MINNESOTA
The blueberry muffin is the official muffin of Minnesota.
Wild rice is Minnesota's official state grain.
The official state mushroom of Minnesota is the morel.
Minnesota Inventions: Wheaties cereal, Bisquick, the bundt pan, and Green Giant vegetables
Alexander Anderson of Red Wing, Minnesota developed the processes to create puffed wheat and puffed rice.
Minneapolis has a system of 'skyways,' or covered walkways on the 2nd floor, connecting 52 blocks of the downtown area. This makes it possible to live, work, shop and eat without ever having to go outside. Very handy in the winter when the temperature there can reach to 30 below zero!
Minnesota and North Carolina are the leading turkey producing states, with each producing about 44 million turkeys.
An estimated 263 million turkeys were raised in the United States in 2004. That's down 4 percent from 2003. Minnesota raised 46.5 million turkeys, followed by North Carolina with 39 million.
US Census Bureau, October, 2004
According to the USDA, Iowa had a total of 15.5 million market hogs and pigs as of March 1, 2007, which is 1/4 of the nation's total. North Carolina (8.4 million) and Minnesota (6.2 million) were second and third.
In the U.S., the first recorded instance of a (organized) Halloween celebration occurred in Anoka, Minnesota in 1921
US Census Bureau, October, 2003
In 1947 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, food salesman Jeno Paulucci founded Chun King Corp. He rented a quonset hut, formerly a rutabaga cannery, and set up a hydroponic garden where he grew bean sprouts, and started packing chicken chow mein in cans. Within weeks he was selling 300 cases a day.
Austin, Minnesota, is home to the Hormel Company's plant that produces Spam, a canned meat product popular with Americans. Created in 1937, some of the first commercials aired on TV were for Spam.
Spam even has a mascot -- Spammy, the miniature pig. In 1991, for its 100th anniversary, Hormel Foods opened the First Century Museum. The exhibit of Spam memorabilia quickly became the most popular. In the United States alone, 3.6 cans of Spam are consumed every second, making it the number one product in its category (canned meat) by far. On the island of Guam, more than eight cans of Spam are consumed by every person each year.
More than 60 years after it was first produced, Spam is still enormously popular. More than 5 billion cans have been sold!
Library of Congress Local Legacies Project
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