Christmas Eve by eating a pickle.

(06:11):
So however the idea came it's a German. The fact
that it's a German tradition is stuck around in people's minds,
even though it's probably not. But in the Midwest a
lot of German German immigrants rather live there and that
may be part of it as well. So why did
some families adopt the Christmas pickles also not entirely clear,

(06:34):
but there are some reasons why it works so well.
The Christmas pickle adds fun and games to Christmas morning.
People love that traditions like this help bring families closer,
engage is not just about opening the presence. It's about
working together or participating in something sense of comfort. Traditions
are connection, right, so there are many that are trying

(06:56):
to look you know, why this came and why the
pickle is the thing. There are some common themes that
appear appear in many holiday traditions. The idea of hiding
something is part of Christmas games. In England, people used
to hide a bean in holiday bread and whoever found
it got their gift or a special title for the day,

(07:17):
kind of what I was talking about. Color green is
also important during winter holidays, plants are bare, so people
think of green representing life. Many Christmas directions decorations like trees,
wreaths and so on are green, and pickle is green.
Maybe why it sits there? So the story about that

(07:38):
soldier and the pickle may tie into this as well. Survival.
You know a lot of New Year's Day traditions dealing
with luck, like black eyed peas may tie into this
type of thing as well. So with this tradition, we'll
see how long it lasts. The Christmas pickle tradition has
been around for a long time, so far hard to
say how long it will last maybe your family's on it,

(08:00):
but at the end of it, it's good time and
it's fun with the family, all right. We will be
back with more on the on the Fork Report, and
we'll be giving away you know what, We'll give away
one of the Don Francisco's Coffee for a year gifts
when we come back.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
The holidays are here, man, and so what we're going
to do is give away something to you. How about that.
So our friends at Don Francisco's Coffee, they just amazing people.
You just call them up. I was talking to my
buddy Danny over there. I said, I just want to
do something for the listeners in the world. It's like,
we love KFI listeners, we love the Fork Report listeners,

(08:46):
will take care of them. How about coffee for a year?
I said, that's amaze balls, let's do it. So we'll
be giving away a We'll be giving away one right now,
and we'll give away another one in the four o'clock hour,
Coffee for a year, compliments of Don Francisco's Coffee, and
it will be caller number eight right now at eight
hundred five two zero one five three four eight hundred

(09:09):
five two zero one five three four. The eighth caller
right now will win and have the ability to select
their favorite flavors and brewing methods at Don Franciscos dot com.
Coffee will be delivered quarterly. The first shipment even includes
two branded mugs. I have those very mugs in my
house right and at my house right now. The price

(09:32):
is valued at between four hundred and five hundred depending
on the brewing method chosen, so certain coffees might cost
more because they're packaging or whatever, but either way, it's
a great gift. We're thrilled. We'll get all your information
and then you'll just fill out we'll fill out a
little cheat and they'll take care of it over there.
But we'll give another one away coffee for a year,

(09:54):
compliments of Don Francisco's coffee. They just do such great things.
There's also some great coffee recipes that I'll be posting
two of theirs. They've been on the show many time
with different types of recipes for the holidays, so we'll
do that. Congratulations to over one. We'll find out who
it is as soon as you win and we get

(10:16):
the information from producer Kayla all Right, couple of fun
things going on at fast food chains. Four fast food
chains doing specialties for the holidays. These specials won't last.
As a matter of fact. One this first one ends
on Monday. So if you want, you've got holiday cheer
through McDonald's. They're offering through their rewards program members a

(10:38):
fifty cent double cheeseburger boom. Normally three eighty nine man
burgers come with two pure beef patties, two slices of
American cheese, pickles, mustard, ketchup, chopped onions on a regular
bun out. The offer is only available for rewards members
via the McDonald's app at participating locations. Customers can use

(10:59):
only use the deal once per week, so you're only
going to be able to do that between now and Monday.
I wonder how those freeze AnyWho get those double cheeseburgers.
It goes on through Monday, December sixteenth. They're at McDonald's
and if you haven't signed up, those who sign up

(11:20):
for the Rewards program the first time can also get
a ten piece free ten piece chicken McNuggets entree with
their first purchase minimum order of a dollar, so all
of a suding is pretty cool. Our friends at Wendy's
they got their Frosty Key tags. They've announced the return
of those tags. The three dollars tag can't be either
physical or digital, and you can purchase in store or

(11:43):
via the Wendy's App. All proceeds from the tags will
support the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. It's a nonprofit
that helps children in foster care find permanent homes and
loving homes forever and ever. So customers with the Frosty
Key tag can enjoy a free Junior Frosty with any
purchase every day of twenty twenty five through December thirty first,

(12:05):
so get on that. Popeyes has the Festive Family Box
and Midday Marty Grass Happy Hour, so it goes start
as December and they announced their twenty dollars Festive Family
Box bundles the best of Popeyes here, so all kinds
of deals going on there. These deals are available on

