Observed annually on August 31, National Trail Mix Day honors the mix that was developed as a healthy snack to be taken along on hikes.
Trail mix is an ideal hike snack food because it is very lightweight, easy to store, nutritious and provides a quick energy boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruits or granola as well as sustained energy from the fats in the nuts.
- One claim to the invention of trail mix is held by two California surfers, who in 1968 blended peanuts and raisins together for an energy snack.
- However, in the 1958 novel The Dharma Bums written by Jack Kerouac, trail mix is mentioned when the two main characters describe the planned meals in preparation for their hiking trip.
- Trail mix is also called GORP (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts or Granola, Oats, Raisins, and Peanuts)
- According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the verb gorp, means “to eat greedily”.
- In Australia and New Zealand they call trail mix Scroggin.
- In Germany, Poland, Hungary,the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and several other European countries, trail mix is called “student fodder“, “student oats”, or “student mix” in the local languages.
- Trail mix is a combination of dried fruit, grains, nuts, and sometimes chocolate, developed as a snack food to be taken along on outdoor hikes.
- Trail mix is considered an ideal snack food for hikes, because it is tasty, lightweight, easy to store, and nutritious, providing a quick boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruit and/or granola, and sustained energy from the mono- and polyunsaturated fats in nuts.
- The recipe for trail mix is most likely European in origin, where it has been known as a snack under various names in various countries since the 17th century.
- Trail mix has been eaten by Native Americans for thousands of years, and originally included buffalo meat.
- The combination of nuts, raisins and chocolate as a trail snack dates at least to the 1910s, when outdoorsman Horace Kephart recommended it in his popular camping guide.
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