Above: Half-sour garlic pickles from Puckers Gourmet, first-place winner at the 2010 Rosendale Pickle Festival.

Spicy, tangy, salty, sweet: Pickles of all varieties will star in Rosendale this Sunday, at the town's annual International Pickle Festival.

Set up under big tents at the community center, Rosendale’s Picklefest feels a bit like a bazaar in some exotic land. Vendor space is sold out this year, which means a glorious profusion of wearable art, useful goods, novelties and tantalizing food. Home practitioners of the ancient culinary art of pickling will be swapping tips and sampling each other’s wares.

Pickles will be tossed, pickle juice will be drunk in copious quantities, pickles will be drawn by dozens of children, and a guy in a giant pickle suit will be roaming the grounds. In the cozy warmth of the rec center there will be candlemaking for the kids, a Japanese tea ceremony, and exultant African drumming. Pickles from far and wide will compete for glory in a professionally-judged pickle-off.

Above: Prime Steakhouse & Spirits welcomes the Windham ski crowd. Photo by Jennifer Strom.

Let’s just pause for a moment and think a grateful thought about Catskills restaurateurs.

First of all, opening a restaurant anywhere takes guts. The effort and responsibility required are enormous; the risks are high. Here, the restaurant business is not a matter of establishing an Arby’s beside the freeway exit, with a central corporate office for support and a steady flow of rubes funneling past. This is the blizzard- beleaguered, flood-washed Catskill Mountains, with winding roads, a widespread populace and uncertain cell service. Yet, chefs and entrepreneurs continue to flock here, trying their hands at rebooting old- fashioned diners, introducing new concepts and embracing ethnic cuisines.

Here’s a sampling of new places whose proprietors joined the fray in the last 12 months.