“Clad in high heels and a pencil skirt, Frieda Caplan was already an anomaly in the male-dominated produce wholesale markets of the 1950s, a job that came about simply because […]
Category: posts
Prehistoric Babies Drank Animal Milk From Bottles
Researchers from the UK report finding ruminant milk residue inside a type of ancient spouted clay bowl that sometimes featured animal feet and heads. The earliest examples of this kind […]
Enslaved children’s diet in 1850s Virginia
Educator Booker T. Washington, who spent his first nine years as an enslaved child in Virginia, wrote in his autobiographies about how the uncertainty of being fed breakfast led to […]
Movie theatres start selling food during the Depression
When the Great Depression comes along, the first things to go bankrupt are the movie theaters in the early 1930s. So, exhibitors came up with all kinds of strategies to […]
How Did Food Stamps Begin?
The U.S. government launched a new program of food stamps in Rochester in 1939 to try to solve the triple problems of farm surpluses, weak sales for grocers and hungry […]
Coca-Cola on trial in 1911 charged with being injurious to health
In October of 1909, the Coca-Cola Company transported forty barrels and twenty kegs of its signature syrup across state lines, from its hometown of Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee. As soon […]
The discovery of umami, the fifth taste
More than one hundred years ago, Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda wondered how a simple bowl of broth containing water, dried fish flakes, and a little bit of dried seaweed could […]
Yeast recovered from 1886 shipwreck used to brew new ale
Yeast extracted from bottles of beer recovered from the 1886 shipwreck of a luxury liner off Long Island, New York, has been used to brew a modern beer. After culturing […]
Wild turkeys have made a comeback
Wild turkeys were an important source of food for American pioneers. When European settlers arrived on the eastern seaboard, wild turkeys apparently lived in what are now 39 continental states […]
Bakers banned from selling sliced bread during World War II
The U.S. government suddenly banned bakeries from slicing bread for their customers beginning in January, 1943. The reason was never clear. It was probably was an attempt to conserve wax […]