Hi Robbie & Everybody;
I'm pretty sure the official food listed for Minnesota is not totally correct. After getting your message, I did some searching and learned that the morel is the official Minnesota state mushroom - not the official state food. In addition, the blueberry muffin is the official muffin of Minnesota - and wild rice is Minnesota's official state grain. If I had to pick one of the above three items as the most significant, I'd choose wild rice.
On a slightly different note - Minnesota food related inventions include Wheaties cereal, Bisquick, the bundt pan, and Green Giant vegetables.
And the e-mail exchange about this is extremely interesting - I hope more keep coming.
Take care,
Tom
Tom Fitzpatrick
Director of Community Partnerships
Minnesota Humanities Center
987 East Ivy Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55106
Direct 651-772-4255
Toll-Free 866-268-7293, ext. 255
FAX 651-774-0205
[log in to unmask]
www.minnesotahumanities.org
Make your next meeting or event memorable. Reserve a space at the Minnesota Humanities Center. Visit www.minnesotahumanities.org for more information.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum on Main Street [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Davis, Robbie
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 6:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Help for Key Ingredients
Everyone,
As most of you know, we are preparing a revised version of Key Ingredients for an extension tour beginning in 2010. As part of that work, we're planning to put in a graphic element showing the official or best known foodstuff for an individual state (and territory if you have it). We have researched official foods and only 33 states have an official food. Some have many. We can included one foodstuff per state.
We'd love to have your input as we prepare this list. Here is what we have so far:
Alabama: blackberry (official)
Arkansas: South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato (official)
Florida: orange (official)
Georgia: Vidalia onion (official)
Idaho: potato (official)
Illinois: apple (official)
Kentucky: blackberry (official)
Louisiana: sweet potato (official)
Maine: wild blueberry
Maryland: blue crabs
Massachusetts: cranberry
Minnesota: morel mushroom
Missouri: Norton Cynthiana grape
New Hampshire: pumpkin
New Jersey: Jersey tomato
New Mexico: chiles
New York: apple
North Carolina: scuppernong grape
North Dakota: chokecherry
Oklahoma: strawberry
Oregon: pear
Pennsylvania: chocolate chip cookie
Rhode Island: Rhode Island greening apple
South Carolina: peach
South Dakota: kuchen
Tennessee: tomato
Texas: jalapeno pepper
Utah: sugar beet
Vermont: apple
Washington: apple
West Virginia: Golden Delicious apple
Wisconsin: cranberry
If your state is not listed here, please let me know what top crop your citizens would be most likely to call their own. If your state is here and you disagree with the selection, let me know. In each of these cases, the item we selected is a designated state symbol. Because the graphic will appear in a section of the exhibition that discusses crops and ingredients, please avoid suggesting any prepared dishes. (We realize that we violated that convention for both Pennsylvania and South Dakota. A prepared food is the only one with an official designation and we do not want to leave out any state.)
Please reply to me off the list at [log in to unmask] by Friday, June 11. And, no food fights! :-)
Best wishes,
Robbie
Robbie Davis
Project Director, Museum on Main Street (MoMS)
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
P.O. Box 37012 MRC 941
Washington, DC 20013-7012
[log in to unmask]
202-633-5335
|
