May 10, 2003
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Spaghetti harvester
The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
On April 1, 1957 the British news show, Panorama, broadcast a segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The success of the crop was attributed to an unusually mild winter. The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show’s anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched a rural Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets.
“The spaghetti harvest here in Switzerland is not, of course, carried out on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry,” Dimbleby informed the audience. “Many of you, I’m sure,” he continued, “will have seen pictures of the vast spaghetti plantations in the Po valley. For the Swiss, however, it tends to be more of a family affair.”
The narration then continued in a tone of absolute seriousness:
“Another reason why this may be a bumper year lies in the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil, the tiny creature whose depradations have caused much concern in the past.”
The narrator anticipated some questions viewers might have. For instance, why, if spaghetti grows on trees, does it always come in uniform lengths? The answer was that “this is the result of many years of patient endeavor by past breeders who succeeded in producing the perfect spaghetti.”
And apparently the life of a spaghetti farmer was not free of worries: “The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer. There’s always the chance of a late frost which, while not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets.”
But finally, the narrator assured the audience, “For those who love this dish, there’s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.”
Comments (3)
LOL at the dreaded spaghetti weevil. I’d heard of this story, but had never run across a summary of what was actually said…very cool.
Oh, you know there’s a site with all these types of famous pranks such as this one.. er I don’t remember the site name though; It’s like the top 100 april fools pranks or something like that. I’ll let you know if I find it, some of them are hilarious.
This one still lives on in the collective memory of Brits the world over
We had some great ones back in Australia as well 