“NATIONAL CEREAL DAY” | Grandma’s Stories

Mar 7th “NATIONAL CEREAL DAY”

NATIONAL CEREAL DAY

March 7th urges us to get our bowl spoon ready for National Cereal Day each year! Since the end of the 19th century, cereal has become America’s most popular breakfast food.

Now, not only is cereal eaten for breakfast, but it has become a popular bedtime snack. Some people even enjoy a bowl for an evening meal. Bakers turn to cereal in their cake, cookie and bar recipes. The most popular one is Rice Crispy Bar Treats.

A Little Cereal History:

Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant, began the cereal revolution in 1854 with a hand oats grinder in the back room of a small store in Akron, Ohio. His German Mills American Oatmeal Company was the nation’s first commercial oatmeal manufacturer. In 1877, Schumacher adopted the Quaker symbol, the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal.

Granula, the first breakfast cereal, was invented in the United States in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson, operator of Our Home on the Hillside, which was later replaced by the Jackson Sanatorium in Dansville, New York. The cereal never became popular since it was inconvenient as the heavy bran nuggets needed soaking overnight before they were tender enough to eat.

Do you remember mornings eating a bowl of cereal, reading the back of the box and trying to find the toy inside the box?

The cereal industry rose from a combination of sincere religious beliefs and commercial interest in health foods. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg experimented with granola. He boiled some wheat, rolled it into thin films, and baked the resulting flakes in the oven; he acquired a patent in 1891. In 1895 he launched Cornflakes, which overnight captured a national market.

In 1906, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s brother, William K. Kellogg, after working for John, broke away, bought the corn flakes rights from his brother and set up the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. His signature on every package became the company trademark and insurance of quality.

Charles W. Post introduced Grape-nuts in 1898 and soon followed with Post Toasties.

Because of Kellogg and Post, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed the “Cereal Capital of the World.”

HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalCerealDay

What’s your favorite cereal? Have a bowl for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Share it as a snack or bake something and share your recipes. Use #NationalCerealDay to post on social media.

NATIONAL CEREAL DAY HISTORY

After two scoops, a prize and second helping, the identity of the day’s founder has fruit us for a loop. We tried boo berry hard. If it were a life mission, perhaps it would be more than just trix for kids. However, we figure if we snap, crackle and pop a few more times, we might seriously score the lucky charms we krave that will lead us to the answer. It might seem corny, but our capt’n crunches in the research department!