Tidbits of Grand Forks - December 29, 2022

By Kathy Wolfe

Sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you just want the facts about them! Follow along for some nutty info.

• What’s the oldest tree food known to man? It’s the walnut, traced back to 7000 B.C. In ancient Persia, walnuts were reserved for royalty, and the early Romans referred to them as “Jupiter’s royal acorn.” The ancient Greeks called them “karyon,” meaning head, because the shell resembles a human head, and the meat of the walnut looks a lot like the brain. They grow on trees that can reach 60 feet tall, increasing in size by 24 inches a year. A walnut tree can produce for more than 100 years. So many good things can be said about this little nut! Walnuts are rich in essential nutrients, including magnesium and phosphorus, and abound in vital Omega-3 fatty acids. Studies indicate that walnuts reduce the risk of heart disease, as well as reducing total cholesterol and decreasing blood pressure. Evidence suggests that they can contribute to brain health, possibly even reversing cognitive decline.

• The state of California produces about a billion pounds of walnuts annually, 99% of the U.S. supply and is the source of two-thirds of the walnuts in the world.

What’s another name for the filbert nut?

What U.S. state leads the nation in production of hazelnuts?

What nuts are also known as Queensland nuts?

Name the U.S. state that claims the pecan tree as its state tree. What two products are advertised with the jingle “Sometimes you feel like a nut...”?

What is their classification?

Name the song that contains these lyrics: “Makin’ their way the only way they know how. That’s just a little bit more than the law will allow.” What was the name of Scrooge’s business partner in “A Christmas Carol”? How many legs does an ant have?

NUTS (continued):

• Apparently there are competitions associated with cracking open walnuts. In 2017, a gentleman in India crushed 212 walnuts by hand in one minute. In 2016, a resident of Pakistan cracked open 181 walnuts against his head in a minute’s time.

• Like walnuts, almonds are an ancient food, one of the earliest cultivated foods. They are mentioned in the Bible ten times and were an ingredient in breads served to Egyptian pharaohs. The ancient Romans considered them a fertility charm and gifted newlyweds with a supply of almonds.

• If there weren’t bees, we wouldn’t have almonds. Almond trees are not easily pollinated by the wind, so California growers rent bees to accomplish pollination, contracting with migratory beekeepers from 49 states to bring in nearly a million beehives every February. Almond production is a $6 billion industry every year, with California providing more than 80% of the world’s supply. Franciscan monks from Spain brought almond trees to the state in the mid-1700s, planting them at their missions along California coast from San Diego to Sonoma.

• Almond trees range in height from 13 ft. to 33 ft., with a trunk diameter of about 12 in. Trees live between 20 and 25 years, and won’t bear fruit until their third or fourth year after planting. We call almonds nuts, but botanically they are a stone fruit related to the peach, plum, cherry, and apricot.

• When harvest time arrives, the almonds are picked by a machine that actually shakes the nuts off the trees. The almonds are left on the ground to dry out for 5 to 10 days. A sweeper then picks them up and carts them off to the processor. Here they are sorted, hulled, and packaged. Even the hulls are useful, sold to dairy farms for animal bedding or burned for biofuel. About 40% of the total almond crop is used by chocolate manufacturers.

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NUTS (continued):

• The health benefits of almonds abound! Just one ounce of these nuts contains half of the recommended daily amount of Vitamin E, required for the proper function of many of the body’s organs. Almonds are high in magnesium, important for muscular and nervous system functions, along with regulating blood pressure. Studies indicate that almonds contribute to heart health and brain health, even aiding in the repair of brain cells. Add in several B vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, selenium, and copper and you have one of nature’s perfect foods.