(12:26):
Popeye's website and the Popeyes App. KFC has their Buckets
of Joy and Festive Feast deal that you can get
on and you can check that out. Taco Bell has
their Tchuro Chiller shakes they've got going on. So these
are these are some of the things that you want
to get in on.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
A little hazy out there. I see winds the blow
in talking about rain. It's been trying to rain for
the last couple of days. I haven't seen anything here
in this but it's a big place. A lot of
people hearing us throughout the south Land, and maybe you
have a little rain in your area. The social media
is popping today on Instagram. If you're not hanging out

(13:13):
with us on Instagram, please do join us at fork Reporter.
At fork Reporter there I post crazy fun things. I
curate all myself. I find means and things that make
me laugh and I pass them on there. Plus I
put stuff on you know myself as well. So join
me there, won't you? All right? So, sustainability something that

(13:38):
it's not new. We've talked about it many many times.
With food it's important as well. It usually ties into
food with packaging, right, whether it's cardboard or plastic or
wrapping or whatever it is. The concern is we can't
be wasteful there are some things that are necessary to
us living, and I always get annoyed when people go

(14:00):
overboard one way or the other. And there's those that
don't care and aren't good stewards of what we have
on this planet, and that's a problem. And then there's
some people that's like, don't breathe. If you breathe, you're
killing us. And it's like, well, then if I don't breathe,
I'm killing us. So really give me some sort of

(14:23):
something in the middle ground there, how about that? But
we have to think about these things. If you know,
being wasteful, that's not a good thing. So more and
more consumers are aware of this. The industry is responding.
They're trying to look at what is the best way
to deal with these And one of the ways I

(14:45):
would never have thought about is stickers. You know those
stickers we identify fruits, vegetables, Maybe there's a barcode. Sometimes
they're often made from plastic. It can't be composted, falls
off easy, it ends up in weird places. As a kid,
I remember taking the little chiquita banana stickers, put them

(15:06):
on my forehead or putting them on someone's. Don't ask
and I was a kid, we did those things. Put
them on someone's back or something, you know, stick them.
I'll stick them on my son Max all the time.
It's just funny me. Anyways, there's a fruit supplier based
out of the UK. They're planning to rate replace plastic
stickers on their mangos with laser laser etching. And I

(15:29):
think this is brilliant. You know, I'm a I'm a maker.
I love making things. I'm a big fan of props,
film props and replicas and and things like that. I
love making promotional items. I have a small company called
Savco Industries that makes uh promotional products and props and

(15:51):
you know, things for photo opportunities, stuff like that because
I just love it so much. And so I use
laser cutters. I use laserser cutters all the time. And
I never thought and I've even etched on food before,
but this is using a laser to etch on the outside.
It doesn't damage, it's there's no there's no additive. It's

(16:15):
not adding something there that needs to be pulled off
or thrown away. And the whole process is like a
no brainer. It makes sense that the and they're very
the technology is very fast, so fruit could move by
quickly and they can do this, so the move is
expected to eliminate catch this number ten million plastic stickers.

(16:38):
That's just for that company. So it's like a little
tattoo for the mango. But it's got no inknet. It
stands out. It shows up in like oh and white,
and it has information on it like the fruit's origin,
you know, customer branding or things like that, product details,

(16:59):
any extra in you want to be added. But it
won't fall off. They're going to start using this on
avocados and it's not new. It's been around and was
approved in Europe around twenty thirteen, so it's been around
for a minute. Praised not only for cutting costs on printing,

(17:20):
the adhesives, the toxicity that may come with some inks,
and they don't fall off. I think that's the big
thing to me is you're putting a situation where you
can't you can't you know it sticks on something else.
Then you look and go, I don't know where this
came from. I don't know what it was. All those things,

(17:42):
and environmentally it's a zero brainer. They're better. They don't
create any waste at all. So as this technology comes out.
I think that it could be in addition to some
other designs and things that you can do, I mean
artistic or playfully or branding wise, there's things you can do.

(18:04):
I'm a big fan of lasers as an art tool,
as a manufacturing tool, and to see it used like
this as kind of multiple loves of mind coming together.
So so far the customers that come across it, they
are preferring the laser etched labels instead. Now, keep in mind,

(18:24):
you can you can change the sensitivity of a laser
so lightly that you're not actually cutting in. You're marking
on the outside, You're not cutting into it, so it's
not breaking the seal of the and the encasing of

(18:45):
whatever fruit. In this case, we're talking about mangos. So
I just I don't know. I think it's a I
think it's brilliant. I think it's smart, and I can't
wait for it to come here to the States. Those
types of that type of ingenuity and thinking, to me,
is really what I love. I've said this many times

(19:05):
when it comes to people that talk about, you know,
climate change and the like, is we're too into it
too far. It's time for innovation, not conservation. Now, it
doesn't mean you shouldn't conserve. Yes, within reason, you know,
you can't not use certain things. You don't need to
take a thirty minute shower or anything like that. But yeah,

(19:27):
I'm saying that there's ways to conserve still, but you're
not going to conserve ourself safe on this any more
than you could save yourself rich by not paying any
of your bills. That's not saving. So I think innovation
is going to be key to sustaining things, and we'll

(19:48):
see look for it. So you one day we'll get
those and you go, what is that? It's not a label?
Well I heard about that on the forecer part. All right,
stick around. Much more to come on the four Report,
And in the next hour we'll be giving another year's
worth of coffee coffee for a year via Don Francisco's

(20:09):
Coffee and very very cool of them to partner with
us for the holidays to give that to you. So
we'll do that in the next hour.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Coming up here, you're listening to the Fork Report with
Nil Savedra on demand from KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
In my area of LA it is starting to break up.
I'm seeing a little bit of blue sky, but it's
been hazy today. Keep saying that there's twenty percent chance
of rain. Couldn't you technically say if there's eighty percent
chance of no rain?

