Peeps Are More Than Just To Eat

I hate ‘em – but some people can’t get enough of ‘em - especially at Easter time – marshmallow peeps. They’re made by a Pennsylvania company and sell about a billion of these squishy, sugary things in the weeks leading up to Easter.

Sam Born, a Russian immigrant who first opened a chocolate store in New York in 1910, moved his business to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1933 where he bought out a candy company that specialized in jelly beans. The company also made a few handmade marshmallows that looked like chicks.

Sam thought they were interesting and figured out how to mass produce them. Sales took off and his company quickly became the largest producer of marshmallows in the world. Now, more than 70 years later, peeps come in six colors, yellow, pink, lavender, blue, green and white. And they come in assorted shapes for nearly every occasion on the calendar – bunnies, valentines, eggs, pumpkins and snowmen.

A game that some people like to play with peeps is what's called peep jousting. You attach a toothpick to the white marshmallow side of a peep – the toothpick should be horizontal to the ground, then you put two peeps facing each other into a microwave.

Turn the power on high and the peeps will puff out until one of them pierces the other. If you really want to have a lot of fun, just keep the microwave on until the peeps explode. Cleaning the microwave is part of the fun.