• The tropical rainforests of Africa abound with kola trees, those which bear seeds containing caffeine, used as flavoring agents in carbonated soft drinks. When Georgia pharmacist John Pemberton set out to concoct a new beverage in the 1880s, he combined the caffeine from kola nuts and cocaine-containing extracts from coca leaves, mixing them with sugar, flavorings, and carbonated water to invent Coca-Cola. The kola nuts are about 2-3% caffeine, and 1-2% theobromine, another stimulant substance. Kola nuts aren’t just a stimulant – the West Africans also use them to treat wounds, to prevent dysentery, to treat fever, and as a painkiller for headaches. To the Nigerians, the nuts are used in ceremonies, including weddings and funerals. The taste is bitter at first, but becomes sweeter as it is chewed. Although made famous by Coca-Cola, since 2016, the company has not used kola nuts in their soft drink recipe.

• They might be called Brazil nuts, but it’s Bolivia that is the world’s greatest supplier. The country of Brazil exports just 2% of the supply.

NUTS (continued):

• Selenium is a mineral that is essential for proper performance of the body’s thyroid and immune systems. The best source of this mineral is Brazil nuts, with just one single kernel providing the entire 100% of the daily requirement. They also contain more magnesium than any other nut. Like the almond, Brazil nuts are not technically nuts, but rather seeds from one of the world’s largest trees, reaching heights of 200 feet in the Amazon rainforest. The trunk’s diameter can reach well over 6 feet. A typical tree will live for 500 years, but it’s not unusual for them to reach 1,000 years of age.

• Macadamia nuts are native to Australia, having been discovered there in the 1850s. They were studied and catalogued by Ferdinand von Mueller of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Mueller named the nuts in honor of his good friend, Dr. John Macadam, a scientist, chemist, philosopher, medical teacher, politician, and Australian cabinet minister. Not only are macadamia nuts one of the world’s most expensive nuts, they also have one of the hardest-shelled nuts, and require 300 lbs. of pressure to open. Once a tree is planted it can take 5 to 8 years to produce nuts. However, the tree can produce for up to 100 years! The trees were brought to the big island of Hawaii in 1921. It took 13 years for the trees to mature and bear nuts, with the fruit of the tree first offered for sale there in 1934. Dog owners need to be careful with the nuts around their pets, as they are highly toxic to them. Dogs can experience vomiting, lethargy, weakness, and even death after ingesting macadamia nuts.

Financial Solutions for the Military

by Lucie Winbourne

• A fight between chameleons is more likely to be both initiated and won by the lizard with the brighter stripes. But then, such conflicts are rare, since that flashier color display is typically enough to win the duel.

• Every year, 11,000 injuries are reported in America as a result of sexual experimentation.

• Do you like to bowl? So did a lot of folks in 14thcentury England, to the extent that King Edward III actually tried to outlaw the game in an effort to redirect the focus of his troops to archery!

• The Popigai crater in northern Siberia contains an estimated trillions of karats of industrial-grade diamonds. Unfortunately, they're too expensive to mine.

• Many if not most people hate those annoying popup ads that plague our computers ... and you can include their creator, Ethan Zuckerman, in that group. In 2014, he confessed in an article: "I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in it. I'm sorry. Our intentions were good."

• Bulgarians nod when they want to say no and shake their heads when they want to say yes.

• A cow will allow itself to be led up the stairs, but it will be impossible for you to lead it back down the stairs again.

• Here's a little extra justification for those of us who dislike daylight saving time: The practice has been linked to increased heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, workplace injuries, headaches, depressive episodes and even lower SAT scores.

• For centuries, the word "topaz" was used to refer to any yellow gemstone, despite the fact that natural topaz is colorless. ***

Thought for the Day: "Lighting a fire under something may get it burning, but lighting the fire from within something tends to keep it burning."

-- Brenda Strohbehn Henderson

OUT OF THIS WORLD

SPACE-Y FACTS

Tidbits is kind of “space-y” this week, as we bring you various facts on outer space.

• The word “astronaut” literally means “star sailor” with its origins in the Greek language, from the word “astron,” meaning “star” and “nautes,” which translates “sailor.”

• As of August, 2022, 621 people have been in space. About 75 of these have been women. The first woman was launched into space in June, 1963, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6. NASA’s definition of “space” is more than 50 miles above the Earth.

• Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka holds the record for more time in space than any other human, a total of 879 days. This was accomplished in five flights over 17 years, beginning in 1998, with this first space journey, one to Russia’s Mir space station, followed by four trips to the International Space Station. His adventures included 10 spacewalks.

