April 6th is National Carmel Popcorn day and I thougth I'd celebrate it with a tall tale about the creation of the first popcorn ball...This is a great tall tale that I read in the book Keep the Buttered Side Up... but I also found it online at this site that has all kinds of fun stuff about the history and legends of popcorn, Cracker Jacks & popcorn balls.
Popcorn Balls
"During a hot rainy summer in the 1800's, a Nebraska farmer grew sugarcane on a hillside and corn in the valley below. Weather conditions, as is often the case in the midwest, varied from one field to the other. Rain clouds let loose over the cane fields while rays from the hot sun blistered the corn. It got so hot, in fact, that the corn began to pop.
At the same time the rain over the cain field washed the sugar from the stalks sending the syrupy stuff down the hill over the popped corn and rolling it into huge balls. The farmer wasn't able to share the popcorn balls, however, because a great horde of grasshoppers arrived, consuming every popcorn ball in sight--at least that's what he told everyone who was salivationg for one of the giant treats!" (from Keep the Buttered Side Up by Kathlyn Gay)
Nana’s Popcorn Balls
This recipe is very easy and comes from my Nana's kitchen. If you don’t have a microwave you can make the popcorn the old fashioned way. Pop one bag of microwave popcorn. Melt 26 caramel candies with 2 T. of water. Pour melted candy over popcorn and mix well. Form into balls and eat.
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