Allison Bruning's Blog, page 46

A Little #Encouragement Goes A Long Ways

One Room School house byDennis Javis
@http://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10...

January 26
Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement
Happy Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement. Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement is a little known holiday that was created by Michigan storyteller, Ralph C. Morrison. Ralph has been telling stories since he was child and has been a juried performer with the Michigan touring arts council for over 20 years. He specializes in telling stories from a Messianic Jewish point of view including life, scriptures, Passover and other Jewish holidays. Ralph conducts several workshops, performances and is the founder of the nonprofit organization Toad Hollow in Garden City, Michigan. Toad Hollow was founded on July 2, 1992. 
The origins of the name Toad Hollow began one year while Ralph was teaching at a local community college. One of his student, an elderly woman named Eunice, had been featured in the local paper. She recalled how she had attended the Toad Hollow County School in her youth. The Toad Hollow schoolhouse had been built in 1834. It was the first schoolhouse to be erected in Kalamazoo. Ralph instantly fell in love with the name. Like all creative writers fascinated by a particular place, he began to create stories that were set in Toad Hollow. When people asked him where Toad Hollow was on a map he would tell them it was found in their hearts. 
The legendary Toad Hollow fascinated anyone who heard his stories. In 1992, the residents of Kalamazoo, Michigan decided they wanted to donate a little used park to Ralph for his storytelling events. Ralph graciously accepted their offer, created his non-profit organization in July and organized volunteers (known as Voluntoads). With the help of his voluntoads, he constructed a replica of an 1800's schoolhouse, homestead, refurbished a 19th century gristmill already on the property, and built a small town. Toad Hollow was a busy place. From 1992-1995, Toad Hollow was the host of Civil War reenactments, Renaissance Fairs and Teddy Bear Picnics. At the height of it's popularity, Toad Hollow had 100 Voluntoads. Throughout the three years, Voluntoads would share their expertise by conducting classes in blacksmithing, quilting and soap and candle making. 
Toad Hollow Park was reverted back to the Kalamazoo County in 1973. Three years later, it was opened to the public as Scotts Mill County Park as part of the county's bi-centennial project. http://www.kalcounty.com/parks/scottsmill/index.html. Although the park no longer headquartered the Toad Hollow nonprofit organization, Voluntoads continued to offer classes to the public. The conducted classes off campus and started seven schools. The seven schools included writing,  storytelling, early American arts and trades and barbecuing. The school continued to operate until 2003. 
Without the encouragement of the Kalamazoo residents Toad Hollow might have never existed and the people may never have appreciated the skills they had learned through the Voluntoads. 
It just goes to show you, with a little bit of encouragement anyone can do anything. You never know the effects that encouragement may have on another person. 

Foynes, #Ireland and #Irish #Coffee

Irish Coffee by Dmitri Chekhter
@http://www.flickr.com/photos/dchex/61...

January 25
Irish Coffee Day




Happy Irish Coffee Day. This warm beverage is the perfect treat for those cold winter days. Irish coffee is an Irish beverage that was created in 1942 by Chef Joe Sheridan of County Tyrone, Ireland. Coffee cocktails are nothing to new to the world. Variations of coffee cocktails have been created for a little over 100 years but it the idea of adding the ingredients found in Irish Coffee had never been tried until Chef Joe Sheriden concocted the mixture. It has been a popular drink ever since.
Foynes, Ireland
Seaplanes at Foynes, Ireland - 1938
Public DomainIreland was a popular destination for Americans between 1939 to 1945. A flying boat is a fixed winged sea craft with a hull that allows it to land in water.Trip across the Atlantic Ocean was a long endeavor via a flying boat that often times required several stop for fuel. The first non stop flight from New York City to Foynes, Ireland occurred on June 22, 1942. The trip lasted 25 hour and 40 minutes in flight.
Seaports were especially important during this time as port of entries and fueling stops. Foynes, Ireland   in County Limerick, was used by Pan-American Airlines as their port of entry in Ireland, and was the furthermost port of call on the Eastern seaboard of the Atlantic Ocean. Pan-American flights were not the only ones who used the Foynes Airport. The Foynes Airport thrived from 1939 to 1945, bringing all types of people to Ireland from royalty to drifters. After passengers landed the would board a boat that would take inland to the terminal. You can learn more about the airport from the Foynes Flying Boat Museum at http://flyingboatmuseum.com/foynes.html