• Space is a very quiet place. In fact, it’s completely silent, because it is a vacuum. There is no air, a requirement for carrying sound vibrations, so that even if you shouted in space, a fellow space traveler right next to you wouldn’t hear a thing.

• No matter where you stand on Earth, you will always see the same side of the Moon. That’s because of what is known as synchronous rotation or tidal locking, a situation that occurs because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that it is rotating the Earth, making its year and day equal in length. The Moon rotates completely around its axis in 28 days, and also orbits Earth in the same time period.

• Until 2006, Pluto was considered the solar system’s ninth planet. That’s when the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. One day on Pluto is equivalent to 6 days, 9 hours, and 36 minutes on Earth. Named after the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto was discovered in 1930 by a 24-year-old U.S. astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh. It’s the ninth-largest- known object directly orbiting the Sun, but is actually smaller than the United States.

• Our Sun is 330,000 times more massive than Earth. One million Earths could fit inside the Sun!

• The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, is eleven times larger than Earth. It’s the fifth planet from the Sun (Mars is between Earth and Jupiter). There are 80 known moons orbiting the planet, including the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede, which has a diameter of 33,279 miles (5,262 km), larger than the planet Mercury. Ganymede can be seen with just a pair of binoculars. Jupiter’s four largest moons were first observed by the Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610.

• Every planet in our solar system is named after a god – except Earth!

• A 150-lb. person on Earth would weight 351 lbs. on Jupiter, 57 lbs. on Mars, and just 9 lbs. on Pluto.

• Special writing utensils have been designed for astronauts to write in space. Why? Because space has no gravity, regular pens won’t work -- the ink can’t be pulled down toward the pen’s nib.

• Footprints left on our Moon’s surface won’t ever disappear. That’s because there’s no wind!

by Matilda Charles

The Joys of the Food Bank

A few months ago I escorted three very nervous elderly ladies to the food bank. By "escorted," I mean I had to scout out the situation in advance, come back with a report (no, the food bank staff wouldn't ask embarrassing questions about finances) and then actually take the ladies to the food bank in my car to pick up their groceries.

Fast-forward a few months, and I've just learned that said ladies actually went to the food bank by themselves today ... and had a wonderful time.

You wouldn't think that "wonderful time" would be an apt description of a trip to a food bank, but they were delighted by the whole experience. For this pick-up, the food bank did things a different way: Having received an abundance of donations from various places, this time they invited their "guests" into the storage area and allowed them to pick out exactly what they wanted for their holiday meals.

One of the ladies chose a small turkey, another a turkey breast to be made into sandwiches and pot pies, and the third a ham for future casseroles, knowing that they were going to split the bounty when they had holiday meals together. They negotiated their way up and down the storage area aisles, accompanied by a friendly staffer, chatting about potential recipes and collecting a wider variety of foods than each would get individually during a typical food pick-up.

I'm told I will be a recipient as well: I am invited to share their meals when they carve the turkey, make the sandwiches and turn the ham into delicious casseroles as my reward for having introduced them to the joys of the food bank.

The food bank is to be lauded for their largess this holiday season. They might never know just how happy they made those three ladies.

• On Dec. 28, 1900, Mrs. Lulu Jenkins, of Chicago, was paid $4,000 in compensation for the lynching of her husband in Ripley County, Indiana. Mr. Jenkins allegedly was involved in the theft of a horse and ended up the victim of a furious mob. Two other men were killed as well.

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On Dec. 31, 1943, Henry John Deutschendorf, better known to us today as singer-songwriter, actor John Denver, was born. In a four-decade career before his untimely death in an airplane crash, he won worldwide affection and acclaim not just for his music but for his dedication to humanitarian and environmental causes.

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On Dec. 26, 1966, the first Kwanzaa celebrations began in America, with the holiday continuing until Jan. 1. Created by activist, author and professor of Africana studies Dr. Maulana Karenga, the annual event, which affirms African family and social values, was originally intended to replace Christmas for Africans.

