Harvest Joy

When George Renninger began molding buttercream into autumn-themed candies for the Wunderle Candy Company in the 1880s, he worked tirelessly to perfect his chestnut, pea pod, turnip, and corn candies -- all a nod to America's agricultural roots. As he designed the corn-shaped buttercreams, Renninger threw batches of it to the family chickens and knew he had a winner when the chickens thought it was corn feed and came running.

In 1898, the Goelitz Confectionery Company adopted Renninger's corn-shaped buttercream recipe and marketed it as "Chicken Feed" candy in a box with a large red rooster on the front. In those pre-World War I days, corn cobs were coarse and inexpensive, and few Americans thought of corn as "people food." Corn was primarily feed for chickens and pigs, and it wasn't until the flour shortages during the First World War that Americans began adding cornbread and corn meal to their diets

After World War I, candy corn kept its chicken-themed branding, with Goelitz packaging in the 1920s showing a familiar rooster and the slogan “King of the Candy Corn Fields.” In those days, candy corn was a popular “penny candy” that children could buy year-round, often appearing at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Easter celebrations.

With Halloween’s focus on candy growing in the 1950s, candy corn became a seasonal favorite. October ads surged and candy corn became a staple Halloween treat, with over 35 million pounds sold annually. Originally, each of the candy's seasonal colors was hand-poured, and workers carried 200-pound buckets down conveyor belts. Because of the hard labor involved, confectioners limited production to fall, reinforcing the candy’s seasonal link and tapping into harvest imagery.

Once called “Chicken Feed,” the novelty of candy corn soon grew into a Halloween mainstay. And whether or not you are a candy corn fan, the harvest metaphors are unavoidable. As we continue in our exploration of garden metaphors with our Remembering Eden sermon series, consider Paul's assurances in his second letter to the church-goers in Corinth:

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (2 Corinthians 9:10-11)

Blessings on your week, and may your Halloween be a joyful celebration of harvest -- chicken feed and all!