A Miserable Winter Day
 Our story of how Chef Joe Sheridan invented Irish Coffee begins during the winter of 1943 at the airport in Foynes, Ireland. Joe had been working at Brandon O'Regan's restaurant and coffee shop in the Foynes terminal. The restaurant was considered to be one of the best restaurants in all of Ireland. One winter, damp day, a flight left from Foynes for Botwood, Newfoundland. The weather grew worse after several hours of flying. The captain decided to turn the plane around and head back to Foynes. He sent a Morse code message to Foynes informing them of their return. Foynes staff members were contacted to return to work. When the passengers landed they escorted to the restaurant so the passengers could dine and warm themselves up with something to drink. 
Chef Joe Sheridan had been asked to give the Americans something warm to drink. The Irish had been adding whiskey to their hot tea for years. He also knew Americans loved their coffee. He decided in order to show these distraught foreigners something they could appreciate with a touch of Irish hospitality. Joe mixed the coffee cocktail together with a touch of Irish Whiskey. One of the passengers he served it to asked him if it was "Brazilian Coffee." To which, Joe replied, "No that's Irish Coffee." A few weeks later, Brandon O'Regan decided to add Joe's creation to the menu. You can see Joe's original recipe here. http://flyingboatmuseum.com/irishcoffee_recipe.html

#Peanut Butter: An #Ancient Discovery

Peanut Butter by Denise Krebs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkreb...
January 24
National Peanut Butter Day



Peanut butter has many uses in our modern American culture; Peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter fudge, peanut butter ice cream. I could go on. Contrary to popular belief, George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter but promoted as one of his three hundred uses for peanuts. 
To find the origins of the peanut butter you must travel back to ancient Meso and South America. The peanut plant is native only to the South America.  It was first cultivated by the Inca sometime between 1200 - 1500 BC in Peru near Trujillo and Ancon. During Pre-Columbian times peanuts were considered to be a luxury food. The domestication of the peanut plant spread north to Mexico sometime around 100 BC as a minor crop of importance, although the plant played a role in Aztec folk medicine. Known as tlalcacauatl in their native Nahuatl, the Aztecs would roast the peanuts then create a peanut paste. The paste would then be used as toothache remedy. The peanut butter didn't have the sweet taste we have come to enjoy but was butter and hard to spread. Europeans were first introduced to peanut butter when the explorers, colonists, missionaries and historians came to the Americas. Peanuts were first mentioned in  publication by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés (August 1478–1557) in his book La historia general y natural de las Indias. La historia general y natural de las Indias gives a first hand account of all the information he obtained when he participated in the Spanish colonization of the New World.

You can make your own peanut butter.

Ogham: An #Ancient #Irish #Writing System

Ogham  by Jeremy Keith
@http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/...
January 23
NationalHandwriting Day
Happy National Handwriting Day. Today we celebrate the disappearing art form of handwriting on the birthday of John Hancock. John Hancock is remembered in the United States as the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was born on January 23, 1737. He served as the President of the Continental Congress from May 24, 1775 – October 31, 1777. 
Human history is often times divided into two broad categories known as Prehistory and Recorded History. The problem with categorizing any culture in those broad terms is that every culture developed writing at a different time. That makes comparing one culture against another very hard for researchers. This chart from Wikipedia shows the eras in which the written record has separated history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing

Although mankind had not discovered handwriting yet, they did communicate during prehistory through cave drawings. Human beings discovered writing 8,000 years ago but it didn't resemble anything we would recognize as writing no was it a one time event. Not every culture had it at the same time, either. Writing is something that has to evolve with time through a series of stages. Writing evolves from a Proto - Writing form to a phonetic system. Proto-Writing used ancient symbols to convey meaning to the reader. You can learn more about the evolution of writing form this site. http://ilovetypography.com/2010/08/07/where-does-the-alphabet-come-from/ and from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing
Ogham
Ogham Stone by gavinsblog
@http://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinsbl...
Ogham is an ancient writing form exclusively found in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was used in Ireland between the 4th to 10th centuries AD. Ogham predominately used until the 6th century when the Irish began to use the Roman Alphabet to write in their Old Irish language yet some remnants of the population continued to use Ogham.  The pillar in the picture was taken in Ireland and shows Ogham writing. The picture at the top of this blog shows a closeup of Ogham writing that is from another artifact located in Ireland.