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On Dec. 30, 1984, speleologists (cave studiers/explorers) in the Mexican state of Oaxaca landed upon what was then thought to possibly be the world's deepest cave after going through a maze of underground tunnels in the jungle.

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On Dec. 27, 1994, Rwanda's president died in a plane crash and the African country was plunged into a genocidal blood bath in which the Hutu majority slaughtered the Tutsis, leaving half a million dead. A distraught missionary exclaimed of the carnage: "There are no devils left in hell. They are all in Rwanda."

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On Jan. 1, 1962, the U.S. Navy SEALs unit was created. Their elite members (only about 20% actually make it that far) are trained to operate in urban, desert and jungle locations and to withstand torture.

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On Dec. 29, 2011, Russian authorities discovered a large amount of a rare caviar stored in, of all places, a morgue in St. Petersburg. A businessman and morgue attendant were arrested but claimed that the caviar was being kept for a personal New Year's celebration.

Grand Forks

It’s not all apples and oranges! Study up the facts on these unusual fruits you might not have heard of.

• The largest tree-borne fruit in the world, the jackfruit, can reach 80 lbs. in weight. In raw form, its yellow flesh is sweet like an apple or banana, but when cooked, it takes on the flavor of the ingredients it’s prepared with, and is a popular meat substitute for vegan diets. Its cooked texture resembles that of tender pork, making it a frequent choice for barbecue sandwiches.

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• The official name of the dragon fruit is white pitaya, a colorful fruit native to Mexico. Its cactuslike exterior is a bright magenta with green scales, while the interior fleshy pulp is white, dotted with tiny black seeds. Its slightly sweet flavor lends itself to being eaten fresh, or atop desserts, fish, or salads.

• Watermelon gherkins might look like tiny watermelons and grow on a vine like watermelons, but that’s where the similarity ends. Just 0.8 to 1.2 inches long, their pulp is green rather than red, and they taste like lime-infused cucumbers. They may be small, but they’re rich in Vitamins A and K.

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• According to the children’s song, the monkey chased the weasel around the mulberry bush. That small, bushy tree is native to China and was originally cultivated to feed silkworms. Mulberries are now grown around the world in many locations. The fruit, which resembles a blackberry, grows in large quantities on a single bush and has a high sugar content, making it a common ingredient in jam, jelly, pie filling, and wine. The Chinese have used mulberries for medicinal purposes for centuries, and modern studies have shown the fruit to be effective in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, and for treating arthritis, headaches, sore throats, and coughs.

• The durian might be classified as a fruit, but its flavor has been described as that of fried onions or a garlic pudding. This unique tropical fruit is popular in Southeast Asia, where it’s gained the nickname “the king of fruits.” It’s a large fruit, up to a foot long and 6 inches wide, with a hard spiky outer shell. One fruit yields two cups of edible pulp. The durian is one of the most nutritious of all fruits, with one cup providing 80% of the body’s daily need for Vitamin C, and is rich in B vitamins, minerals, and fiber. In Malaysia, it’s used to treat fever, jaundice, and various skin conditions. It doesn’t mix well with alcohol, though. Consuming both at the same time can lead to nausea, vomiting, and heart palpitations.

• Another Asian fruit, the longan, can be traced back to 200 BC, when the emperor of the Han dynasty demanded that the trees be planted in his palace gardens. About the size of a grapefruit, its name translates to “dragon’s eye” in Chinese, because it looks like an eyeball when it’s shelled. Its sweet taste is similar to that of dates, and can be eaten fresh, dried, or canned.

• When we think of jujubes, it’s those chewy fruity candies we get at the movie theater. The candy has been made since 1709 when it was actually made with a small sweet red fruit native to the China of the same name, jujube. The date-like fruit with the wrinkly skin and chewy texture is also known as the Chinese date. Alternative medicine touts the fruit’s ability to improve sleep and decrease anxiety, as well as improving digestion and acting as an antiinflammatory. Today, jujube candies are much less healthy than the originals, and don’t contain any actual jujube juice.

Quiz Answers