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It’s National Strawberry Parfait Day

Today’s facts about Strawberries :

1. Strawberries are one of the only fruits with seeds on the outside.
2. The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
3. The ancient Romans believed that strawberries alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, all inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, and diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.
4. To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals.
5. In parts of Bavaria, country folk still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and an abundance of milk in return.

Today’s Food History

• 1630 Massachusetts Bay colony governor John Winthrop supposedly introduced the fork to American dining.
• 1867 Barbed wire was patented by Lucien B Smith of Kent, Ohio.
• 1938 The new Federal minimum wage law guaranteed workers 40¢ per hour.
• 1951 Pabst aired the 1st color beer commercial on TV
• 1971 Sir John Boyd Orr died. A Scottish scientist and nutrition expert, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to eliminate world hunger.
• 1974 The first checkout scanner was installed in a supermarket.
• 1994 The London Times reported a previously unknown species of mammal was discovered in Vietnam, the Vu Quang Ox. It was the first discovery of a new large mammal since the Okapi in 1910. The ox is thought to inhabit an area along the Vietnam-Laos border.
• 1997 Jacques-Yves Cousteau R.I.P. Ocean explorer, marine biologist. Co-inventor of the aqualung.