The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, 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 DYK fun food facts we will look at Almonds.

The Fact: Almonds are actually stone fruits related to cherries, peaches and plums.

• February 16th is National Almonds Day.
• June 29th is National Almond Buttercrunch Day.
• 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 and that chocolate manufacturers currently use about 40% of the world’s almonds and about 20% of the world’s peanuts.
• Raw Almonds contain prussic acids, the eating of more than a handfull can be lethal. this is why all almonds are dried, roasted and/or pasteurized.