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Birdseye: The Adventures Of A Curious ManStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionWhile working as a fur trapper in Labrador, Canada, Clarence Birdseye encountered an age-old problem: bad food and an unappealing, unhealthy diet. However, he observed that fresh vegetables wetted and left outside in the Arctic winds froze in a way that maintained their integrity after thawing. As a result, he developed his patented Birdseye freezing process and started the company that still bears his name. Birdseye forever changed the way we preserve, store, and distribute food, and the way we eat. Mark Kurlansky's vibrant and affectionate narrative reveals Clarence Birdseye as a quintessential "can-do" American inventor--his other patents include an electric sunlamp, a harpoon gun to tag finback whales, and an improved incandescent lightbulb--and shows how the greatest of changes can come from the simplest of ideas and the unlikeliest of places. Reviews"I was intrigued that there might be an adventurous history to the man whose name is on so much of the food I’ve found in freezers over the years and at the end of reading this short but fascinating story, I could have read twice as much about the man. Not only did he turn unpalatable mush into (almost) fresh food, his inventions created a refrigeration industry – storage, transport, displays in supermarkets, new packaging – practically overnight. From studying ticks to recycling sugarcane leftovers, besides an incorrigibly adventurous palate, Clarence Birdseye may be one of the most interesting people you’ve never thought about." - Adam (staff) "Less a biography than a glimpse into an exuberantly inventive time in America. . . . In Kurlansky's hands, the arc of Birdseye's life . . . is a history of the American imagination." - The Washington Post
Author descriptionMark Kurlansky is the "New York Times" bestselling author of many books, including The Food of a Younger Land, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Salt: A World History, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World and The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. He lives in New York City. |