Birdseye : The Adventures of a Curious Man

Break out the TV dinners! From the author who gave us Cod , Salt , and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture. From the Hardcover edition. Ever wonder how those frozen peas and carrots in your freezer came to be there? A remarkable first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric inventor whose fast-freezing method revolutionized America's diet. Birdseye was an inspired and inspiring explorer, and his adventurous spirit lead to many episodes that Kurlansky delights in retelling. From founding a correspondence taxidermy school when he was a teenager to dropping out of Amherst to catch ticks in Idaho, Birdseye always followed a unique course in life. But when he moved to Newfoundland to farm foxes for their furs, he became interested in the substance that would change his life: frozen food. He eventually worked out the best way to keep frozen food tasty and sanitary, and made his fortune selling the rights to General Foods. Even though the record on Birdseye's life is less than reliable, Kurlanksy does a fantastic job stitching what we have together into an amusing and inspiring story. Ultimately, he concludes that it was Birdseye's curiosity that made his unusual life possible. He could never know enough about the world around him, and his need to understand gave him the materials he required to create. He was, in many ways, one of the "crazy ones" that Steve Jobs praised for their willingness to try things no one else would. - Publisher. While 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. From The Author Who Gave Us Cod, Salt, And Other Informative Bestsellers, The First Biography Of Clarence Birdseye, The Eccentric Genius Inventor Whose Fast-freezing Process Revolutionized The Food Industry And American Agriculture. Prologue: A Curious End -- A Nineteenth-century Man -- Bugs Begins -- Bob Goes West -- Ticks -- Frozen -- Freezing -- The Idea -- The Deal -- The Magic -- The Inventor -- Beyond The Sunset And The Baths. Mark Kurlansky. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 233-238) And Index. **Break out the TV dinners! From the author who gave us __Cod__, __Salt__, and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture.**