The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and almond fun facts. As we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Almond Fun Facts.

Almond Fun Facts: Almonds are actually stone fruits related to cherries, peaches and plums.

  • In the mid-1700s, the Franciscan Padres planted almond trees to grace their missions along El Camino Real (The Royal Road) that stretches along the California coast from San Diego to Sonoma.
  • Cinnamon-glazed almonds were President Clinton’s snack of choice at both the 1993 and the 1997 inaugurations.
  • Native to the Mediterranean countries, the almond was introduced to America from Spain in 1769.
  • The world’s largest almond factory is located in Sacramento, California and processes over 2 million pounds of almonds per day.  California produces over 80% of the world’s supply of almonds.
  • Chocolate manufacturers currently use about 40% of the world’s almonds and about 20% of the world’s peanuts.
  • Raw Almonds contain prussic acids. Eating of more than a handful can be lethal. this is why all almonds are dried, roasted and/or pasteurized.
  • The bitter taste in Almonds is derived from the 4-9 mg of hydrogen cyanide in each.

Key Dates

  • February 16th is National Almonds Day.
  • June 29th is National Almond Buttercrunch Day.
  • August 12th is National Toasted Almond Bar Day.

Almond Fun Facts We Missed

Let us know if we missed any almond fun facts in the comment section or our food truck forum. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Almonds.

Find all of the National Food Holidays to spice up your food truck menu specials throughout the year.