Mary Catherine's Ash Wednesday Journal Entry (Christine Kane)

Hey, peeps (sorry!) - now for the lighter side of Easter (this picture just begged for accompanying text... :-)

Just in Time for Easter (and Beyond): The Famous Marshmallow Peeps
By Hally Z., published Apr 04, 2007

Has anyone not heard of those little marshmallow candies called Peeps? Well, the squishy Marshmallow Peep has a history spanning over 50 years. Back in 1953, when the chocolate-making Just Born Company bought the jelly bean-making Rodda Candy Company, Rodda also produced a marshmallow candy that was squeezed out by hand from a pastry tube, then colored yellow, decorated, and made to look like a newborn chick. Rodda had been producing these chicks since the 1920's. From start to finish, the "pre-Peep" manufacturing process took a total of 27 hours. Just Born, intrigued by Rodda's marshmallow chick, brought in special machinery to speed up production. Nowadays it takes only six minutes to create a Marshmallow Peep, with two million produced each day.

The Marshmallow Peeps chicks stood alone as an Easter treat item until the late 50's, when Just Born decided to start making seasonal Peeps for other holidays. Pumpkin and cat Peeps were produced for Halloween, and evergreen trees and snowmen were produced for Christmas/winter.

By the 1980's, due to increasing consumer demand, bunnies as well as chicks were being made and sold for Easter. In the 1990's, new Peeps chick colors were introduced, such as lavender and blue, in addition to the old standbys of yellow, pink and white. Then, in 1999, a completely new product came along: Vanilla Crème Flavored Eggs, which were the first flavored Peeps products. In 2000, Strawberry Crème flavoring emerged for Peeps Hearts on Valentine's Day, and then later for Peeps Eggs on Easter. In 2001, Peeps Cookie Flavored Cutouts appeared for Christmas, and in 2002 Peeps Stars made their debut (for summer), along with the first-ever cocoa-flavored Peeps Bats (for Halloween). For the Peeps golden anniversary year of 2003, Just Born submitted a Peeps float to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. And, as if that weren't enough, for Easter 2005 the Peeps chicks were placed into chocolate eggs, bringing together the original products of the Just Born and Rodda Candy Companies.

The rest of the article can be found here... and more peep stuff here - some people have entirely too much time on their hands!

SONG: Mary Catherine's Ash Wednesday Journal Entry by Christine Kane

BOOK: Peeps: A Candy-Coated Tale by Mark Masyga, Martin Ohlin

POEM: Peep Haiku

seemingly harmless

their artificial colors

make some men go mad

QUOTE: "I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts." ~ Graham Kerr