The Ogham alphabet, also known as "beth luis nion", consist of 20 letters. Letters consist of perpendicular or angular lines that either cross or meet in the middle. The letters are grouped into five different groupings, each group containing only five letters.When written, the letters can be used in two ways. On stone or wood, such as these pictures, the message is written vertically while in manuscript form it is written horizontally. When written vertically the message is read from bottom to top. On a manuscript it is read from left to right. 
Vertical Ogham Alphabet
US Public Domain



Vertical Ogham Alphabet
US Public Domain

The origins of Ogham are hard to determine because it does not match other writing systems. You can read more about the origins and this alphabet at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham

Beware of #Irish #Cats

Cute Cat with Beautiful Green Eyes by epSos
@http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/80...
January 22
Answer Your Cat's Question Day
Are you a cat owner? Ever have your cat just stare at you as if it expects you to answer every demand he or she wants? Cats can be elusive, independent, temperamental, mysterious, loving animals. Humans have enjoyed sharing their living space with these beloved creatures since antiquity.  Cat myths and legends can be found throughout the world, especially in Ancient Ireland. 
"God Save All Here, Except The Cat."  Cats in ancient Ireland never enjoyed a positive reputation. According to the Ancient Irish cats were men and women who had been demonically transformed into the feline creature. Because of the evil that dwelt within the creature, the Irish considered the cat to be a source of spiritual dread. Also, the devil would often visit the earth in the form of a cat. To protect themselves from evil, the ancient Irish created several superstitions. 
One ancient superstition states that if you are on a journey and come across a cat in the road that meets you full face then you must make the sign of the cross and turn back. If you don't you will face the witch or devil that stands in your path. 
 The ancient Irish often times associated black cats with witches because the black cat had more powers than any other feline. They believed black cats could reason, understand conversations and speak if they felt the need to interact with a human. Here is one Irish story about a talking cat that I found at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ali/ali085.htm.  
A cat once lived in a farmer's family for many years, and understood both Irish and English perfectly. Then the family grew afraid of it, for they said it would certainly talk some day. So the farmer put it into a bag, determined to get rid of it on the mountains. But on the way he met a pack of hounds, and the dogs smelt at the bag and dragged it open, on which the cat jumped out; but the hounds were on it in a moment, and tore the poor animal to pieces. However, before her death she had the to say to the farmer in very good Irish--"It is well for you that I must die today, for had I lived I meant to have killed you this very night." These were the last dying words of the cat uttered in her death agonies, before the face of many credible witnesses, so there can be no doubt on the matter.
King of the Cats The chief monarch of all cats in Ireland was the Druid Cat. The Irish described him as "a slender black cat, wearing a chain of silver" He possessed the ability to speak and enjoyed many privileges. Stories of the great cat was told throughout Ireland. You can read his story at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ali/ali086.htm and http://www.libraryireland.com/AncientLegendsSuperstitions/King-Cats.php

I Have A #Dream - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Martin Luther King, Jr. photographed by Marion S. Trikosko, 1964.
LC-DIG-ppmsc-01269 Source: Library of Congress

January 21
Martin Luther King, JrDay






Today we honor a man who helped usher in a new area of civil rights for American minorities, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is best remembered by his "I Have A Dream" speech that he delivered at his march on Washington, DC in 1963. The famous portion seen in this video was not part of Dr. King's prepared speech. He went off his script after the American gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, standing in the ground urged him to "Tell them about the Dream." It is considered on of America's greatest speeches. 

It's Time For A Change
Dr. Martin Luther King's solution to obtaining civil rights for all Americans was not to fight the system with violence. He believed by using powerful worlds and acts of nonviolent resistance he could create enough media attention that someone in government would have to listen. Despite his non-violence stand many of his peaceful protesters were often times met with hostility. It wasn't uncommon for the protesters to have dogs unleashed on them and to be struck down by water from an industrial size water hose. Many of the protesters were also arrested. Dr. Martin Luther King was jailed 29 times for protesting.

