Over the weekend I finished reading Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure by Samira Kawash. It's a thick book covering the history of candy. It's a little ponderous at times, but packed with lots of fascinating tidbits. The book covers candy in a broad way, including the rise of sugared
cereals, adding fluoride to water (because candy caused cavities), and the current trend of energy bars which are really candy bars
in disguise. It covers both manufactured candy and the popularity of home candy making. Here are a few highlights I especially enjoyed:
- Athletes used to love describing the powers of candy in helping them achieve great feats. In 1923, The New York Times described how a candy diet helped George Mallory climb Mount Everest.
- At one time there was a push to have candy as a pantry staple just like flour or beans. In 1927, the California Lima Bean Council ran ads featuring a dish of baked lima beans topped with bacon and marshmallows. (There's a fabulous photo of the ad on the publisher's website.)
- By the end of 1942, seven million or more U.S. soldiers were eating candy at the rate of 50 pounds per year per person. The military issued chocolate bars to soldiers to eat in an emergency, but discovered that they ate them immediately instead. They had to design a bar that didn't taste quite so good.
- Candy corn was originally called "chicken feed" by some people. It also wasn't originally associated with Halloween. And speaking of Halloween, the day wasn't always centered around candy. In fact, the biggest "candy holidays" used to be Christmas, Easter, and Washington's Birthday!
Inspired by Candy
I do enjoy making candy-themed jewelry. The earrings pictured here are made with vintage Lucite. I love the shine on those beads. It makes them seem realistic, enough that I put a disclaimer in my shop listing not to eat them! I made a similar pair of candy earrings with another set of swirled vintage Lucite beads and brown ceramic rounds. For those, I even found similar real candies to use in the photograph.
I also used candy as props with these pillow boxes. The red, round candies are cherry sours. Finding the right candy to photograph was more challenging than I expected. I needed candies that were unwrapped (so I didn't have the glare of the wrappers), not marked by logos (like M&Ms), a bright color (that would photograph well), relatively small (to fit in the box), and not sugared like gumdrops (too messy). I'm sure the store clerk thought I was the most indecisive shopper ever.
Whether or not you enjoy candy, I hope your day is a sweet one!