Fun Food Facts

Apple pie was brought to England from France sometime around 1066 by William the Conqueror. It made it to America when the Pilgrims arrived. I was able to find a recipe dating back as far as 1381.

On average, every American consumes 109 pounds of beef a year. It takes eight pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. Looks like beef consumption hit an all time high of 94.3 pounds in 76 and has declined ever since.

Dolley Madison is credited with inventing ice cream. Nancy Johnson, the wife of a naval officer, is credited for inventing the ice cream freezer. I see nothing to support this at all. Here is a good history in wiki that mentions nothing of Dolly Madison.

Before Columbus, Europe had never tasted cord, potatoes, tomatoes, red peppers, sweet potatoes, tapioca, chocolate, pumpkins, squash, coconuts, pineapples, strawberries, and much more. Why? All these food items are native to America. Sounds logical to me.

The citrus industry started in the United States in 1873 when two Riverside, CA ranchers obtained some orange saplings from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Two years earlier, the government had secured a dozen saplings from Brazil. It appears that fFlorida had them beat by a few decades if you read the history section here.

The above comes from mindlesscrap.com, my comments follow in red. Check out the sight if you have some time to kill. There is always some interesting stuff there.