Holiday Traditions: The Nutcracker
We’re nuts about the holidays! Some of our favorite holiday traditions include enjoying the beautiful music from The Nutcracker Ballet. While listening to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, we decided to do a bit of research on Nutcrackers. Here are a few fun facts:
- Nutcrackers originated in the Erzgebirge region of Germany, which is a mountainous region with many
mining communities - Miners in the area created these wooden crafts as a way of supplementing their income. Nutcrackers are often sold in the Christmas markets around Germany and are often given to children as Christmas presents.
- German legend says that a nutcracker in a home will bring good luck to all that live there, and also to the home itself.
- The largest collection of German Nutcrackersin the world has 4,334 of them in one place. This is a nutcracker museum and is owned by the Loschner Family in the town of Neuhausen, Germany.
Cool! Of course all this research makes us a bit hungry for nuts! To satisfy your next nut craving, be sure to stop by The Original Pancake House when you are out for breakfast in Denver this holiday season. Our Pecan Belgian Waffle or our Cinnamon Almond French Toast will fulfill your nuttiest dreams!
Happy Holidays!
We’re nutty about Pecans!
At The Original Pancake House we go nuts for pecans! We love them in our Banana Praline Crepes, we enjoy the crunch they add to our Pecan Belgian Waffle, we can’t get enough of their toasty goodness in our Georgia Pecan Pancakes, and they certainly add a special something to our Banana Praline French Toast. YUM! To celebrate this special nut, we’ve collected a few fun facts about pecans.
Did you know?
- The name “pecan” is a Native American word that was used to describe nuts requiring a stone to crack. There are over 1,000 varieties of pecans. Many are named for Native American Indian tribes, including Cheyenne, Mohawk, Sioux, Choctaw and Shawnee.
- The pecan capital of the world is Albany, Georgia, which boasts more than 600,000 pecan trees.
- Pecan trees are native to North America and over 80% of the world’s pecan crop comes from the United States. Some of the larger pecan shellers process 150,000 pounds of pecans each day. That’s enough to make 300,000 pecan pies!
- Pecan trees only produce nuts every two years. Pecans come in a variety of sizes – mammoth, extra-large, large, medium, small and midget.
- The pecan pie was created by French people who had settled in New Orleans.
- The pecan is heart healthy and contains antioxidants, 19 vitamins and minerals and healthy fat. Pecans are also high in zinc and provide 10% of daily recommended value per serving.
- In 1995, Georgia pecan wood was selected by the Atlanta Committee to make the handles of the torches for the 1996 Olympic Games. The torches were carried in the 15,000-mile U.S.A. relay and in the lighting of the Olympic flame in Atlanta on July 19, 1996.
- About 78 pecans are used in the average pecan pie.
- Pecan trees can live to be over 200 years old. The largest and oldest trees can have a trunk that is three feet in diameter and can be over 150 feet tall.
- One ounce of pecans provides 10% of the recommended daily fiber intake.
All of these fun facts are making us hungry; time to get cracking on our next batch of Georgia Pecan Pancakes. Next time you are out for breakfast in Denver, come join us and try one of our delicious pecan breakfast dishes!