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FEATURED FOR MARCH

• Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

• St. Patrick’s Day Facts & Food

• St. Patrick’s Day Recipes
 

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FEATURED RECIPES & TIPS

· Original Frank's Redhot Wings

· Ultimate Party Wings

· More Chicken Wing Recipes

· More Appetizer Recipes·

· French Onion Dip

· Jack's Screaming Red Sauce

· Potato Salad Recipes

· Cole Slaw Recipes

· Chicken Salad Recipes

· Kickoff Kabobs

· Banana Bread Recipes

· Mushroom Appetizer Recipes

· Crunchy Snack Mixes

· Mustard and Mustard Sauces

· Salsa Recipes

· Baked and Stuffed Potato Recipes

· Mac & Cheese Recipes
 

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March Food Holidays:

For Details, History and more DAY, WEEK and MONTH Food Holiday designations, including LINKS to Holiday Origins and Additional Information:
SEE Detailed MARCH Food Calendar

MARCH is:

• American Red Cross Month
  (Annual Presidential Proclamation since 1943)

• Caffeine Awareness Month

• Grain of the Month: Quinoa

• National Flour Month

• National Frozen Food Month

• National Kidney Month

• National Noodle Month

• National Nutrition Month  (A nutrition education and information campaign sponsored annually by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

• National Peanut Month (National Peanut Month had its beginnings as National Peanut Week in 1941. It was expanded to a month-long celebration in 1974)

• National Sauce Month

• Canada: Nutrition Month

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DID YOU KNOW?

Breadfruit (Artocarpus communis) is a tall tropical evergreen tree of the mulberry family, native to the Malay Archipelago, and a close relative of the jackfruit and Osage orange.  They have been found throughout the South Pacific since prehistoric times, and today are a staple food in many of the Pacific islands, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and parts of Africa.

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Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“Where would we be without salt?”
James Beard (1903-1985)
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

• National Pound Cake Day  (Pound Cake Recipes)
  (Pound Cake History & Facts)

• Paczki Day (Shrove Tuesday - March 4, 2025 - can be Feb or March).  A day to enjoy these rich, sugar coated Polish pre-lenten pastries.

• National School Breakfast Week (March 2-6, 2026 - 1st full week in March) [School Nutrition Assoc]
  (Breakfast Recipes  ---  Breakfast Facts & Trivia)
  (Breakfast Quotes)

• UK: [British Pie Week] (March 2-8, 2026)
  (Pie Recipes  ---  Pie Trivia  ---  Pie Quotes)

• UK: [SPAM Appreciation Week]  (March 2-8, 2026)
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1634 March 3 or 4: Samuel Cole supposedly opened the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.

1791 Vermont became the 14th state.
(Vermont Food Trivia and Facts)

1792 Samuel Slocum was born. He invented a machine to make pins with solid heads and a machine for sticking the pins in a paper holder for sale.

1792 Oranges were supposedly introduced to Hawaii.

1837 Chicago was incorporated as a city (population 4,200).  (see also: March 12, 1773).
(Chicago Food Trivia and Facts)

1868 Jesse Chisholm died in Oklahoma (born 1805?).  A frontier trader, Chisholm blazed one of the West’s most famous cattle trails (The Chisholm Trail) between Texas and Kansas.

1877 Rutherford B. Hayes is sworn in as 19th president of the U.S.  His wife Lucy refuses to permit intoxicating beverages to be served at the White House.

1913 President William H. Taft signed Public Law 426-62, creating the U. S. Department of Labor.

1913 The Weeks-McLean Law became effective. It was designed to stop commercial market hunting and illegal shipment of migratory birds from one state to another.  Included were "All wild geese, wild swans, brant, wild ducks, snipe, plover, woodcock, rail, wild pigeons, and all other migratory game and insectivorous birds."
(Passenger Pigeon Trivia & Facts)

1927 Ira Remsen died (born Feb 10, 1846).  American chemist, codiscoverer in 1879 (with Constantine Fahlberg) of saccharin, the artificial sweetener.
(Saccharin Facts & Trivia)

