Know it All

Ice cream is an $11 billion retail industry. *** Ice cream production, and consumption, increased greatly in the 20th century with advances in refrigeration and power. In 1899, U.S. production of ice cream was 5 million gallons. In 1909, 30 million gallons were produced. In 1919, 150 million gallons were made and in 1986, 800 million gallons of ice cream were produced. *** California is the nation's largest ice cream producer. The state produced 156 million gallons of ice cream last year, including sherbet and frozen yogurt. *** In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson left his fruit-flavored drink outside on the porch with a stir stick in it. The drink froze to the stick. Eighteen years later, in 1923, Frank applied for a patent for "frozen ice on a stick." Originally called the Epsicle, Frank's children renamed the treat Popsicle. *** Most popsicle sticks are made from birch wood. *** Where can you find these characters? Poncho Punch, Little Orphan Orange, Strawberry Short Kook, Louie-Bloo Raspberry, Sir Isaac Lime and Alexander the Grape. See answer at end. *** During prohibition, many bars were converted into ice cream parlors. *** Japan receives the most exported ice cream from the United States. *** We have all experienced a "brain freeze." When something cold touches the roof of your mouth, the nerves overreact to the cold temperature and assume that the brain must need heating. Blood vessels swell to heat the brain. This causes the dreaded, and misunderstood, "brain freeze." *** Vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavor. The favorite ice cream topping is chocolate syrup. *** Americans consume the most ice cream in the world. New Zealand comes in second, Denmark is third. *** Chiquita bananas are grown in Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and Columbia. *** Peanuts are sometimes called groundnuts because they grow underground. Other names for peanuts are goobers, goober peas, pindars, earth nuts, Manila nuts and grass nuts. *** Around 5 percent of people share their ice cream with their pet cat or dog. *** Ben & Jerry's employees are allowed to take home three pints of ice cream a day. *** The largest ice cream scoop pyramid consisted of 3,100 scoops and stood four feet high. The pyramid was made in Maui in May 2000 by Baskin Robbins executives and franchisees. *** It takes 12 pounds of whole milk to make one gallon of ice cream. *** Ice cream is made up of milk, nonfat milk, sweeteners and flavoring. Ice cream must contain at least 10 percent milkfat. Premium ice cream may contain as much as 16 percent milkfat. *** Ice milk contains 2 to 7 percent milkfat. Sherbet contains milk, but has only 1 percent to 2 percent milkfat. Sorbet contains no milk. *** Cream is fat that rises to the top of whole milk. Half & half cream is a mixture of cream and whole milk. Answer: They are the characters pictured on each flavor of Otter Pops. Each Otter Pop, frozen juice in a long plastic tube, comes in one-ounce servings. The shelf life of an Otter Pop is 24 months from the date of manufacture. Know It All is by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend and Wednesday editions of the Daily Journal. Questions? Comments? E-mail knowitall@smdailyjournal.com or call 344-5200 x114.