“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.”
M. F. K. Fisher (1908-1992)
Today is:
~ National Almond Day
~ Feast of Sticky Buns
1883 The 'Ladies Home Journal' began publication.
1909 Richard McDonald was born. He was one of the brothers who founded McDonald's fast food restaurants. Richard also designed the golden arches logo. He died in 1998.
1932 James E. Markham of Stark Brothers Nurseries and Orchards in Mississippi, received the first patent for a fruit tree. It was for a peach tree whose fruit ripened later than other varieties.
1933 Prohibition (the 18th amendment) is repealed. Cheers!
1937 Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers received a patent for Nylon. (Which he discovered in 1935). One of its first uses was to replace the hog bristles that had been used in toothbrushes. Think about it: people used to brush their teeth with pigs hair.
1959 Rap singer 'Ice T' was born (Tracy Morrow).
2009 Burgers & Beer on the Road: A truck carrying 40,000 pounds of frozen hamburger patties hit the center median, and dumped thousands of pounds of burgers onto Interstate 15 near Salt Lake City. A few hours later on Interstate 84, also in Utah, a truck carrying 40,000 pounds of Fat Tire Beer hit the center median and spilled its load on the highway. Neither driver was injured.
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APPLES
There are more than 7,000 varieties of apples, but only about 100 are grown commercially in the U.S. Eight varieties account for 80% of total U.S. production. Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, McIntosh, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, York and Stayman.
There are about 2500 known varieties in the US. Thirty-six states grow them commercially with the following as top producers, WA, NY, MI, CA, PA, & VA. 56%of the 1999 crop was eaten as fresh fruit and 42% was processed.
Apples float because 25 percent of their volume is air.
The U.S. produced 10 billion pounds of apples in 2006, more than 1/2 were grown in Washington state.
Apples were introduced to New York by the European settlers who brought seeds with them in the 1600s.
Apples are 'self-incompatible' - you need two trees growing near each other to have successful pollination.
If you grew 100 apple trees from the seeds of the same tree, the new apple trees would all be different.
Of the thousands of varieties of apples that were grown in the early 1900s, 88% do not exist anymore.
The apples from one tree can fill about 20 boxes each year.
The 11th labor of Hercules was bringing home the Golden Apple of the Hesperides out of the mythical West.
The world production of apples is more than 40 million tons.
Americans eat about 19.6 pounds of fresh apples annually, compared to about 46 pounds consumed annually by residents of European Countries.
China is now the world's largest apple producer, followed by the U.S. in second place.
The Albemarle Pippin is a red-striped, yellow apple, also called Yellow Newton Apple
The "Flower of Kent" is a large green skinned apple variety, and is thought to have been the variety that struck Sir Isaac Newton.
McIntosh Apples were discovered on a single mutated plant in the late 1700's by Canadian John McIntosh.
The apple is the official state fruit of New York, West Virginia, Washington and Rhode Island. It is the official state flower of Michigan.
The Honeycrisp apple is the official state fruit of Minnesota (designated in 2006).
Washington state produces more apples than any other state in the union.
The U.S. produced 9.9 billion pounds of apples in 2005, more than 1/2 were grown in Washington state.
The apple blossom was named the official state flower of Arkansas in 1901.
The most valuable fruit crops in the United States are in order, grapes, apples, oranges and strawberries (2000).
When the first colonists migrated to North America, they brought apple seeds with them. The first recorded planting was in 1629 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
