Week of September 4 – Ball Park Food

PEANUTS: Peanuts grow best in light, sandy loam soil. They require five months of warm weather, and an annual rainfall of 500 to 1,000 mm (20 to 39 in) or the equivalent in irrigation water.

The pods ripen 120 to 150 days after the seeds are planted. If the crop is harvested too early, the pods will be unripe. If they are harvested late, the pods will snap off at the stalk, and will remain in the soil.

POPCORN:  Popcorn was first discovered thousands of years ago by Native Americans in North America. It is one of the oldest forms of corn: evidence of popcorn from 3600 B.C. was found in New Mexico.

CRACKER JACKS:  The little boy on the cover of the original cracker jacks bag was named Sailor Jack and his dog was named Bingo.  Frederick William Rueckheim and his brother Louis mass-produced Cracker Jack and sold it at the first Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. At the time, it was a mixture of popcorn, molasses, and peanuts and was called “Candied Popcorn and Peanuts”.

COTTON CANDY:  Machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by the dentist William Morrison and confectioner John C. Wharton and first introduced to a wide audience at the 1904 World’s Fair “Fairy Floss”  at the then-high price of 25¢, half the cost of admission to the fair. Fairy floss was renamed to “cotton candy” in the 1920s.

COCA COLA:   often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944). Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century.

HOT DOGS:  The  world’s longest hot dog created was 60 m (196.85 ft), which rested within a 60.3 m bun. The hot dog was prepared by Shizuoka Meat Producers for the All-Japan Bread Association, which baked the bun and coordinated the event, including official measurement for the world record. The hot dog and bun were the center of a media event in celebration of the Association’s 50th anniversary on August 4, 2006, at the Akasaka Prince Hotel, Tokyo, Japan.