The Pickle Story - Recap

Morning. The Taylor kitchen. Aunt Bee is canning pickles. Clara enters with a jar of her own and tells Bee she plans to enter them in the county fair. Clara samples Bee's pickles and grimaces. She offers Bee some advice and leaves. Aunt Bee goes back to work dismissing Clara's officiousness with a wave of her hand.

Noon. The courthouse. Andy and Barney are doing paperwork. Bee enters with a lunch basket for the men. She offers her pickles. The men grimace. When Aunt Bee leaves the men devise a plan to get rid of Aunt Bee's eight quarts of pickles by replacing hers with store bought pickles.

Evening. The Taylor kitchen. While Aunt Bee is away, Andy, Barney, and Opie empty Bee's jars and fill them with store bought pickles. Barney puts Bee's pickles into a satchel. Aunt Bee suddenly enters but Barney manages to escape.

The next day. The highway. Barney gives a motorist a jar of Bee's pickles as a safe driving award.

Evening. The Taylor dining room. Barney is a guest. Aunt Bee passes a dish of what she believes are her pickles. The men gobble them up because they know they're the store pickles. Aunt Bee samples one and cries with delight. She tells the men she has decided to enter her pickles into the contest.

The next day. The courthouse. Andy and Barney are worrying about Bee's decision to enter the contest. It would be unfair to enter store bought pickles. Clara enters with a jar of her pickles and asks the men to sample them. Barney excuses himself and scurries away. Andy tries the pickles and realizes they are very good. Clara has brought her scrapbook along and shows Andy the blue ribbons she's collected over the years for her pickles. She tells Andy she finds comfort in knowing there is one thing she can do and how much it means to her to win the pickle contest.

Later in the afternoon. The courthouse. Andy tells Barney about Clara's visit and how much it means to her to win the contest. In all fairness, Andy decides Bee cannot enter the store bought pickles. He decides the store pickles must be consumed and Bee must make another batch of her pickles to enter in the contest.

The next few days. Andy, Barney, and Opie empty the kitchen shelves and consume dozens of pickles.

Later in the week. The courthouse. Bee enters with her lunch basket. She is disappointed that all her pickles have been eaten because she now has nothing to enter in the contest. She decides to make another batch of pickles to enter in the contest and hurries away.

A few days later. The Pickle Contest at the county fair. Judges are sampling the entries. When they sample Bee's, they grimace. They place the blue ribbon on Clara's jar. Clara is overjoyed. She leaves amid the crowd's acclaim. Aunt Bee then tells Andy, Barney, and Opie she made a double batch of her pickles because they all like them so much. The men grimace. Aunt Bee sails happily away.

A day or two later. The Taylor kitchen. Andy is having breakfast when Barney enters. Barney sits and helps himself to some toast and opens the marmalade pot on the table. A horrible odor sweeps the room. Barney and Andy grimace. It dawns on them that it's the marmalade pot. The men open the cupboard. The shelves are stacked high with Bee's homemade marmalade. The men groan and decide to get rid of it the same way they got rid of her pickles.

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