Juicey Slices

! According to 1998 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records, in 1990, Bill Carson of Arrington, USA, grew the largest watermelon weighing 119 kg. The word “watermelon” first appeared in English by 1615.

! Like seedless oranges, Japanese scientists were the first to develop seedless watermelon. Agricultural researchers in India have also developed an experimental seedless variety and called it Pusa Bedana.

! There is enough evidence to indicate that the watermelon is a native of tropical Africa. The explorer, David Livingstone, mentions them in his diary.

! The first recorded harvest of watermelon was nearly, 5,000 years ago in Egypt where watermelons were grown and regarded not only for their flavour but also for their beauty. It has been depicted in Egyptian wall paintings. Pharaohs stocked watermelons in their tombs.

! It is said that when children of Israel wandered in the desert after their flight from Egypt, they remembered the watermelons they left behind.

! A very large number of watermelon varieties are grown in India. They have very exotic names like Noorjehani, Anarkali, Sharbat-e-Anar, etc. Some varieties are named after the towns near which they are grown — Faizabadi, Jaunpuri and Farukhabadi — all of them along the banks of the Ganga and the Yamuna.

! Sugar baby, an American variety is very popular in Maharashtra. West Bengal grows the Asahi Yamato, a Japanese variety.

The voyage of watermelon
Shirish Joshi

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020506/agro.htm#1

Kids eat glue all the time.

Thanks for telling us about the whey, of troy. Whey cool!

Dear Doubters of the Wonders of Peanut Butter ~

Please read about the life of George Washington Carver, the father of peanut butter, and be ashamed.

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/carver.html

Father Steve,

Although Carver is known for his many discoveries using the peanut, I don't think he was the father of peanut butter. The use of peanuts in pastes and soups predates Carver, and peanut butter in the form that we know it today isn't credited to Carver as far as I can gather. Here's a link with interesting information, most of which is found on other peanut butter sites:

http://www.peanutbutterlovers.com/history/

But, then again, you may have a source that differs...

Father Steve,

Although Carver is known for his many discoveries using the peanut, I don't think he was the father of peanut butter. The use of peanuts in pastes and soups predates Carver, and peanut butter in the form that we know it today isn't credited to Carver as far as I can gather. Here's a link with interesting information, most of which is found on other peanut butter sites:

http://www.peanutbutterlovers.com/history/

But, then again, you may have a source that differs...

But see:

BULLETIN NO. 31 JUNE 1925
How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption
Seventh Edition, January 1940
By GEORGE CARVER, M. S. in Agr., Director
EXPERIMENTAL STATION, TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE,
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama
Reprinted 1983 for Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, George Washington Carver National Monument by Eastern National Park and Monument Association

Jackie, what is a grub worm? And I admire your imagination, as I would never even try to imagine the taste of anything like that.

Mav, I'm with you, Marmite is much better than Vegemite. As a Brit living in Oz I have managed to convert my Australian husband - unfortunately, as I now have to order double the stocks from overseas! (You can get Marmite here but it is made by a different company and does not taste the same. )
I remember a very sad lunch party where after several bottles of wine we ended up getting the Marmite and Vegemite jars out of the kitchen and comparing ingredients. My taste buds justified by the larger quantity of folate in Marmite - clearly a much healthier food as well as better tasting!
...a satisfying use of Marmite is to offer it to your Japanese colleagues when, for the fiftieth day running, they have expressed admiration at your ability to use chopsticks. And to tell them, in all innocence, that it is chocolate paste...

And as for peanut butter and jelly:
- don't y'all over there in the States mean what we call jam when you say jelly?
- by the bye, please explain the distinction on your side of the pond between jam and jelly. Where I grew up, jelly is (was?) a dessert - basically a clear, fruit-flavoured blancmange, presumably derived from the gelatin which made it set, whereas jam is fruit and suger boiled down to a gloopy sweet mass and usually eaten spread on bread or baked in pastry cases.
- peanuts! Wonderful things! Not denigrating them at all, just disturbed by their pollution with jelly. Or with jam. Why cover such a delicious savoury and nutritious snack in sugar???
- heard an interesting session on the radio recently - apparently one main reason that nut allergy is rising is that roasted nuts are now roasted at a higher temperature / for longer and this brings out different / higher concentration of various compounds in them. As a result rising allergy occurences, some schools in Australia are seeking to make their schools completely 'peanut-butter-free', and even to avoid feeding kids peanut butter for breakfast before school. Yeeargh! It was bad enough when the airlines stopped serving nuts, but if they are to disappear from schools and breakfasts entirely...

according to the US Food & Agraculture, an administrative body that sets standards for US foodstuff:
Jelly is made from clear fruit juice, with sugar and pectin, (there are percentages/ratios of sugar to fruit juice that must be met in order to be called jelly--(sugar free stuff for example is a fruit spread))

Jam is made from fruit juice and pureed fruit bits (at least 10%pureed fruit) the fruit does not have to be intact and recognizable (ie, a puree of fruit and juice) --same deal with specific ratios of sugar to fruit apply--with there always being more fruit by weight than sugar)

preserves are made from fruit and juice(notice--fruit comes first, not juice). the fruit can be cut up, but peices of intact fruit must be still visible, plus sugar and pectin.

(i don't know if there are standards for marmalades, or curds (like lemon curd))

if a product meets the government standard, it doesn't have to list its ingredients on the label. (it can but it doesn't have to)
IF it doesn't meet the standard, IT MUST List all ingredients, in order by weight.. (heaviest/greatest quanity first--

which mades canned chili makers to use 3 types of beans in their chili--so Beef is #1 ingredient, and Bean A, BeanB, Bean C follow (along with other ingredients).. but in reality, the chili is more beans than beef.

there are many foods with 'standards' established, (peanut butter, for one, ketchup, mustard, mayonaise, ice cream, and so on..)

and here, in US, we call gelatins 'Jell-o'--after the biggest brand of mixes for making them.

blancmange is pretty rare,--i have made it.. but its not at all common.

Bavarian creams used to be fad.. they are like a blancmange that is made with added whipped cream. and are sometimes called souffles, (but unlike a real souffle, they are not cooked) and Bavarian creams came in all sorts of flavors, fruit, chocolate and even coffee flavor.

of troy, who knows her sweets and desserts!

http://www.opendreams.net/jesse/images/20010506.hike.trip.revis.ranch/41.grub.worm.2.jpg

A lovely bundled-up grub, Jackie. It looks rather like a luscious white-frosted bundt cake dotted with cherries and a sliced-off end dipped in semi-sweet chocolate or licorice. Can't decided which.

Thanks Jackie. We have something similar-looking in our garden, not that I have ever known what it was called. Will try to check with a native Australian at some point.

As for food, I'd rather eat Marmite.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=69474&item=3780605944

or is that mammarite?

AnnaS sez: Marmite. I'll take Vegemite over Marmite any day.

But

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=7920313&src=eDialog/GetContent

FS: I think that's a very funny idea for an advertisement.

OT: I thought Elmer's was made of casseine, which was the wey. As to govt. defs., ice cream can be made of casseine and not so labeled since that is the stuff by definition.

Mav: As to peanuts generally, commercial peanut butters usually remove the peanut oil, which is valuable, and replace it with cheaper, thicker, artery-clogging shortening. But the real thing is wonderful. I'm not a big jam person, but sometimes with raisins, bananas or apples -- a definite neck-and-neck with Marmite (which is also good, in smaller quantities).