July 23, 2021 – National Peach Month | National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

There Was A Time When Chocolate And Vanilla Were Inseparable. Thankfully, This Flavor Now Stands On Its Own. Welcome to July 23rd, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a juicy Summer fruit and an ice cream that stands out from the crowd.  Georgia is known as the Peachtree State, but it’s not the biggest producer of peaches in the United States. That distinction goes to California, which grows over 468,000 tons of the fruit each year. Nearly 14,000 times as much as Georgia. However, the southern state prides itself on producing the highest quality peaches anywhere. Peach County, Georgia is the unofficial peach capital of the world, and holds the world record for the biggest peach cobbler ever made. It used 75 gallons of peaches plus 150 pounds each of flour and sugar. During National Peach Month, celebrate this juicy stone fruit that’s just as good on it’s own as it is in cobblers and jams. The International Ice Cream Association has determined that 29 percent of us prefer vanilla over any other flavor.  You may be surprised to learn that chocolate is preferred by only 9 percent.  And there was a time when the two flavors were inseparable. In the Aztec culture vanilla was added to chocolate drinks for flavor.  Chocolate and its counterpart were then imported to Europe, but it wasn’t until the 17th Century that someone thought to separate them.  An apothecary named Hugh Morgan created chocolate free treats for Queen Elizabeth I, and vanilla stood on its own at last. The flavor became wildly popular in France and in the 1780s the American Minister in Paris took great interest in this exotic taste. This was of course Thomas Jefferson.  On National Vanilla Ice Cream Day, celebrate the flavor that stands out from the crowd.  I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.