John Seabrook, whose books and New Yorker articles span music, popular culture, technology, and design, turns the spotlight on his own family: His grandfather C.F. Seabrook ("the Henry Ford of agriculture") and the rise and fall of Seabrook Farms in southern New Jersey, once the world's largest producer of frozen vegetables.Â
"The Spinach King" is a business story -- how the son of a truck driver invented the mass production of frozen vegetables, employing more than 4000 workers, and how that company self-destructed. It is a story of the remarkable community the Seabrooks created, bringing 300 formerly-interned Japanese families and thousands of other non-native workers to a work force that spoke more than 30 languages. And, it is a family story, involving a spiteful and catastrophic family battle for control of the company that would rival "Succession," and John Seabrook's own experience of being a frozen-food heir.Â
Free and all are welcome. The author will read from and sign his book.
