• picture
  • picture
  • picture
  • picture
Public Radio's Environmental News Magazine (follow us on Google News)

Almanac/The Big Freeze

Air Date: Week of

This week, we have facts about the first frozen peas. Ninety-one years ago, a naturalist discovered the secret of freezing foods while fishing in the Arctic tundra.



Transcript

CURWOOD: Welcome back to Living on Earth. I’m Steve Curwood.

[MUSIC: Percy Faith & His Orchestra “The Synchopated Clock” TELEVISION THEMES – 16 MOST REQUESTED SONGS (Columbia – 1994)]

CURWOOD: November is a time to batten down the hatches and stock up for the long winter. And for some folks, that means stuffing the freezer with plenty of food. The commercial frozen food phenomenon started with just one man and a fish out on the icy tundra of northern Canada. A naturalist and fur trader named of Clarence Birdseye traveled there in 1912.

He took notes on how Arctic people preserved their fish in barrels of seawater which turned the fish into popsicles in the icy wind. Birdseye realized that freezing foods quickly at extremely cold temperatures kept damaging ice crystals from forming. He took that observation to the bank, creating Birdseye Seafoods in 1922 and then marketing a highly successful line of frozen vegetables. Generations of Americans grew up eating Birdseye frozen peas.

Freezing today is a bit more advanced, says Olga Padilla Zakour, a food scientist at Cornell University. She's working on a consumer-friendly technique to eliminate the hassle of chipping away at that stubborn portion of peas that just won’t be parted from their frozen brethren.

ZAKOUR: We like to do freezing of the individual pieces of peas in which each pea is frozen before it is packaged. The peas will be suspended in cold air while they're being frozen and we can immerse them directly into liquid nitrogen.

CURWOOD: For the home freezer, Ms. Zakour recommends sealing foods in plastic bags or airtight containers to prevent dehydration and marking them with yearly expiration dates. And for this week, that’s the Living on Earth Almanac.

[MUSIC: Percy Faith & His Orchestra “The Synchopated Clock” TELEVISION THEMES – 16 MOST REQUESTED SONGS (Columbia – 1994)]

 

 

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Living on Earth
62 Calef Highway, Suite 212
Lee, NH 03861
Telephone: 617-287-4121
E-mail: comments@loe.org

Newsletter [Click here]

Donate to Living on Earth!
Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

Newsletter
Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox. Sign up for our newsletter today!

Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea.

Creating positive outcomes for future generations.

Innovating to make the world a better, more sustainable place to live. Listen to the race to 9 billion

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment.

Contribute to Living on Earth and receive, as our gift to you, an archival print of one of Mark Seth Lender's extraordinary wildlife photographs. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs.

Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth