HAPPY BIRTHDAY "PEEPS"

I know thwy were first made in Lancaster County, didnt know its a milestone year. i used to get really wired as a kid from eating peeps.
As I recall, they looked more like little chicks when I was a kid. Today they look more like little alien beings made of pink and yellow sugar.

One year I bought Peeps for the wife for Easeter.

Found 'em in the pantry several months later by following the trail of ants...

Ahem, what are peeps - just for us non-Americans? Please enlighten us!

PEEPS: 4 Million Marshmallow Bunnies and Chicks Each Day
Saturday, April 19, 2003
4 Million Marshmallow Bunnies and Chicks Each Day
By Joann Loviglio - The Associated Press

BETHLEHEM, Pa. ?- To many people, Marshmallow Peeps are a must-have in children's Easter baskets. But the chick-shaped candies are also something of a mass-produced technological wonder, having evolved from handmade confections. And they've grown into an icon of kitsch on the Internet and an inspiration for artists.

They're also a big money maker for a privately held company called Just Born Inc., which got into the Peeps business in 1953 when it acquired Rodda Candy Co. Rodda turned out a small line of sugary chicks produced by some 80 women who painstakingly squeezed marshmallow out of pastry tubes.

Just Born began working on a way to make the investment more profitable, and a year later, Bob Born, son of founder Sam Born, found a way to mechanize the hand motion to make Peeps. Now they stream along a sugarcoated conveyor belt, up to 4.2 million a day in yellow, pink, lavender, blue and white.

"There was a lot of trial and error," said Bob Born, who retired 10 years ago. "We made so many samples, at first some of them coming down the line looked like seals. So we had to try again."

When Just Born started making the candy, it took 27 hours to make a Peep; today, it takes six minutes. Mass production has helped make them one of the most popular candies at Easter.

"That's why we're here today after all these years," said Just Born co-president David N. Shaffer.

Their biggest draw is probably nostalgia. Parents who ate them as children now buy them for their own kids. The chicks also have a following of people who like them for assorted other reasons.

Artist David Ottogalli, who recently created an 8-foot-tall altar of more than 5,000 Peeps, calls them "a fascinating little food product."

"The shape, the color, the texture, they're just so cute," he said. "Really, it's the Peep itself that's the work of art."

Thanks, BBB. I just found the Marshmellow Peeps website. Had I known that, I would have looked for them in Florida. I've never seen them...