Encyclopedia of Arkansas

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/

Time to skip across the state line from Texas to Arkansas to see what that state has to offer.

The photograph on the home page of the Clinton family made me check to see if I had strayed into the White House by mistake but it would make sense that the Clintons would remain the first family of Arkansas even though Bill has moved on and Hilary did not make it.

I found a very helpful question in the middle of the home page: ‘Don’t know where to start? Check out the Arkansas Overview’.

The apple industry caught my eye. Apples have been residing in Arkansas for seventy-five years and it seems they are the dominant agricultural crop. Not sure how long it took the apple to become top of the state.

I would not be honest if I said I preferred apples over ice cream and fortunately Arkansas has the food groups well balanced. Four generations of the Yarnell Ice Cream Company have been making ice cream since 1932 and before that there was the Grisham Ice Cream Company famous for its Angel Food Ice Cream. Angel Food Ice Cream had a different texture to homemade ice cream, similar (in the differences) to the different texture of bought biscuits (cookies) and homemade biscuits today. Ten gallons (which does not sound like a lot) of ice cream could be frozen in ammonia ice cream freezer at the Grisham plant without using ice and salt, the usual method at the time. They even had the foresight to start delivering ice cream in refrigerated trucks in 1929, which could actually hold 125 gallons of ice cream, kept cold by the old fashioned ice and salt method.

What I learned that was special:
• The state beverage of Arkansas is milk and the state bird is the mockingbird.