Dr. Martin Luther King's Civil Rights movement lasted from December, 1955 until April 4, 1968. His thirteen year long movement made more advances in civil rights for the African American than any other movement. You can learn more about Dr. Martin Luther King's life and his many achievements at http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-dr-king

Buttercrunch: A #Wartime Delight

Butterfinger Crisp Split by Bodo
@http://www.flickr.com/photos/schoko-r...
January 20
Buttercrunch Day





Happy Buttercrunch Day! Buttercrunch is a type of candy that is made from toffee dipped in chocolate.  It has a crunchy texture and a caramel taste. Sometimes almonds are added to recipe. Creating the candy takes some patience and good cooking skills. In order to create the toffee you have to caramelize the sugar at a high temperature. The process requires precision, correct timing and the right tools in order for the toffee to come out just right. 
It All Started With WWI
Buttercrunch candy wasn't made famous until American candy company, The Brown & Haley, created the Almond Roca Cookie Bar in 1923.  The Brown & Haley Company was owned by Harry L. Brown and  J. C. Haley of Tacoma, Washington. The two men had met in church in 1908. Brown already owned a small confectionery company and enjoyed experimenting with candy. Haley worked for a spice company known as Shilling and Company. He had a passion for advertising and sales. The two men created a partnership in 1912 and incorporated their company in 1914. World War I erupted the same year the men incorporated their business. Camp Lewis, an Army base located close to Tacoma, soon swelled with dough boys training to fight in Europe. The soldiers had a sweet tooth that needed to be satisfied. The Brown & Haley Company suddenly found themselves in a candy business boom. Throughout the war they supplied soldiers with all kinds of tasty treats from taffy chews to butterscotch balls. One of their biggest hits was a bar of candy they had created in 1916 known as the Mt. Tacoma Bar. The Mt. Tacoma Bar was a candy bar made of a combination of chocolate and nuts with a vanilla cream center. It was later renamed the MOUNTAIN® Bar.
ALMOND ROCA® And WWII With the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the population at Fort Lewis soon returned back to it's prewar population.  The Brown & Haley Company struggled in candy sales. The only thing that was keeping the company afloat was their Mt. Tacoma Bar, which had become a popular local treat.  Brown and Haley worked for years in trying to create a new candy that would generate more sales. In 1923, they came up with solution - the ALMOND ROCA®. The ALMOND ROCA® was a crunchy log candy made of butter on the inside dipped in chocolate with diced almonds on top.  The ALMOND ROCA® bar was popular locally but company had to expand their product throughout the United States. The problem was retaining the candy's freshness long enough so that it could be shipped and taste as if it has just been created. In 1927, Brown & Haley solved that problem by packaging their creation in an airtight pink tin. 
When World War I broke out in 1941, candy manufactures struggled due to rationing limitations placed upon the use of sugar. Brown & Haley had been manufacturing at least 25 different types of candy before the war. When they learned of the sugar rations they stopped manufacturing all but their two bestsellers, the MOUNTAIN® and ALMOND ROCA® bars. Brown & Haley signed a contract with the U.S. War Department to provide their ALMOND ROCA® bars to military personnel stationed overseas. The ALMOND ROCA® bars were a huge sensation with American troops. American troops in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific enjoyed this delicious treat. It became so popular, at one point in the war an American general refused to hand control of an occupied country to allied forces until the General could guarantee three rail cars full of ALMOND ROCA® bars could be taken with his troops. After the war, the American soldiers returned to their homes and craved the taste of the ALMOND ROCA® bars. Brown & Haley's business continued to boom.  

My #Blog Has Won the 2013 #Liebster Award!

I want to thank my fellow author, blogger and friend Bruce Blake for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award. His blog can be found at http://bruceblake.wordpress.com.

What is the Liebster Blog Award?
http://www.iamhangingtough.com/2012/1...

The rules are simple enough to follow:


A link back to the one who nominated you.Answer the 11 questions that your nominator set for you in your post.Each person must post 11 things about themselves.Create 11 questions for the people you’ve nominated to answer in their post.Nominate 11 people and link your nominees' websites in your post.Go to their page and tell them.
Eleven Facts About Allison

1) I love cheesecake more than chocolate cake.

2) My favorite dog breed are  Chows Chows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chow_Chow

3) I was a dancer in the Sul Ross State University Baile Folklorico dance team in college. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baile_Folklórico

4) I am a Trekkie.

5) I love dragons.

