MAY 5 - Today in Food History• Cinco de Mayo (Menu for Cinco de Mayo & Recipes) • National Hoagie Day • School Lunch Hero Day (May 5, 2023)
[School Nutrition Association] The day aims to showcase the ways in which school nutrition professionals make a difference for every child who comes through the cafeteria. • Stewardship Week - April 28-May 5, 2024 (last Sun in April to 1st Sun in May) [Nat’l Assoc. of Conservation Districts] To encourage conserving natural resources for our future. • UK: National Gardening Week: (May 1-7, 2023)
[Royal Horticultural Society] Encouraging gardners to share their love of gardening.
On this day in:1719 Andrew Meikle was born (died Nov 27, 1811). A Scottish millwright, he invented the first successful drum threshing machine which separated the grain from the cobs, stalks or husks. He patented the machine April 9, 1789. 1809 Mary Kies of South Killingly, Connecticut, received a patent for a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread. The first woman to receive U.S. patent. 1865 Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochran) was born. In 1889 Bly successfully completed an attempt to beat the record of Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg to go 'Around the World in Eighty Days'. Bly was a U.S. newspaper reporter and completed the journey in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds. 1893 Panic hit the New York Stock Exchange and the stock market crashed. By year's end, the country was in a severe depression; over 15,000 businesses go bankrupt and more than 600 banks close. 1903 James Beard, culinary expert and cookbook author was born (died Jan 21, 1985). Quote: “The kitchen, reasonably enough, was the scene of my first gastronomic adventure. I was on all fours. I crawled into the vegetable bin, settled on a giant onion and ate it, skin and all. It must have marked me for life, for I have never ceased to love the hearty flavor of raw onions”. [James Beard Foundation] 1925 John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in a Tennessee public school. 1926 Ann B. Davis was born. She played the role of Alice the housekeeper and cook on the TV show 'The Brady Bunch' (1969-1974). 1936 U.S. patent No. 2,039,345 was granted to Edward Ravenscroft of Glencoe, Illinois for the first bottle with a screw cap and a pour lip. 1961 Jim Gardner and Leonard Rawl opened the first franchised Hardee's fast food restaurant, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. (see also Sept 3, 1960) 1978 Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream and Crepes in a former Burlington, Vermont gas station. Their business will grow to compete with Haagen-Dazs. 2008 Irv Robbins died (born Dec 6, 1917). Co-founder, with Burt Baskin, of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1946 in Glendale, California.
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