Posts

June 12 is National Jerky Day

/1 Comment/in

Today is National Jerky Day, created in 2012 by the Wisconsin Beef Council to bring awareness to the history, nutritional benefits and status of meat snacks as the “fourth-largest-grossing sector in the overall salty-snack category.”

For 2014’s celebration, Jack Link’s beef jerky company built a replica of Mount Rushmore, covered it in 1,600 pounds of jerky and displayed it in New York City’s Columbus Circle. They called the monument “Meat Rushmore.”

national jerky day

Meat Rushmore

Preserving meat via drying and salting dates back at least as far as Ancient Egypt. It became popular in Spain in the 1500s when conquistadors brought it back from South America. The name “jerky” is derived from the Native American Quechua term “ch’arki” (dried meat).

Today, there are hundreds of varieties: turkey, chicken, duck, buffalo, alligator, ostrich, kangaroo, camel, rabbit, python, antelope, rattlesnake, elk, venison, wild boar, alpaca, and pheasant in flavors like ginger-lime, ghost pepper, butter mesquite, and honey sriracha.

Shark, salmon, tuna, and trout are available for pescetarian jerky fans. One purveyor offers gluten-free buffalo and elk jerky. Another offers pineapple jerky for herbivores. (Caution: Manufactured in a plant that processes meat and meat-like  products.)

One variety that hasn’t survived is Zombie Jerky. From the tone of some of its Amazon reviews, it may have, in fact, consisted of the undead. It’s a shame the company went under after its epic struggle to get its packaging approved. The USDA found the original description of the main ingredient, “naturally occurring zombies,” factually inaccurate, objected to “teriyucki” as a confusing flavor, and rejected the assurance that the product is “mutagen-free” and “doesn’t turn you into a zombie” as potentially misleading. (Everyone knows mutagens are a tasty side-benefit of jerky!)

national jerky day

Are you trying to cut back on coffee but need a morning pick-me-up? Perky Jerky is marinated with guarana seeds, which have twice the caffeine of coffee beans, but is all-natural and therefore healthier for you, right? Well, coffee beans are natural, too, and have the advantage of containing little to no jerky, as far as we know.

In 2023, Meat+Poultry reported on a new cannabis-infused jerky created by The Good Shroom Co:

OG Jerk contains 60 grams of beef jerky (2 x 30 gram vacuum sealed packages) infused with a total of 9 mg of THC (2 x 4.5 mg of THC vacuum sealed packages), which permits the consumer to consume in doses accordingly and enjoy beef jerky in the process.

We applaud the genius of a product made to simultaneously create and cure the munchies. In February of 2025, the Canadian company changed its name to Mercanto Holdings. Some corporate buzzkill must have said it sounds more legit. At least its Canadian stock exchange designation will remain MUSH, so there’s that.

Alas, even OG Jerk couldn’t make us hungry enough to try Earthworm Jerky. This Amazon reviewer takes us on a stream-of-consciousness rollercoaster ride.

It reminds me of an old joke. One woman says to the other, “The food here is terrible!” And the other says, “Yes, and such small portions!”

However you decide to celebrate, have a happy National Jerky Day!

Share this:

June 10 is the Banana Split Festival

/0 Comments/in

June 10, 2026, marked the 32nd annual Banana Split Festival. Behind the scenes of this sweet celebration, a battle has raged for years between the citizens of two All-American towns.

Each year, the festivities honor Ernest Hazard of Wilmington, Ohio, who concocted the treat in 1907 to attract Wilmington College students to his establishment.

He halved a banana, added three scoops of ice cream, topped each with chocolate syrup, strawberry jam, or pineapple bits, sprinkled ground nuts on top, covered it in whipped cream, and added two cherries for good measure. He later brainstormed the name with a cousin.

banana split festival

Hazard’s Cafe, Wilmington, OH

In June 1995, the people of Wilmington created the Banana Split Festival to commemorate Hazard’s invention. It’s been celebrated every year since.

However, in August 2004, residents of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, announced that pharmacist David Strickler had invented the dessert at Tassel Pharmacy in 1904, three years before Hazard. The town instituted its own Great American Banana Split Celebration, pegged to the 100th anniversary.

The National Ice Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) certified Latrobe as the birthplace of the banana split. Food historian Michael Turback, author of The Banana Split Book, agreed, although he was unable to find any hard evidence, such as newspaper clippings on which to base his decision.

banana split festival

Tassel Pharmacy, Latrobe, PA

“Soda fountains were very competitive,” Turback explained of the opposing claims.  “They were always trying to outdo each other, to see who had the most elaborate sundaes.”

While Wilmington, Ohio, and Latrobe, Pennsylvania, continue to duke it out for dessert dominance, the real winners are banana split fans who have not one, but two events to celebrate their love for a whole lot of ice cream with a little bit of fruit.

Ohio’s festival features live music, pony rides, a petting zoo, a baseball tournament, a 5K run, and a banana split eating competition (no hands allowed!). However, the featured attraction every year is a “make your own banana split” booth. Yum!

Happy Banana Split Festival! (And don’t worry: you’ll get another chance to celebrate in August!)

Share this:

National Doughnut Day

/1 Comment/in

Today is National Doughnut Day, also known as National Donut Day, celebrated in the U.S. on the first Friday of June.

In 1938, the Chicago chapter of the Salvation Army, an international charitable organization, hosted the first Doughnut Day event to raise funds for the needy during the Great Depression while honoring the women who had served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I.

After the U.S. entered the war in 1917, the Salvation Army conducted a fact-finding mission to France and concluded that American enlisted men would benefit from baked goods, writing paper, and mending services provided by canteens (called “huts”) set up in nearby abandoned buildings. Four of the six staff assigned to each hut were women, to help “mother” the men.

The reconnaissance team had failed to consider the difficulty of baking under those conditions. A couple of the 250 volunteers came up with the idea of frying doughnuts, which would eliminate the need for ovens. They were a big hit. Soon, the soldiers began to refer to the women as “Doughnut Girls.”

While the origin of National Doughnut Day is all but forgotten, bakeries across the nation continue the tradition by offering a free doughnut to customers today. Some places like Dunkin’ Donuts offer a free doughnut with the purchase of a drink, which is, of course, not free at all, but who’s going to complain? It’s still an excuse to have a doughnut!

Happy National Doughnut Day!

Share this:

May 29 is Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day

/0 Comments/in

put a pillow on your fridge dayToday is Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day, a new take on an old tradition.

Although we can find no origin for the practice, legend has it that at the turn of the 20th century, people in Europe and the U.S. placed a piece of cloth in their larders, cool spaces where they stored food before the advent of modern refrigeration.

Typically, the cloth was taken from a blanket, sheet, or nightgown in the superstitious belief that it would bring good fortune, bountiful food, and abundant fertility to the household.

Larders were phased out as refrigerators became widely available.  General Electric’s popular Monitor-Top refrigerator, introduced in 1927, doomed the larder and the tradition as well.

In 2013, the practice was resurrected, with a twist. A pillow and refrigerator replaced the cloth and larder. (To be precise, the pillow would go inside the fridge, but that’s a minor quibble.)

Social media has helped raise awareness of the holiday. Today, you can tweet your support of #PutAPillowOnYourFridgeDay, buy a PAPOYFD pillow to put on your fridge (so meta) and upload photos of your pillow-topped fridges on the PAPOYFD Facebook page. The Facebook page hasn’t been updated since 2021, but you can still post photos in its Mentions section.

Help us bring the page back! It’s the perfect way to celebrate Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day!

Share this: