When: September 10
National Ants on a Log Day on September 10th celebrates one of childhood's most whimsically named snacks — celery sticks filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins. It's a remarkably nutritionally balanced snack (fiber + protein + fat + natural sugar), it requires no cooking, and the name is one of the better pieces of food imagination in the American kitchen. The "log" is the celery; the peanut butter is the "bark"; the raisins are the "ants."
"Ants on a Log" has been a classic American children's snack since at least the 1950s — and it turns out the combination of celery, peanut butter, and raisins is nutritionally almost perfect for sustained childhood energy.
Celery was a prestige vegetable in 19th-century America. Before refrigerated transport made it widely available year-round, fresh celery was seasonal, expensive, and served at formal dinners in specialized vessels called celery vases — tall glass containers designed to hold the stalks upright on the table, the same way cut flowers are displayed. To serve celery was to demonstrate that you could afford it. The combination of celery's crunch, bitterness, and high water content with the richness of peanut butter became a standard American snack only after refrigerated rail transport improved distribution, the price dropped, and celery became something you cut up and put peanut butter on without ceremony. Peanut butter became widely available in the early 20th century after John Harvey Kellogg patented a version in 1895 and C.H. Mead and others developed commercial production. The combination of inexpensive, readily available celery and inexpensive, shelf-stable peanut butter was a...