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Posts Tagged ‘summer’

National Ice Cream Sandwich Day

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022
Ice cream sandwich Credit: © Brent Hofacker, Shutterstock

Ice cream sandwich
Credit: © Brent Hofacker, Shutterstock

Today, August 2, 2022, is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day! Ice cream is a versatile treat. Whether you play it safe and eat it in a bowl with a spoon to decrease the chance of unwanted dripping, or you mix it up by eating it on a cone, sandwiched between two cakey wafers, or in a cone shaped like a taco, ice cream is the perfect summer treat. Ice cream sandwiches are the cool snack of choice for a treat in the park, at a sports game, or anywhere else on the go!

Click to view larger image Ice cream consists chiefly of cream, milk, sugar, and water. Ingredients called emulsifiers and stabilizers hold the mixture together. All the ingredients of ice cream are carefully blended together in a large vat at the beginning of the manufacturing process. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

Click to view larger image
Ice cream consists chiefly of cream, milk, sugar, and water. Ingredients called emulsifiers and stabilizers hold the mixture together. All the ingredients of ice cream are carefully blended together in a large vat at the beginning of the manufacturing process.
Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

Ice cream is a popular frozen dairy food. It consists mostly of milk products, sugar, and flavorings. Ice cream may be served by itself or with cake, pie, or other pastries. It also is used in making milk shakes, sodas, cake rolls, and sundaes. Manufacturers make ice cream in many flavors. About one-third of the ice cream sold in the United States is vanilla. Chocolate and Neapolitan (layers of different flavors) rank next in popularity.

Ice cream.  Credit: © Elena Veselova, Shutterstock

Ice cream.
Credit: © Elena Veselova, Shutterstock

The United States produces about 1.4 billion gallons (5.3 billion liters) of ice cream annually. Almost one-tenth of the nation’s milk supply is used to produce ice cream and other frozen desserts. These desserts include ice milk, sherbet, and frozen yogurt. About 7 quarts (6.6 liters) of milk are needed to make 4 quarts (3.8 liters) of ice cream. Ice cream is served in many parts of the world, but Americans eat more of it than do the people of any other country. Americans eat an average of about 23 quarts (21.8 liters) of ice cream annually.

When did ice cream become a sandwich? Vendors started selling ice cream sandwiches in New York City in the late 1800’s. The ice cream was served between two pieces of sponge cake as an affordable treat to eat on the go. Later in the 1920’s, a street vendor in San Francisco decided to make the treat with cookies instead of thin pieces of cake, introducing the world to the cookie ice cream sandwich.

In 1983, a man from Philadelphia invented the Choco Taco, an ice cream treat where the cone is shaped like a hard taco shell dipped in chocolate. Since then, many other versions of ice cream sandwiches have popped up around the world. In Iran, there is a popular frozen treat of saffron and rosewater ice cream between two wafers dipped in pistachios. In Vietnam, ice cream is served on a bánh mì baguette with peanuts.

Tags: choco taco, ice cream, ice cream sandwich, summer, treat
Posted in Current Events, Food | Comments Off

Brood X Is Coming!

Thursday, May 13th, 2021
Periodical cicada Credit: © Thinkstock

Periodical cicada
Credit: © Thinkstock

They’ve waited underground for 17 years. Now, they’re coming to the surface to burst out of their skins, give off earsplitting screeching sounds, bore into trees, and cover the ground with their carcasses. But—like many blockbusters over the past year and a half—you can’t view this spectacle in movie theaters. You can’t even stream it on Netflix. If you live in the eastern U.S. Midwest or Middle Atlantic, this summer’s invasion is coming to a backyard or forest preserve near you. It’s called Brood X.

Brood X is not a movie, but a group of cicadas emerging this month. A cicada is a large insect with four thin wings which it folds over its body like a peaked roof. It can measure 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) long. It has a wide head and short, bristlelike antennae (feelers).

Just as crickets serenade us on warm summer nights, cicadas make up the soundtrack of hot summer afternoons. The male cicada makes two drumlike membranes (thin sheaths of skin) on the abdomen vibrate rapidly. This produces a characteristic buzzing sound. The sound attracts females or calls large numbers of males together. Each species (kind) of cicada has its own song. Male cicadas often assemble in large groups and produce a loud chorus of sounds.

Many of us hear cicadas every summer. So why is this summer different? There are thousands of species of cicadas. They can be roughly divided into two types: annual cicadas and periodical cicadas. As their name suggests, annual cicadas can be heard every year. But periodical cicadas emerge on 13- or 17-year cycles. Brood X is a 17-year periodical cicada, having last emerged in 2004. Other brood numbers (X is the Roman numeral for 10) emerge in different years in different regions. But Brood X is one of the largest and most famous.

Why do periodical cicadas emerge this way? It has to do with evading predators. Cicadas are a hearty, protein-packed snack for birds, raccoons, foxes, opossums, fish, spiders, and practically any other animal. Humans eat them, too! Cicadas are vulnerable when they are emerging. They don’t bite or sting and are clumsy flyers. But when so many cicadas emerge at once, there are just too many for predators to eat. Even with every predator’s belly filled with cicadas, billions or trillions survive to reproduce.

Seventeen years is a long time. Potential predators can’t rely on a food source that appears so infrequently. So, although animals take advantage of the cicada smorgasbord, nothing has evolved to rely on them exclusively.

Where do periodical cicadas go for all those years? After the adults mate, the female bores into twigs of bushes and trees with a sawlike organ near the tip of her abdomen. She lays her eggs in the holes. The eggs hatch in a few weeks and the young cicadas, called nymphs, drop to the ground. They live in the soil and eat roots for years—17 years in the case of Brood X.

The periodical cicadas will spend the summer shedding their skins and making lots of noise. However you decide to spend your summer, have fun and keep an ear out for Brood X!

Tags: brood x, cicada, insect, periodical cicada, summer
Posted in Animals, Environment, Science | Comments Off

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