The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: franksolich on July 04, 2009, 03:16:40 PM
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Oh my.
How the world has changed.
I saw an Associated Press article in the newspaper today, describing where much of today's picnic food comes from, and was, to put it slightly, taken aback.
How the world has changed.
Of course, these statistics might exclude foods grown for purposes other than to be put into plastic containers.
When I was a little lad in grade school, certain statistics were engraved into our heads, including the fact that (a) Nebraska and Montana were the leading beef-producing states, Texas a poor dismal third, and (b) only Iowa and Illinois produce more corn than Nebraska, and the top two have to dedicate their whole entire states to the product, whereas corn is grown only in the eastern one-third of Nebraska.
That was then; apparently now is different.
The article mentions that if one is cooking beef, it came from Texas, or Nebraska, or Kansas, in that order. I dunno what happened to Montana and Wyoming since I was a little lad.
I have to somewhat disagree with this, with all due respect and honor to our friends from Texas. Cattle from Texas are made for beef jerky, not for picnics.
The article says that if one is having hot dogs, mostly likely the pork came from Iowa, or North Carolina, or Minnesota.
This floored me, because I've been through Iowa too many times to count, and Minnesota several times, and I've never associated either state with pigs. I've never been to North Carolina, and I've never thought of that state as producing pigs.
Cotton and peanuts and dead fish maybe, but not pigs.
If one is having baked beans, according to the article, the beans most likely came from North Dakota. That's easier to imagine, but one suspects beans are not the major crop in North Dakota.
The article further alleges that if one is having corn-on-the-cob, it most likely came from Florida, California, Georgia, or New York.
This particular "fact" freaks me out, which is why I'm wondering if the article is using only crops grown for grocery stores, and not crops grown, period.
What happened to Iowa, to Illinois, to the eastern one-third of Nebraska?
I've been to New York several times, and as a little lad spent some summers in upstate New York, dairy country. I don't recall ever seeing a single cornstalk in New York.
I've never been to Florida, California, or Georgia, and it boggles the mind that these places produce corn, apparently in large quantities. I've always associated Florida with oranges, California with whineries, and Georgia with peanuts and cotton, never with corn.
Near the end of the article, it mentions that if one is having potatoes today, they most likely came from Idaho or eastern Washington, which makes sense, but one wonders what happened to Maine.
Probably Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia out-produce Maine in potatoes now.
As an aside, at the end of the article, it mentions that America does not produce many fireworks, but of those America produces, the biggest customer is Australia.
I have no idea what's up with that.
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....and if you're having a "GOOD" watermelon, it was probably grown in the sandhills of SC..........it's not likely you're having a "GOOD" watermelon.
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....and if you're having a "GOOD" watermelon, it was probably grown in the sandhills of SC..........it's not likely you're having a "GOOD" watermelon.
Nebraska watermelons tend to be okay; not remarkable, but sufficient for their purposes.
For some odd reason, most watermelons sold in Nebraska come from Texas.
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Nebraska watermelons tend to be okay; not remarkable, but sufficient for their purposes.
For some odd reason, most watermelons sold in Nebraska come from Texas.
Well Frank, most of them sold here in the grocery stores come from out of state, Texas and Florida mostly. But if you want a "GOOD" one, you look up and old farmer in the sandhills that knows what he's doing. Here the sandhills don't grow much except gnats, black jacks (scrub oaks) and excellent long leaf pines. A farmer wanting the best watermelons will clear a few acres of the black jack oaks and plant the old dark green cannonball watermelons on that ground for 2 years only. Don't many do that anymore but if you find one doing it...uuuuummmmmm "GOOD".
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As an aside, at the end of the article, it mentions that America does not produce many fireworks, but of those America produces, the biggest customer is Australia.
I have no idea what's up with that.
I'll tell ya happened Coach, the gubmint nannies don't trust Americans to celebrate Independence Day! We're liable to put our eye out! They have curtailed or downright outlawed fireworks in most municipalities!
If you want to really celebrate the 4th, ya gots to go to the res in order to gets the good stuff!
I bought about $200 worth of mortars this year!
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My boss chased off a dozen kids from the parking lot because they were setting off fireworks near our cars. It was pretty funny... you could only see him and one or two other people on the security cameras but when he ran them off, I watched a stream of about ten or twelve children and adults run by.
One of the downsides of living in the city... there's nowhere to set off any decent fireworks without drawing attention to yourself. We used to go down to the lake. As long as you shot them over the lake, you could fire off as many as you wanted, but getting bottle rockets to bounce around from one rooftop to another was always fun.
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Up here, Maine potatoes is pretty much all you're going to get, coach.
And as far as Iowa pork? From my time in the frozen tundra, oh yeah--I can believe it. Damn. Now you're going to make me want ribs today instead of hot dogs and hamburgers.
Oh, and of course the cole slaw and baked beans are already made--leftovers from last night.
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Okay, I contacted the reporter of the story, inquiring of his statistics.
He told me that he used the number of livestock that was being grown as of March 1, and various beginning dates for the crops, under the quite reasonable assumption that those animals, and those crops, on those dates, would be processed and sold near the 4th of July.
Animals and crops vary throughout the year, and he assured me that when a whole year is totalled up, Nebraska produces one-sixth of the food America eats; more beef than Texas, and most certainly more corn than California or New York.
That's when one considers the whole entire year, not just one point in time.
He seemed puzzled as to why I was puzzled about North Carolina being a big hog-producing state, as apparently it has been for quite a while, but hey, I never knew that.
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.....dark green cannonball watermelons.....
So.....that's what those things are called.
I always called them "round watermelons."
I've never had one, because I tend to distrust watermelons not oval in shape.
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He seemed puzzled as to why I was puzzled about North Carolina being a big hog-producing state, as apparently it has been for quite a while, but hey, I never knew that.
Apparently you've never had Carolina BBQ then, coach. Shame, really.
http://www.northcarolinatravels.com/food/barbecue/index.htm
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On a side note, Florida also has some large cattle ranches.
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Apparently you've never had Carolina BBQ then, coach. Shame, really.
http://www.northcarolinatravels.com/food/barbecue/index.htm
Carolina BBQ, Brunswick Stew, Squash Casserole, Fat Back, Slaw, man that's about as July 4th as you can get for a meal.
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Fireworks, other than bottle rockets, are illegal here to. We bought a couple hundred dollars worth of mortars over in Ohio and where setting them off in one of my pastures. 2 Sheriff deputies and a State Trooper where some of the cars that pulled over to watch. When we where through, they just went on their way.
We live life a little more laid back here in the Hollers of WV.
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If you want to really celebrate the 4th, ya gots to go to the res in order to gets the good stuff!
I bought about $200 worth of mortars this year!
:-) I just have to stop by one of the places I pass hundreds of times a year ;-)
(In order of passing)
www.thunderboltfireworks.com
www.skykingfireworks.com
www.fireworks.com
all 3 sell it all and do a cut throat business with each other. This year they didn't do the dueling spotlights though.....