Try It!
How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat
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- £9.49
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- £9.49
Publisher Description
Meet fearless Frieda Caplan—the produce pioneer who changed the way Americans eat by introducing exciting new fruits and vegetables, from baby carrots to blood oranges to kiwis—in this brightly illustrated nonfiction picture book!
In 1956, Frieda Caplan started working at the Seventh Street Produce Market in Los Angeles. Instead of competing with the men in the business with their apples, potatoes, and tomatoes, Frieda thought, why not try something new? Staring with mushrooms, Frieda began introducing fresh and unusual foods to her customers—snap peas, seedless watermelon, mangos, and more!
This groundbreaking woman brought a whole world of delicious foods to the United States, forever changing the way we eat. Frieda Caplan was always willing to try something new—are you?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Faced with a sea of predictable produce at L.A.'s Seventh Street market "apples and bananas and potatoes and tomatoes" Frieda Caplan wanted to try selling mushrooms. "Nobody eats those," the existing salespeople all men said, but Caplan trusted her intuition, starting her own produce company in 1962 and getting "a funny feeling in her elbows when she tasted something new and special, something she was sure people would like to try." Caplan made a significant mark, becoming a successful business owner in a field that did not welcome women. The mushrooms sold ("People started calling her the Mushroom Queen"), and so did the black radishes, blood oranges, jicama, kiwifruit, sugar snap peas, and more that Caplan championed as she led a quiet revolution in U.S. eating habits. In this picture book biography of an early food innovator, Rockliff (Jefferson Measures a Moose) takes note of the ways Caplan distinguished her offerings: clear labeling, customer education, and more. Potter (Olive & Pekoe: In Four Short Walks) brings out the vivid colors of tropical fruits, and her market scenes give the spreads a sense of abundance. There's period detail, too, as produce is introduced through the decades, enjoyed by people sporting fedoras and, eventually, bell-bottoms. Ages 3 8.
