For just a pickle!

The Wondrous Glowing Pickle

Disclaimer: This is a very dangerous project. You should not even try this. It will fry you crispier than melba toast if you screw it up. So don't do it. I am only telling you about this because it is an interesting phenomenon. That said, if you run normal houshold current through a pickle - a standard whole pickle - it will give off a nice green glow. The pickle is impaled on two pins, which are in turn hooked up to household current. That is pretty much it. The pickle will sputter for a while, then it will give off a rather impressive (for a gherkin) green light.

You really shouldn't try this unless you know everything about working with electricity safely. Definitely use a fuse in the circuit. Not to pass the blame if anything goes wrong, but this project has appeared in several places now, most recently in Penn and teller's "How to Play With Your Food", where they have a photo of one. There are quite a few other references to this phenomenon on the web, most notably Lori's Chemistry Page, which tells you how to do this project in detailed steps (and probably more safely), and includes a pickle movie(!); Characterization of Organic Illumination Systems, which is a fairly scholarly study of the subject, and the Gherkins Homepage, where all sorts of pickled veggies are caused to light up.

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