1938 John Galardi was born (died April 13, 2013).  Founder of Wienerschnitzel (originally Der Wienerschnitzel) hot dog fast food chain.
(Hot Dog Trivia & Facts  -  Hot Dog Quotes)

1943 Irving Berlin won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for 'White Christmas' written for the film 'Holiday Inn'

1971 The Cranberries drummer, Feargal Lawlor, was born today. (Cranberry Trivia & Facts)

1994 John Candy died. Canadian comedian and actor, member of 'The Second City' comedy troupe.

2010 In the UK, The Guardian reported that 2.6 million households now have microchips installed in their rubbish bins by local British governments. The chips can identify the households and measure the weight of rubbish in the bins.

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A FEW FEATURED FOOD FESTIVALS
(See All 9,000 Food, Wine & Beer Festivals)

February 26-March 8, 2026  Florida Strawberry Festival - Plant City, Florida

March 1-31, 2026 - Taste Atlantic City
Atlantic City, New Jersey

March 1-31, 2026  Washington Wine Month
Various locations, Washington

March 6-15, 2026 - 44th Annual Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

March 7, 2026  Schell's Bock Fest
New Ulm, Minnesota

March 7-8, 2026 - Downtown Chandler Barbeque Festival - Chandler, Arizona

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

1) All of the following events took place in the same year.  What year is it?
· Canada bans the artificial sweetener Saccharin as potentially carcinogenic.
· A record lobster weighing over 44 lbs was caught off Nova Scotia.
· Larousse Gastronomique first U.S. edition is published, a 1063 page dictionary of cookery.
· Twix cookie bars are introduced.
· PepsiCo acquires Pizza Hut fast food chain.
· Denny's Restaurant introduces the Grand Slam Breakfast.

2) What is the origin of the custom of eating ham around Easter?

3) The peach is the state fruit of Georgia.  It is also the state fruit and the state flower of two other states. Name the states.

4) What did Chicago artist Dwight Kalb make a statue of Madonna from?

Click Here for Today’s Quiz Answers
 

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Read an article about Chef James and the FoodReference.com website published in the Winona Daily News, Minneapolis StarTribune, and numerous other newspapers: Click here for the Article
 

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Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
· Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten (it is still my favorite)
· Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
· Barbara Saba, my sister, who taught me how to dance.
· Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew.  Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq.  He was 30 yrs. young.

          Chef James
 

TOP

DID YOU KNOW

In the early 1800s salt was 4 times as expensive as beef on the frontier - it was essential in keeping people and livestock alive.

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A FOOD LIFE

"There are those who say that a life devoted to food -- cooking it, eating it, writing about it, even dreaming about it -- is a frivolous life, an indulgent life.  I would disagree.  If we do not care what we eat, we do not care for ourselves, and if we do not care for ourselves, how can we care for others?"
Fictional cookery writer Hilary Small, in episode 6, series 2 of 'Pie In the Sky'

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Click Here for
Food Emergency
Websites, Phone #s, E-mails, etc.
 

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Classic Fish and Seafood Recipes
 

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DID YOU KNOW?

Poppy seeds have a sweet, nutty flavor and are used as flavoring in breads, rolls, and cakes. They are also used to make poppy seed oil, which is used in cooking, artist's colors and soap.  Pressed seed cakes are also used for livestock feed.

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IN SEASON FOR WINTER

VEGETABLES
(Recipes  --  Tips)
Avocados
Beets
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Celery
Collard Greens
Kale
Leeks
Onions
Parsnips
Plantains
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Rutabagas
Sweet Potatoes & Yams
Swiss Chard
Turnips
Winter Squash

FRUITS (Tips)
Apples
Bananas
Grapefruit
Grapes
Kiwifruit
Lemons
Limes
Oranges
Pears
Pomegranates

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DID YOU KNOW?

Unopened bottles of ketchup can be stored for 1 year on a cool, dark, dry shelf.  Tightly covered opened bottles will last a month in a cool, dark, dry place.

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