More Fun Food Facts (again)

Boiling the cork for a few minutes makes it easier to place it back into a wine bottle.

The flavor we think of as bubblegum is a combination of wintergreen, vanilla and cassia, a form of cinnamon.

Almost without exception, cows are milked from the right side. The reason is because most farmers have been right-handed since the start of the dairy business and it's easier for a right-handed milker to work from the right side.

The Aztecs of Mexico roasted and ground up the cacao bean, mixed it with water, added peppers and other spices, stirred it up to a froth and drank the pungent mixture they called "chocolatl."

The banana is the most prolific of all food plants with as many as 300 bananas growing on the same stalk.

Cheese closes the stomach and should always be served at the end of a meal.

The above all comes from Mindlesscrap.com

The tomato: One of the strangest things about the history of the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is the fact that, although it is of American origin, it was unknown as food in this country until long after it was commonly eaten in Europe. Until hardly more than a hundred years ago it was generally thought to be poisonous in the United States. Long before it was considered here as fit to eat, it was grown only as an ornamental garden plant, sometimes called "love apple."
The mistaken idea that tomatoes were poisonous probably arose because the plant belongs to the Nightshade family, of which some species are truly poisonous. The strong, unpleasant odor of the leaves and stems also contributed to the idea that the fruits were unfit for food.
Our word "tomato" is but a slight modification of tomati, the word used by the Indians of Mexico, who have grown the plant for food since prehistoric times. Other names reported by early European explorers were tomatl, tumatle, and tomatas, probably variants of Indian words.

The above comes from here and has much more info on the tomato.

This one is for Mom and Dad and comes from this website. I'll just include one paragraph, but it is an interesting read and only takes a couple of minutes. For whatever reason we were discussing margarine at the Easter dinner table and I stumbled upon this today. The laws that were passed in regards to it's sale is quite interesting to say the least and they weren't all repealed until 1996.

Although it has been around for over a century, margarine was not always the preferred tablespread in the U.S. In 1930, per capita consumption of margarine was only 2.6 pounds (vs. 17.6 pounds of butter). Times have changed for the better, though. Today, per capita consumption of margarine in the U.S. is 8.3 pounds (including vegetable oil spreads) whereas butter consumption is down to about 4.2 pounds. Research studies have shown that the shift within populations around the world - from the highly saturated fat content of butter to vegetable oil-based margarines - have contributed significantly to the reduced risk of heart disease. Check out the timeline below to learn more about the history or margarine.