Are you curious why Battle Creek is called the Cereal City? It's because cereal was invented here by Dr. Kellogg in 1894! The Cereal Bowl portion of the Children's Garden features the plants, such as wheat, barely, and oats, used in producing cereal.
History of Cereal
Dr. Kellogg and his wife, Ella, had been experimenting with all sorts of new healthy foods which they could serve at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. One day a client broke her dentures on a piece of hardtack break and requested "something softer" to eat for breakfast. Dr. Kellogg's younger brother, Will Kellogg, was helping his brother and sister-in-law with their search when one day he accidentally left a bowl of boiled wheat out on the counter overnight. When it was put through a rolling process, each grain of wheat emerged as a large, thin flake! And that was the beginning of cereal.
Cereal Fun Facts
The first ready-to-eat
cereal was wheat flakes made by Kellogg's in 1894, followed by Grape Nuts in 1897 (Post),
and shredded wheat in 1898. It wasn't until 1906 that W.K. Kellogg invented Kellogg's Corn
Flakes.
Grape-Nuts were neither
made of grapes nor nuts. It is made from a barley and wheat. C.W. Post came up with the
name because the cereal contained maltose which he thought was "grape sugar" and the
flavor reminded him of nuts.
Cheerios was first
marketed in 1941 as "Cheerioats", reflecting the main ingredient of the cereal.
The name first given
to Kellogg's new cereal company was "The Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company."
See why most people think corn flakes were developed first?
Surrounding the Cereal Bowl are two large flower beds filled with one kind of flower
that comes in many shapes and many colors.
