by There’s a museum somewhere in the world devoted to just about every topic imaginable. The International Vinegar Museum in Roslyn, South Dakota, in the northeast corner of the state, is the world’s first and only museum devoted to vinegar, so we drove miles out of our way on Dakota back roads just to pay it a visit.
The museum is the brainchild of Lawrence Diggs, who partnered with a local non-profit community development group to establish the facility in the historic but unused Roslyn Auditorium on Main Street in the town. As t-shirts sold by the museum proclaim, they’re “kind of a big dill” in the town!
We were fortunate when we visited to be given a personal guided tour and tasting by the Vinegar Man himself. Diggs shepherded us through exhibits outlining the history of vinegar through the millennia, with different varieties and methods that evolved in different regions of the world.
The museum has an extensive collection of commercial, homemade, and craft vinegars from around the globe, along with artifacts relating to vinegar production.
They also have a collection of ceramics that utilized vinegar in their creation by Diggs, and artworks on paper that was made from microbial cellulose generated from the same bacteria that create vinegar.
The culmination of the tour was a tasting of six vastly different vinegars, each with a distinctive taste profile. We sampled vinegar with maple, blood orange, and other flavors.
After our tasting, we couldn’t help but purchase a bottle of their own International Vinegar Museum Dark Balsamic, which was thick, unctuous and utterly delightful. We were recommended to try it on ice cream, as a fruit or bread dip, as a marinade or in salads, or as an ingredient in vinegar pie.
The museum hosts a Vinegar Festival each year on the third Saturday in June, with a parade, entertainment, crowning of a Vinegar Queen, and (of course) vinegar tastings and a steak supper at the firehouse. Diggs is also the founder of the Vinegar Connoisseurs International website where you can learn more about the world of vinegar.
