Related Information:
· Kansas Food Festivals
· Kansas Culinary Schools
KANSAS FOOD FACTS & TRIVIA
Kansas has many nicknames, some of them are: the Sunflower State, the Wheat State, the Grasshopper State, the Garden of the West, the Squatter State and the Cyclone State.
FARMS & FARMERS
Kansas: approximate land area of 52,320,102 acres.
Farmland is 46,345,827 acres or 88.6% of total land.
Organic agriculture accounts for about 51,769 acres.
Number of Farms: 65,531
Principle Farm Operators: Men: 57,588 Women: 7,943
(2013 - USDA Economic Research Service: www.ers.usda.gov )
[2007-2008 latest available data]
POPULATION & HUNGER
Kansas has a total population of: 2,871,238
Urban population: 1,836,978
Rural population: 1,034,260
Food insecure households*: 14.5%
Households with very low food security*: 5.2%
*Food insecurity - Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.
Very low food security - At times during the year, eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and food intake reduced because the household lacked money and other resources for food.
(2013 - USDA Economic Research Service: www.ers.usda.gov )
(Population & Food Security data: 2011)
• Kansas is the largest wheat producer in the United States.
• All the wheat grown in Kansas in a single year would fit in a train stretching from western Kansas to the Atlantic Ocean.
• There are about 22,400 wheat farmers in Kansas. (2010)
• In 2010, Kansas farmers grew wheat on 8.8 million acres. One acre is the size of a football field.
• The United States produced 2.2 billion bushels of wheat in 2004. Kansas and North Dakota combined accounted for close to 1/3 of the nation's wheat production.
• Kansas produced more than 490 million bushels of wheat in 1997. This is enough to make more almost 36 billion loaves of bread.
Kansas is the number one state in flour production.
There is a grain elevator in Hutchinson, Kansas that is 1/2 mile long and holds 46 million bushels of grain.
The National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame is located in Bonner Springs, Kansas.
Windom, Kansas, is known as the Covered Dish Capital of the World. (see below for more Kansas ‘Capitals’)
Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop in Olathe, Kansas, was the first eating station for westbound passengers on the Santa Fe Trail in 1863.
First restaurant chain in the U.S. was the Harvey Houses, established by Fred Harvey in 1876 in Kansas to serve railroad travelers.
In 1921, Walter A. Anderson (a short-order cook) and E.W. Ingram (an insurance executive) founded White Castle in Wichita, Kansas. It is the oldest hamburger chain. They served steam-fried hamburgers, 18 per pound of fresh ground beef, cooked on a bed of chopped onions, for a nickel.
Some of the first Angus cattle brought to this country from Scotland were 4 Angus bulls transported to Kansas by George Grant in 1873.
The Stayman, or Stayman Winesap apple variety was discovered by Dr. J. Stayman near Leavenworth, Kansas in 1866.
The World's Largest Hairball was found in a cow's stomach during slaughter at a Holcomb meat-packing plant, the hairball weighs 55 pounds (when wet) and was 38 inches in circumference. It's on display at the Finney Co. Museum, Garden City, Kansas.
At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.
Kansas has the largest population of wild grouse (prairie chicken) in North America.
• Chetopa is the Catfish Capital of Kansas.
• Ellsworth County is the Chicken Fried Steak Capital of Kansas.
• Windom is the Covered Dish Capital of Kansas.
• Pittsburg is the Fried Chicken Capital of Kansas.
• Kirwin is the Goose Capital of Kansas.
• Phillips County is the Hamburger Capital of Kansas.
• Elk Falls is the Outhouse Capital of Kansas.
• Liberal is the Pancake Capital of Kansas.
• Haysville is the Peach Capital of Kansas.
• Chetopa is the Pecan Capital of Kansas.
• Norton is the Pheasant Capital of Kansas.
• Washington County is the Pie Capital of Kansas.
• Leoti is the Pinto Bean Capital of Kansas.
• Lenexa is the Spinach Capital of Kansas.
• Goodland is the Sunflower Capital of Kansas.
• Both Clyde and Thayer claim to be the Watermelon Capital of Kansas.
• Sumner County, Kansas, is known as The Wheat Capital of the World.
• Kansas State Flower: Wild Native Sunflower (Helianthus), adopted 1903.
• Kansas State Animal: The American Buffalo or Bison (Bison bison), adopted 1955.
• Kansas State Insect: Honeybee (Apis mellifera), adopted 1976.
• Kansas State Song: ‘Home On the Range,’ “as originally written, with words by Dr. Brewster Higley and music by Dan Kelly” adopted 1947.
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