6) I dug with palentologist Jack Horner, who was the technical advisor to the Jurassic Park films, the summer between my junior and senior years in High School. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Horner_(paleontologist)  

7) I have always wanted to travel to Germany, Israel, Ireland, and Great Britian.

8) I dream of going on a cruise with my husband someday.

9) My brother and I are twenty years apart in age almost to the day. I was due to be born on his b-day but decided to wait a week before I entered the world.

10) I love to play on a Pinball machine.

11) I don't like coffee. I might be the only writer I know that can't stand the stuff.


Bruce's Questions
Here are the eleven questions Bruce sent to me with their answers.


1. Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met?

Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi on Star Trek: TNG) , Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura of Star Trek), Margaret "Daisy Doots" Gordon (she was the first Girl Scout), and Jake Horner.

2. What article of clothing could you not do without?

Hmm, other than underwear? I would have to say my blue jeans.

3. You have one meal left before you are put to death. What would you eat and what did you do to be condemned?

Eat: Three cheese lasagna, broccoli with cheese, and dark chocolate cake. With red wine to drink, of course.

What did I do? I'm taking that with me to my grave. MUUUWWWAAAAHHHH!!!!

4. If you were a computer program, which one would you be?

World of Warcraft because I like to be social, work together with other people to get something done and bring out the best in people.

5. What book have you read that you most wished you had written?

Mary Called Magdalene by Margaret George

6. If you could only own one movie, which one would it be?

Last of the Mohicans

7. Sweet or savoury?

Sweet

8. Would you rather give a speech in front of a large audience or touch your tongue to frozen metal?

Give a speech

9. If you had your choice, are you an early bird or a late riser?

Early bird

10. You have a new pet and it is entirely up to you to name the beast. What kind of animal is it and what do you call it?

Horse, named Princess

11. If you could recommend one non-fiction book, which one would it be?

My own? http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Poems-Essays-ebook/dp/B00AC1DB7G



Ok,  now it's my turn. Here are the eleven questions I have selected for the blogs I am nominating. 
1) Where was your first kiss and how old were you?
2) You're stranded on an island with only a paperback. What's in the bag?
3) If you could go back in history where would you go and who would you spend the day with? Why? 
4) Do you have a sweet tooth? What does it crave the most?
5) You and one other person are the last people on earth. Who is that person and why?

6) Where would your dream home be located?

7) What is your most cherished possession? Why?

8) Favorite color?

9) What's your dream car?

10) Favorite movie?

11) What is your favorite song and why?

Ok here are the eleven people I chose.

1) Ellie Mack

2) Krystol Diggs

3) Aurora Martinez

4) Brian Bigalow

5) Dan Peyton

6) Brad Fleming

7) Lisa Cole Orchard

8) Cheryl Butler Stahl

9) Tasha Turner

10) Jennie Jarvis

11) Laci Paige

My Gift To You: A #FREE Book

Today is my birthday. No, I'm not going to tell you how old I am. LOL!

To celebrate I am offering to all my readers the oppurtunity to download my friend's book for free.  You can read more about ECHO here. 

FREE TO DOWNLOAD ON JAN 22nd & JAN 23rd http://amzn.to/13ZPmey


Netty’s influence transcends a full century as the United States evolves to a point of politically driven economic collapse. The year is 2033 as a young mother, abused by her shiftless husband, heroically decides to remove her two sickly children, Scotty and Abby, from the mean streets of their government subsidized tenement town of Short Hills, New Jersey to the hills and old farmland of Sussex County. There they unite with a Latino family that adopted Jose, a young boy from Costa Rica, traumatized at the age of seven by the brutal murder of his parents and the kidnapping of his infant sister.

The two families unite to pool finances, creating the love and bonds that will enable them to survive the psychotic attention of Armoni, a soul damaged beyond redemption, discovery of Baby’s miraculous offspring, Echo; and their subsequent body changes. Through the efforts of Echo who develops an unexplained passion for the curly haired dog, Barney, they flee the clutches of Armoni after the murder of Armoni’s sidekicks by Echo, to Sarasota, Florida, one of the last remaining enclaves of wealth in the U.S. insidious miscreant, Armoni, tracks them; dragging along Ginger Mae, a New York City prostitute looking for opportunity with her mute child, Daisy; bringing brutality and violence to all.
Having fallen in love, the young  Abby and Jose draw close, only to be separated by the transcendental Netty, who tries to use Abby as a conduit in her plan to rescue as much wildlife as they can before despicable political events bring on the specter of Armageddon.

