National Popcorn Day

Popcorn has been around for thousands of years. We see it everywhere. Movie theaters, grocery stores, ballparks, and most of us have some in our own homes. It is one of the few snack foods that is not too bad in calories and that a lot of people love to eat. So lets learn some new facts about popcorn!

- American's eat more popcorn than any other country. We actually consume about 17 billion quarts each year! That's enough to fill the Empire State building 18 times!

- Most US popcorn is grown in the Midwest, primarily Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri.

- Popcorn is the official snack of Illinois

- Popcorn has been served in movie theaters since 1912. At first movie theaters didn't want to sell popcorn because they thought the crunching would distract from the movie, but later found it helped to increase sales.

- Popcorn comes in 2 shapes, Snowflake and Mushroom. Most movie theaters use snowflake because they are bigger, while the mushrooms are used for confections because they are less likely to crumble.

- The worlds largest popcorn ball was 12 feet in diameter and weighed 5,000 pounds.

- A cup of plain popcorn contains just 31 calories.

- The popcorn business was one of few that actually thrived during the Great Depression because of it's affordability (about 5 to 10 cents per bag!).

So go pop some corn and celebrate popcorn day!

Erin
   Reeses & Blossom