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Posted: May 8th, 2012 - 12:53pm by Doug Powell Frozen fruits, veggies and meat are a fabulous invention. Clarence Birdseye is the man credited with inventing frozen food. NPR reports that Mark Kurlansky, known for his histories on eclectic topics such asSalt and Cod, has written a new biography about Clarence Birdseye.He joins Weekend Edition host Rachel Martin to talk about the book,called Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man. On Clarence Birdseye's outsized curiosity: "He was somebody who just wanted to know about everything. Hewanted to know why people did things the way they did, and couldn'tthey be done better. He was very interested in processes. He was very curious about nature. He had a nickname for a while— other kids called him 'Bugs.' He was interested in allthese slimy little things." On his time living in Newfoundland (that"s in Canada) , the setting for his great inspiration: "This was just really the wilds. There wasn't fresh food, andso he became concerned about his wife and baby. He noticed that theInuits would catch fish and they would freeze as soon as they wereout of the water. And what he had discovered was that if you freezevery quickly, you don't destroy the texture of food. It's somethingsalt makers knew for centuries — that in crystallization, thefaster the crystals are formed, the smaller they are. And theproblem with frozen food is that they were frozen barely at thefreezing point, and they took days to freeze, and they get hugecrystals and they just became mush." On Birdseye's entrepreneurial mindset: "He set up a company in Gloucester, Mass., but he wasn't somuch interested in having a seafood company; he understoodperfectly well that there wasn't much of a market for it. What thiscompany was to do was to develop machinery and ideas and patentthem, and sell the patents to people with big money. .. The decadebefore he was born, Bell invented the telephone and Edison thephonograph and the light bulb was invented, and [Birdseye] verymuch had that idea in his head, that that's what you did —you came up with an idea and you started a company based onit." On the source of Birdseye's passion: "One thing that was very clear about him was that, in his way,he was a real foodie. ... He would go out to farms and talk tofarmers about how they could make their processes and their productbetter suited for industry. Just the reverse of what food loversthink about today .. [in] the locavore movement. He was trying tocorrect the locavore movement." On Birdseye's personality: "He was a very garrulous, likable person and an absolutelybrilliant salesman. When he was trying to get investors, he wouldsend entire dinners of frozen food to their Manhattan apartments.He really had a confidence in this product that if people justtried it, they would love it.". We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Eas Deactivator , Eas Hard Tags for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Eas Hard Tags.
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