Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat by Mara Rockliff

When Frieda Caplan began working at the Seventh Street produce market she felt things needed to change. The market offered a very limited selection of produce; potatoes, tomatoes, apples and bananas. Frieda felt that people should try something different. Something new!

So she began selling mushrooms.The men at the market were skeptical telling her no one eats mushrooms. But Frieda decided to sell them anyways and soon people were buying her mushrooms. In fact, she sold so many that she became known as "The Mushroom Queen"!

When she got her own spot at the market, Frieda branched out. She began selling mushrooms, and kiwi fruit, jicama, blood oranges, cherimoya and black radishes. People were not used to these strange fruits but they began to eat them. Frieda said if she felt it in her elbows, she knew these unusual fruits would catch on. 

The Seventh Street produce market still sold potatoes and tomatoes but now there were many other fruits to choose from. Every year Frieda would bring in something different and new. Farmers, cooks and reporters came to Frieda with questions.

As time passed, Frieda's own daughters helped her and they brought their own ideas to Frieda's as well. 

Discussion

Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat is a fascinating account of how the food we buy has changed so much due to the influence of Frieda Caplan. Young readers won't remember the limited selection of fruits and vegetables in groceries stores, especially in colder countries like Canada during the winter months. In the 1960's and 1970's vegetables and fruits were limited to potatoes, cabbage, carrots, apples, pears, onions, turnip and squash. Oranges and grapes were often imported. But over the last four decades, the selection of fruit and vegetables has diversified significantly.

Frieda was born in 1923 in Los Angeles, to Rose and Solomon Rapoport. She attended UCLA and earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science in 1945. In 1951, she married Alfred Hale Caplan and had two daughters, Karen and Jackie. After the birth of Karen, Frieda wanted a job with flexible hours, and she found such a job at her husband's aunt and uncle's wholesale produce business. There she worked as a book-keeper. While her relatives were away on vacation, Frieda visited the Los Angeles Produce Market and found a box of brown mushrooms sitting unsold. With a bit of marketing know-how, Frieda got these mushrooms sold.

In 1962, Frieda started her own company, initially calling it Specialties Produce Inc. Her sign had black lettering on a purple background, the only colour the printer could supply at the time. The colour would become her brand. Frieda's Finiest/Produce Specialties Inc.became the first wholesale produce business to be owned and operated by a woman.Today Frieda's daughters Karen and Jackie run the company, along with Karen's daughter, Alex Berkley. The focus of Frieda's was specialty products like kiwi fruit. In 1962, one of the first unusual items she began selling was kiwi, which at that time was called Chinese gooseberry. Someone suggested to Frieda that she change the name of the fruit to kiwi because it resembled the kiwi bird, native to New Zealand. By 1986, kiwi could be found in most grocery stories in North America. Frieda became known as the "Kiwi Queen." 

Over the years Frieda has introduced over two hundred exotic fruits and vegetables to North Americans including star fruit, rambutan, tamarillo, passion fruit, spaghetti squash, black garlic and mangosteen are just a few. To  help sell the unusual items, Frieda's labelled their product with directions on how to store and prepare the items as well as recipes.

Try It! introduces young readers to this remarkable woman, providing them an outstanding example of a successful woman entrepreneur, whose creative idea, changed the way North American's would eat. At the time Frieda started her company, the produce industry was a male domain, but Frieda was undaunted. Rockliff highlights the many different items Frieda brought to market, and her innovative marketing plan. The colourful illustrations by artist Giselle Potter, rendered in watercolour, help readers visualize the many unusual items Frieda promoted. Try It! offers an interesting and engaging picture book that would be useful for a unit on nutrition. Included is a section at the back titled, Fabulous, Fearless...Frieda! Frieda Caplan passed away at the age of 96 on January 18, 2020.

Book Details:

Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed The Way We Eat by Mara Rockliff
New York:  Beach Lane Books    2021