Ag is no stranger when it comes to the mischievous celebration
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
Every April 1, truths are stretched, news is fabricated and anyone sitting down takes a second to see if someone has placed a whoopee cushion on their seat.
Agriculture has its own unique sense of humour when it comes to April Fools' Day and the Farms.com Media Team has discovered a few pranks related to farming.
Mood Glow Sensi-Coating
GGS Structures out of Vineland, Ontario has introduced a new way to gauge the health of your greenhouse crops with Mood-Glow Sensi-Coating.
GGS Sales Manager Michael Camplin said at a press conference the plants are coated with Bio Sensitive Luminescent Paint (BSLP). The particles react with the plant and glow a specific colour to indicate the plant’s health.
The product even features a testimonial from a production facility in Auburn, Washington.
Spaghetti Tree Hoax
In 1957, the BBC produced a segment about a Swiss farm family as they completed their spaghetti harvest.
Production value was high as viewers watched women take strands of pasta from trees and leaving them to dry in the sunlight.
With Richard Dimbleby, a respected broadcaster providing the narration and legitimacy to the story, people were contacting the BBC and asking where spaghetti trees could be purchased.
According to Dimbleby, the end of March is a critical time for spaghetti because the winter’s frost can impact the taste.
Lard from live pigs
In 1921, a German farmer from Schleichegrieben was featured in Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, a weekly illustrated magazine, about his discovery of making lard from live pigs.
The story said the farmer would remove the rashers, put bandages on the pigs and let them heal. The farmer said the procedure could only be done three times annually.
The public was concerned about the animal’s welfare but upon further investigation, found that Schleichegrieben was a made up city, and its translation meant “sneaking fat.”
Marshmallow farming
Channel 9 news from Iredell County, North Carolina, produced an undated video about the marshmallow crop in North Carolina.
According to the marshmallow farmer, growing marshmallows is a game of patience.
“It takes four years from the time that you get the tree planted before you’re going to get your first harvest,” he said.