advanced machinery was employed to mix and bake in port-area warehouses.
The famed moist texture is attributed to storing fruitcake ingredients in warehouses along the waterway during rainy months.
enormous ovens were constructed to bake the massive, dense loaves. hints of distinctive pine and cedar from baking furnaces fueled by chips and other wood left over from sawmills made the fruitcake unique to tacoma.
the industry provided good jobs between THE seasonal work OF tending daffodil fields and picking strawberries in the puyallup valley.
Giving employees Tacoma fruitcake rivaled the tradition of giving holiday turkeys, and loaves were shipped to soldiers around the world.
it wasn't long before tacoma received local and national attention.
big changes arrived in the 1960s and 1970s as the industry introduced containerized shipping of fruitcakes.
today, tacoma is the largest producer of fruitcake above 35°N latitude.
The density of the fruitcake has made it difficult for other ports to accommodate, but the Port of Tacoma has proven to be an ideal port for exporting due to its new generation container cranes.
TRUE TO ITS REPUTATION, FRUITCAKE SHALL LIVE ON HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
No facts were used in the creation of this holiday card.
Claxton, GA is the fruitcake capital of the world. (this is true)
"For months they have lain in wait, dim shapes lurking in the forgotten corners of houses and factories all over the country and now they are upon us, sodden with alcohol, their massive bodies bulging with strange green protuberances, attacking us in our homes, at our friends’ homes, at our offices — there is no escape, it is the hour of the fruitcake."
— Deborah Papier (YES, this is indeed a REAL quote)