National Strawberry Sundae Day

Five Food Finds about Strawberries

• In a test, subjects who ate nitrate rich foods like strawberries, before exercising burned 100 more calories than those who did not.

• Over 53 percent of seven to nine-year-olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.

• In France, Strawberries were thought to be an aphrodisiac.  A soup made of strawberries, thinned sour cream, borage, & powered sugar was served to newlyweds.

• Folk lore states that if you split a double strawberry in half and share it with the opposite sex, you’ll soon fall in love.

• In medieval times, strawberries were served at important functions to bring peace & prosperity.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1307 King Edward I of England died. King Edward I of England (ruled: 1272-1307). His coronation feast included 278 bacon hogs, 450 pigs, 440 oxen, 430 sheep and 22,600 hens and capons. I believe he had invited some guests to his coronation.

1550 The first chocolate arrived in Europe.

1568 William Turner died. William Turner, an English naturalist and botanist, is known as the ‘father of English Botany.’ His best known work was ‘A New Herball.’

1862 The first Land Grant Act was passed. Public lands were sold for agricultural education. This was the start of many state universities throughout the United States

1891 The Travelers Cheque was patented.

1912 The first Horn & Hardart Automat in New York City is opened. (The very first Automat Horn & Hardart opened was in Philadelphia on June 9, 1902).

1928 Otto Frederick Rohwedder spent many years working on a bread slicing machine beginning in 1912. He finally perfected it, and the first sliced bread was produced and sold at M.F. Bench’s Chillicothe Baking Company, 100 Elm Street in Chillicothe, Missouri. According to the story, Mr. Bench assisted Rohwedder in the fine tuning the new bread slicing machine. The Chillicothe, Missouri Constitution-Tribune of July 7, 1928 carried a story of the new machines first use.

1930 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died. Creator of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes would go for days without food while working on a case.

1936 Henry F. Phillips patented the Phillips-head screw and screwdriver.