Scotty learns to utilize Echo as a co-conspirator in his intrigue to thwart the efforts of heinous people that prey on the lives of creatures in their environmentally rich new home, where the 
Who Is J.K. Accinni? J. K. Accinni was born and raised in Sussex County before moving to Randolph, New Jersey, where she lived with her husband, five dogs and eight rabbits, all rescued and currently resides in Sarasota, Florida. Mrs. Accinni’s passion for wildlife conservation has led her all over the world, including three trips to Africa, where ten years ago she and her husband fell in love with a baby elephant named Wendi, that had been rescued by a wildlife group. That baby is the inspiration for the character Tobi, the elephant featured in her fourth book titled Hive.
The character of Caesar is inspired by a real life iconic tiger from Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary in Sarasota. A portion of the proceeds from her third book, Armageddon Cometh, will be donated to the sanctuary in support of the enormous expense required to house and feed the displaced wildlife in their care. Mrs. Accinni invites her readers to visit bigcathabitat.org to view the astounding facility and plan a visit with your family.
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That's Some Really Old Popcorn!

Popcorn! by Andrew Rivett
@http://www.flickr.com/photos/veggiefr...
January 19
NationalPopcorn Day




Popcorn! Get your freshly popped popcorn! I just love popcorn. Popcorn has played a large part of my childhood. I grew up in Marion, Ohio where the weekend after labor day the town celebrated the Marion Popcorn Festival. http://www.popcornfestival.com The festival was started in 1981 and has been going strong ever since. It has been named as one of the top 100 events in North America by the American Bus Association. Every year the festival holds parades, pageants, concerts and more.  One year I even watched Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine at the festival. Marion, Ohio is also home to the Wyandont Popcorn Museum.  http://www.wyandotpopcornmus.com 
Popcorn was not brought over by the Europeans but was discovered by the indigenous cultures. 
A Peruvian Delight Corn was very important to the Native American diet and was one of the Three Sisters. It was first cultivated in Mexico and then spread throughout the Americas. The indigenous people of Central and South America were eating popcorn long before they came into contact with Europeans. Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, wrote in her January 18, 2012 paper, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Corn was first domesticated in Mexico nearly 9,000 years ago from a wild grass called teosinte. Our results show that only a few thousand years later corn arrived in South America where its evolution into different varieties that are now common in the Andean region began. This evidence further indicates that in many areas corn arrived before pots did and that early experimentation with corn as a food was not dependent on the presence of pottery.”
Doloros Piperno was part of a research team led by Tom Dillehay from Vanderbilt University and Duccio Bonavia from Peru’s Academia Nacional de la Historia, who studied the archaeological  mounds sites of Paredones and Huaca Prieta, located on Peru’s arid northern coast. Researchers found within the mound sites corncobs, husks, stalks and tassels (male flowers) dating from  6,700 to 3,000 years ago. They also found corn micro fossils: starch grains and phytoliths. The corn micro fossils are the oldest micro fossils in South America. The evidence had been unearthed in 2009 and took three years of study before the finding were released in January of 2012. What is so remarkable about this discovery? It changes everything researchers had thought about popcorn. The evidence indicates the inhabitants were using corn in a wide variety of ways including as popcorn and corn flour. That means the indigenous Peruvians at Paredones and Huaca Prieta were consuming popcorn 2,000 years before researchers had believed popcorn was first consumed.  
Bat Cave, New Mexico The oldest popcorn ears in the United States was found in 1948 and 1950 at the Bat Cave archaeological site in Catron County of New Mexico. That Bat Cave site is a series of rock shelters that overlook an ancient lake bed known as the Plains of Saint Augustin. The site lies 6,924 feet above sea level and consists of several caves. The largest cave showed evidence of human habituation while the smaller caves contained evidence of kernels and corncobs. The popcorn ears were discovered throughout the three layered midden bed and measured anywhere from penny size to two inches. The ears were carbon dated to be around 6,000 to 4,000 years ago. The discovery of the corn in New Mexico supports the claim that corn had made it's way to the United States during the Archaic period. In fact, archaeological evidence supports that corn was being cultivated throughout the American Southwest by 1,550 and 1,050 BC. You can read more about Bat Cave at http://bit.ly/10H13YX