Review: Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat
Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Giselle Potter Beach Lane Books (imprint of Simon & Schuster) Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Meg Wiviott Buy at Bookshop.org Moving quickly from bookkeeper at LA’s Seventh Street produce market in the mid-1950s to sales (the only woman among a workforce of men) Frieda Caplan “loved people” and “She loved to talk.” Frieda also loved to try new things, especially fruits and vegetables other than apples, bananas, and potatoes. Frieda’s instincts and “a funny feeling in her elbows” told her when she’d found something other people would grow to love too. With packaging and recipes she encouraged people to try new things, like mushrooms, while the other salesmen all said, “No!” It was not long before Frieda owned her own produce company and sold unusual fruits and vegetables: black radishes, baby corn, kiwi fruit, jicama, and quince. If you see produce in the grocery you’ve never seen before, chance...