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Right?

Speaker 1 (20:41):
That would work? Maybe not, which is why I'm not
a weatherman, I suppose, or weather person. All Right, thanks
for hanging out. If you're not following us on social
media and hanging out with us, please do at Fork
Reporter on Instagram and all this social media's wherever you

(21:02):
might be or migrating to or not migrating to whatever.
You'll find us there, most likely at Fork Reporter, at
Fork Reporter, but Instagram tends to be where I am
the most. All Right, California root food recalls, You've probably
heard a lot of them, not only on this program,
but in the news, and that will raise an eyebrow

(21:23):
to WHOA is this? What's going on here? They're in
the news a lot. I get that, and it may
feel like there are more of them happening in California.
But this isn't necessarily bad news. And I loved this
article in the La Times kind of breaking it down.

(21:43):
There's more of them in California possibly, but one of
the reasons may be improvement. You know, we're just better
at catching them. So from September to November, California had
twenty six food recalls. November alone saw eleven recalls, and

(22:08):
one was from what raw milk. Now we may get
into that a little bit later at more detail. One
one was from raw milk from Fresno that was contaminated
with the H five and one bird flu. We even
heard recently that some cats, unfortunately had died drinking that

(22:29):
same milk recalled milk. So food recall happens with any
product that is found unsafe, and it could be because
of harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, also foreign objects, you know,
sometimes plastic or metal from the machines that package them,

(22:50):
or something glass, plastic, metal, And I'm trying to think
what else might Those are the big ones, right, they
can This can a breakoff of packaging. And also another
one is the labels may not be correct. They may
not label an allergen in there. And I know for

(23:11):
the vast majority of us that may not be a problem,
but for someone with food allergies that can be a
deadly issue. So keep those things in mind. Experts are
looking at this and they say the reason really about
these more row recalls. Seems that it's our food supply
chain has gotten more complicated. Food is often grown or

(23:35):
made or package and ship by different companies. So one
company may grow at another made package, another may be distribution,
and there's more places where contamination can happen, and there's
more places you have to check in on to see, well,
where did this come from? So it's not just oh,

(23:57):
it's from this brand. Well, at what point in the
process did it happen? Should you be worried? Some people
say yes, some people say no. There are experts that
are looking at this and say that, yes, the number
of recalls has grown, but it's a sign that the
system that we have in place is working and that
it's catching and stopping contaminated food from reaching consumers and

(24:23):
is just getting better. And some food safety specialists say, yes,
it's always concerning when something like food is recalled, But
what if there were no recalls, what if they weren't
happening at all, That's when it becomes a problem. As

(24:43):
far as California stands compared to others. A study by
trace one it's a company that tracts food recalls by
the way, they found that recalls across the country grew
by over twenty percent in recent years, from four hundred
and fifty four and twenty twenty to five and forty
seven in twenty twenty three. So California is responsible for

(25:03):
nearly forty percent of all recalls in the US, which
is more than any other states. But before you freak out,
think about that for a second. We've got ox in
our camera rio. We've got some of the most fruitful
land in the country, and California is the biggest food

(25:26):
producer in the country. So if it seems like we
get a lot of these, it's because we happen to
produce more. As far as protecting yourself, and we talk
about these things on the show at nauseum, to the
point where people make fun of me sometimes going jez
are you talking about the danger zone again? Yes, because
I want it beaten to your skull. Here're some of

(25:48):
the safety tips. Wash your hands with soap and water
before handling food, no brainer. Clean surfaces and utensils that
will touch food. You know, those anti beater ceial you know,
whether it's lysol or whatever you're wiping down your counters, chlorox,
whatever it might be. When you wipe them down. Don't

(26:11):
dry them. You want to wipe them down. Part of
the process is that the wetness has the chemicals in
it to clean, and you need to do that. Rinse
fruits and vegetables well before preparing them. There are many
different organic or natural based cleaners out there for your produce.

(26:34):
Use food thermometers when you're cooking meat. Keep raw meat
and poultry separate from other foods so you don't have
cross contamination. Don't leave food out at room temperature for
more than two hours. That's the danger zone. So food
recalls may be scary right now, and I get it,
but let's look at the positive side and that we

(26:56):
may just be improving on catching it earlier on and
that will help us from getting even worse food borne illnesses.
You've been listening to the FOROK Report. You can always
hear us live on KFI AM six forty two to
five pm on Saturday, and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app.