Soup Label From 1900

 Originally posted in 2018 on one of my old blogs. Updates are in italics.

I read an interesting label online the other day, and re-read today, a Campbell’s Tomato Soup label from 1900. It has some significant differences from their current label, and I learned some things I didn’t know before.

In those days, the company was known as The Joseph Campbell Preserve Co. Some of the varieties of soup they made then have been discontinued, such as Mock Turtle and the two listed below, neither of which I had heard of until I read the label.

Mulligatawny Soup, which is of East Indian origin. [The name may be translated as pepper water!] There doesn’t seem to be one set recipe for this soup, but apparently curry is a standard ingredient.

Printanier Soup, a soup made with spring vegetables.

There are other soups which Campbell’s has stopped making, but Tomato Soup is still going strong more than a hundred years after they introduced it.

I really enjoyed reading this label; it’s always fun learning new things.

Have You Ever Eaten The Bark Of A Tree?

This was originally posted in 2018 on one of my old blogs.

Did you shake your head when you read the above question? After all, who’d want to eat the bark of a tree? Think of the splinters, and, probably, the insects! Eat the bark of a tree? YECH! I’d have to wash it very thoroughly before I’d even consider putting it into my mouth.

That, at least, would have been my reaction until I learned that cinnamon, which I love, comes from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum. Cinnamomum Verum is the type that is considered to be true cinnamon. This, however, is not the kind that is usually sold. That honor, if I may call it an honor, goes primarily to several related species which are called Cassia to distinguish them from true cinnamon.

So yes, I have eaten the bark of a tree, and quite often at that! Still, tree-bark toast does not sound very appealing or appetizing.

I’m just saying.