Interesting Food Facts  

This is a bunch of random facts about food. I'm a trove of useless information and a info junkie so I thought I'd share some of these interesting facts I've compiled.
My friends at Yuwie are used to this sort of thing, when I find enough trivia on a general subject I post it as a blog. It makes for good reading and we all learn something we didn't know before.
Tell me what you think?
Is it worth doing here at myLot?
Is it interesting? Boring?

Well, Here Goes:


Almonds are a member of the peach family.

In the vegetable realm, only asparagus and rhubarb can reproduce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year.

Because Napoleon believed that armies marched on their stomachs, he offered a prize in 1795 for a practical way of preserving food. The prize was won by a French inventor, Nicholas Appert. What he devised was canning. It was the beginning of the canned food industry of today.

Soft drinks are American's favorite beverage. Water ranks #2, and milk is #3. The average American drinks about 52 gallons of soft drinks per year.

Every year, Bavarians and their guests drink 1.2 million gallons of beer during Oktoberfest. The first Oktoberfest was in 1810 and celebrated the marriage of King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

The average chocolate bar in the U.S. contains at least 8 pieces of an insect in it. Harvesting of the cacao beans occurs in the tropical countries of South America with low sanitation levels. Cacao tree beans are cut and piled in the farmer's field where they ferment for 6 days. During this process, children and adults walk over the piles; insects, rodents, small animals and other living things that make their nests in the piles. Actually the The U. S. Department of Health publishes a book entitled "The Food Defect Action Levels" in which they list unavoidable defects in food (insect, rodents etc.) all allowed by FDA.

Despite its popularity as a seasoning, basil has a controversial history. Basil was a sacred plant in ancient Hindu religion, and it was handled warily by European herbalists of the Middle Ages, who feared it as a scorpion breeder.

Henri Nestle was originally a baby food manufacturer. His work and research with condensed milk aided Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter in inventing a method to successfully combine chocolate and milk in a solid form — the first milk chocolate -- in 1875.

One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of soda. A single bushel of corn can produce: 32 pounds of cornstarch, 1.6 pounds of corn oil, 11.4 pounds of 21% protein gluten feed or 3 pounds of 60% gluten meal.

An orange tree may bear oranges for more than 100 years. The famous "Constable Tree," an orange tree brought to France in 1421, lived and bore fruit for 473 years.

Pieces of bread were used to erase lead pencils before rubber came into use.

There are more than 700 species of plants that grow in the United States that have been identified as dangerous if eaten. Among them are some that are commonly favored by gardeners: buttercups, daffodils, lily of the valley, oleander, azalea, bleeding heart, delphinium, and rhododendron.

One has to eat 11 pounds of potatoes to put on 1 pound of weight -- a potato has no more calories than an apple.

Olive trees can attain a great age. Some in the eastern Mediterranean are estimated to be over 2,000 years old. They grow to a height of 20 to 40 feet and begin to bear fruit between 4 and 8 years old. It takes a ton of olives produces about 50 gallons of oil.