February 14th

is

National Heart Shaped Marshmallows Day

Today’s five things you should know about

Marshmallows

  1. Americans buy 90 million pounds of marshmallows each year, about the same weight as 1,286 gray whales
  2. The marshmallow capital of the world is in Ligonier, Noble County, Indiana
  3. Each summer more than 50% of all marshmallows sold are toasted over a fire
  4. Americans spend nearly $125 million dollars on marshmallows each year
  5. The largest s’more ever made weighed 1,600 lbs and used 20,000 toasted marshmallows and 7,000 chocolate bars. The record was set on May 23, 2003

On This Day in Food History…

1779 RIP Captain James Cook, British explorer who charted and named many Pacific Islands, including the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).

1803 Moses Coats patented an apple parer.

1838 Margaret E. Knight was born. An American inventor, she invented an improved paper bag machine to make bags with flat bottoms.

1886 California oranges were first shipped East by rail.

1903 The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.

2003 Dolly the sheep died. Dolly was the first animal cloned from an adult animal. (Born July 5, 1996)