#VeggieDag Thursday: Food & drink (and more) on Independence Day, by the numbers

• $6.8 Billion: Amount Americans plan to spend on food for the 4th of July.
• 150 Million: Hot dogs will be consumed on the 4th of July.
• $1+ Billion: Amount Americans will spend on beer for the 4th of July, making the day the nation's top beer-drinking holiday.
• $568 Million: Amount Americans will spend on 4th of July for wine.
• $1+ Billion: Amount Americans will spend on fireworks in 2019.
• $5.4 Million: Value of American flags imported annually (mostly from China).
• 47+ Million: People traveling 50+ miles from home for the 4th of July.
  — Via WalletHub.
  4 July 2019.

***************

For Independence Day, three out of four Americans choose beer...

...that is, for those Americans who drink or serve alcoholic beverages.

Here are more beer-on-Independence-Day statistics, from studies commissioned by folk who sell beer.

The Beer Institute asked legal-drinking-age adults what alcohol beverage they’d be celebrating with during the Fourth of July holiday. Seventy-five percent of people planning to host or attend a Fourth of July celebration will serve or drink beer. Beer is nearly twice as popular as any other alcohol beverage, with 64 percent of people saying they plan to drink beer compared to 37 percent for wine and 32 percent for hard liquor.

— Beer Institute

For brewers, distributors and retailers, Independence Day marks the height of the summer beer selling season. Much like Black Friday is a milestone for traditional retailers, the Fourth of July is a milestone for beer sales. In some states, beer distributors will be delivering double the beer of a typical week. NBWA and Fintech® got together and worked through on- and off-premise volumes for beer distributor sales to retailers across the country in 2016. The data revealed that the Fourth of July ranked #1. [...] While July Fourth takes the number one spot for off-premise sales, the rankings look radically different when just the on-premise (away from home) sales are ranked. In these channels of retail sales, St. Patrick’s Day, the Super Bowl and Cinco De Mayo take top spots.

— National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA)

***************

Recipes

Wait! Whaaat? No watermelon on that list of foods for 4th of July? Come on, now!

Other than simply enjoying a delicious slice of watermelon, here are some other plant-based recipe suggestions for today:

• Butternut Squash & Beets Salad
  — Via Lucy Saunders from her cookbook, Dinner in the Beer Garden (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal).
• Watermelon Tofu Salad
  — Via YFGF.
• The quintessential Spanish summertime chilled soup: gazpacho, 5 ways.
  — Via Voraciously (Washington Post).
• Grilled Tofu Barbecue
  — Via Vegan Dad.



• Carrot Hot Dogs
  — Via Kristen Pound.
• Beer is a vegan food stuff. Grill your vegetables with it.
  — Via YFGF.
• Twenty-seven '4th of July' vegan recipes.
  — Via Post Punk Kitchen (Isa Chandra Moskowitz).
• Twenty-four '4th of July' plant-based recipes.
  — Via Minimalist Baker.
• One-Bowl Vegan American Flag Cake.
  — Via Nora Cooks.

**************

In conclusion

-----more-----

• One does not often see a memorial to the veterans of the American War of Independence. But pictured above: "Patriots of the American Revolution (1775 - 1783, Heroes of Liberty)," a memorial in Orlando Veterans’ Memorial Park, on the banks of Lake Baldwin, in Orlando, Florida.
  
  Never forget? The Continental Congress and its successor, the Congress of the Confederation, refused to pay American soldiers much of the wages they were legally due for fighting in the War of Independence. The situation became so dire that a group of soldiers mutinied in 1783 and threatened to occupy the government, then in Philadelphia. No less than George Washington organized the put down of the rebellion. In fairness, Congress, due to the parsimony of the 13 new states, had little money to pay the soldiers.
  
  The Orlando chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected this memorial in 2010.


• Why the name VeggieDag Thursday? Here.
• Read all the posts: here. Follow on Twitter with hashtag: #VeggieDag.
• Suggestions and submissions from chefs, writers, and home-cooks welcomed! Contact me here.


• For more from YFGF:
  • Follow on Twitter: @Cizauskas.
  • Like on Facebook: YoursForGoodFermentables.
  • Follow on Flickr: Cizauskas.
  • Follow on Instagram: @tcizauskas.