Happy National Popcorn Day!

In addition to Martin Luther King Day it is National Popcorn Day. Since my sister Megan LOVES popcorn I thought I'd find some fun popcorn facts.

Here are some popcorn facts, found here:

• Americans consume some 16 billion quarts of this whole grain, good-for-you treat. That’s 54 quarts per man, woman, and child. (I think Megan eats double :))

• Marion, Ohio, USA is home to the world's only popcorn museum. This small town also hosts an annual festival to honor the snack food.


• Compared to most snack foods, popcorn is low in calories. Air-popped popcorn has only 31 calories per cup. Oil-popped is only 55 per cup.


• Of the 6 types of maize/corn—pod, sweet, flour, dent, flint, and popcorn—only popcorn pops.


• How high popcorn kernels can pop? Up to 3 feet in the air.


• Most U.S. popcorn is grown in the Midwest, primarily in Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.


• Many people believe the acres of corn they see in the Midwest during growing season could be picked and eaten for dinner, or dried and popped. In fact, those acres are typically field corn, which is used largely for livestock feed, and differs from both sweet corn and popcorn.


• The peak period for popcorn sales for home consumption is in the fall.


• Most popcorn comes in two basic shapes when it's popped: snowflake and mushroom. Snowflake is used in movie theaters and ballparks because it looks and pops bigger.


• Mushroom is used for candy confections because it doesn't crumble.


• Popping popcorn is one of the number one uses for microwave ovens. Most microwave ovens have a “popcorn” control button.


• How high popcorn kernels can pop? Up to 3 feet in the air.


• On September 29, 2006 a new record was set for the World's Largest Popcorn Ball, as measured by the Guinness Book of World Records. Eight feet in diameter and nearly 24.5 feet in circumference, this gargantuan confectionary creation weighed in at a whopping 3,423 pounds. It took two days for employees of The Popcorn Factory to create the ball.


• If you made a trail of popcorn from New York City to Los Angeles, you would need more than 352,028,160 popped kernels!