Here’s to marshmallows, wherever they come from!

Hey, it’s Rich Dale!  In honor of today being National Toasted Marshmallow Day, I thought I’d repost a blog of mine from a few months ago about where I used to think marshmallows come from.  I hope people enjoyed it the first time, but if you missed it, I thought I’d give you s’more.

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When I was a young teen, I made a startling discovery.  Well, it startled me anyway.  I was reading the ingredients on the back of a jar of Marshmallow Fluff.  (A key component of a Fluffernutter — the best non-meat sandwich in the world!)  I noticed something strange.  It contained milk, eggs, sugar, etc.  But no marshmallows!

I was with a friend and I said, “Hey, this stuff is fake!  It doesn’t contain any real marshmallows!”  He looked at me in what must have been disbelief for a second, then said, “Uh, those things are what marshmallows are made of.”

What?!  I thought marshmallows were an actual plant, like you grow marshmallows!  Now I had never actually heard of a marshmallow farmer, but I guess I figured that somewhere out there were people who, every October, went out and harvested the marshmallows, then went down and sold them at the market, so I could have them to roast, put in my hot chocolate, and make s’mores and sandwiches out of!

But strangely enough, after being embarrassed about that, I found out that there really is a marshmallow plant!  A couple hundred years ago, the root of it was actually used to make marshmallows.  So I guess in a way, I was right!

Ha!  Look it up!