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Happy National Pecan Day!

Here are today’s five things to know about Pecans:

• Pecans come in a variety of sizes – mammoth, extra large, large, medium, small and midget.

• Before a shelled pecan is ready to be sold, it must first be cleaned, sized, sterilized, cracked and finally, shelled.

• There are over 1,000 varieties of pecans.  Many are named for Native American Indian tribes, including Cheyenne, Mohawk, Sioux, Choctaw and Shawnee.

• Texas adopted the pecan tree as its state tree in 1919.

• 2 Pecans provide nearly 10 percent of the recommended Daily Value for zinc.

Today’s Food History

• 1828 The first edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary is copyrighted.
• 1912 The British luxury liner Titanic struck an iceberg shortly before midnight. It sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15.
• 1927 Clarence Birdseye of Massachusetts received a U.K. patent for frozen fish fingers.
• 1939 ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck was published.
• 1964 Rachel Louise Carson died. An American biologist and author of ‘Silent Spring,’ about environmental pollution, especially the dangers of DDT.
• 1989 ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ by Fine Young Cannibals is #1 on the charts

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