Grits are key to world peace and other fun facts (2024)

As I was writing about Alabama's historical grist mills, I grew rather hungry for some grits. I like mine with butter and pepper. Yum.

As is my habit, I googled "grits," just to learn how much I didn't know about the Southern staple. As it turns out, there is plenty to learn about grits.

A brief history:

Native Americans are known to have prepared grits more than 200 years ago, according to a 1961 Associated Press article. They would grind corn into hominy using a stone mill, then pass the hominy through screens, creating a finer grit meal. The meal would then be boiled until the water was absorbed, leaving a porridge-type food.

Through the mid-20^th century, most every community in the South had a grist mill, where farmers would bring their corn and other grains to be ground into meal. The miller kept a portion of the goods as payment.

Here are some fun facts about grits:

1. The area from Texas to Virginia is sometimes called the "Grits Belt."

2. Three-quarters of grits in the U.S. are bought in the South.

3. Sept. 2 isNational Eat GritsDay.

4. At least three states honor the food: Grits are the official state prepared food of Georgia, the state meal of Oklahoma and the state food of South Carolina.

5. The World Grits Festival is held each April in St. George, S.C., the self-proclaimed Grits Capital of the World.

6. Alabama hosts a Grits Festival each year at Kymulga Grist Mill and Covered Bridge Historical Park. This year, the event is April 25.

7. In South Carolina, state law mandates that grits and corn meal be enriched, similar to the requirement for flour, unless the grits are made from the corn a miller has kept as his fee. Alabama legislators considered creating standards for grits in 2006.

8. According to a resolution passed by the South Carolina Legislature, a 1952 article in the Charleston Post and Courier declared grits to be the secret to world peace: "Given enough of it, the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight about. A man full of [grits] is a man of peace."