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Happy National Hazelnut Cake

Did you know…

1. The hazelnut or filbert tree, blooms and pollinates in the middle of the winter. These trees can keep producing nuts for several hundred years.
2. Over 95% of the U.S. commercial production of the nut is in Oregon’s Williamette valley.
3. The first commercial filbert orchard in the state of Oregon was the Dorris Ranch in Springfield.
4. One theory of the origin of the name ‘filbert’ is that it comes from St. Philibert, a 7th century Frankish abbot, whose feast day is August 20, which happens to be in the middle of the nutting season in Europe.
5. The Hazelnut  blooms and pollinates in the middle of winter. The nuts begin to grow in the spring, and the are allowed to ripen until they fall off the trees and are then harvested.

Today’s Food History

• 1495 The first written mention of scotch whiskey is in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland. A Friar John Cor was the distiller.
• 1812 Richard Kirwan was born. Kirwan was an eccentric Irish chemist who hated flies. He had dysphagia, which is the inability to swallow food without convulsive movements. He always dined alone.
• 1875 A.P. Ashbourne received a patent for a “Process Preparing Coconut for Domestic Use.”
• 1908 John Krohn walked over 9,000 miles around the perimeter of the United States with his wheelbarrow. He completed the walk in 357 days, resting on Sundays
• 1926 During this month, the first automatic pop-up toaster was introduced by the Waters-Genter Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota
• 1926 Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean) was born. American actress, primarily remembered as being crowned Artichoke Queen of 1947 in Castroville, California.
• 1938 The first Superman comic book is published.
• 1951 The International Cheese treaty was signed. International Convention on the Use of Designations of Origin and Names for Cheeses.
• 1962 Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ was published. An American biologist, the book was concerned with the dangers of environmental pollution, especially DDT
• 1976 Great-Britain & Iceland settle their codfish war.
• 1993 Brooklyn, New York begins recycling.
• 1996 Dr. Edward Anton Asselbergs died. In 1960 Dr. Asselbergs developed the process for making instant mashed potato flakes, the same basic process is still used world-wide today.
• 2006 Restaurateur Claude Terrail, owner of La Tour d’Argent in Paris, died at age 88.