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“Once, C.F. Seabrook was known as ​‘the Henry Ford of agriculture.’ This book by his descendant John Seabrook spells out in fascinating detail, however, how the fortune and influence that C.F. amassed went to ruin as his industry changed and his New Jersey-based family, which had attained all the trappings any patriarch could hope, turned on one another and lost it all.”

“This poignant audio memoir recounts the tragedy of the past three generations of the New Jersey Seabrooks, WASP agriculture kings brought low by family feuds, self-dealing, and racism. Golden Voice Dion Graham gives a bravura performance of the fraught relationships between three generations of fathers and sons. Graham’s delivery shapes this American tragedy as he narrates in a thoughtful style with an intimate tone and phrasing that reflects the author’s eloquent prose.”

THE SPINACH KING, by John Seabrook. This appealing memoir of family dysfunction is awash in liquor and leafy greens: The author, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, recounts how his grandfather turned a family spinach farm into an industrial behemoth, and exposes the greed and malfeasance behind the prosperous façade.

Ep 917 The Frozen Vegetable Family That Changed The Way We Eat. And you think your family has some great achievements and enough demerits to warrant a book? Well, clearly, author and New Yorker writer, John Seabrook’s family, has all of that in triplicate and he spells it all out in the eminently readable ​“The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.” His grandfather, C.F. Seabrook, hailed as the ​“Henry Ford of Agriculture,” built an empire in the bean fields of southern New Jersey. Seabrook Farms, which at its peak in the mid-1950’s grew a third of America’s frozen vegetables – and made his family wealthy, glamorous and powerful. They literally drove the transition from horsepower to mechanized agriculture and pioneered quick-frozen food, which changed the nation’s eating habits. However, there’s much more to this story which a grandson, John, captures in the book and on the podcast which might not put such a positive spotlight on his family. Thanks to a box handed down to him by his father, he was able to recount the good and the bad and give us a remarkable picture of American innovation, wealth and some of the not so genteel ways fortunes are made.

America’s Seabrook family built a frozen vegetable empire from its pioneering spinach farms. For gardeners — as for business leaders — its story provides both inspiration and caution.

The patriarch, C.F. Seabrook, was hailed as the Henry Ford of agriculture. His son, Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life magazine called the biggest vegetable factory on earth. His son, John Seabrook, has written about his grandfather and father in his book called​“The Spinach King.” It’s subtitled​“The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.” Work on​“The Spinach King” started in the early 1980s when John Seabrook was with the New Yorker Magazine. John Seabrook says:​“I had a grandfather who was a champion of white supremacy, a true believer in the superiority of the Nordic Christian male.” 

Destiny of the Dispossessed Spinach Prince. John Seabrook’s history of Seabrook Farms, where many incarcerated Japanese Americans worked during WWII, is ultimately about fathers and sons.

The Spinach King — the tale of an agricultural dynasty and its dark secrets. John Seabrook wryly details the rise and fall — and Oedipal struggles — of his family’s farming empire.

Seabrook Farms once provided a third of the nation’s frozen vegetables. But with its success came scandal. John Seabrook confronts his family’s complex legacy in his new book, The Spinach King.

JOHN SEABROOK (Veteran NEW YORKER staff writer, and author of THE SPINACH KING: THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AMERICAN DYNASTY) explains his decision to choose truth over alternative facts and burn his family legacy to the ground. From House of SpeakEasy’s​“Seriously Entertaining,” June 2025. 

Inside the ruthless world of NJ’s frozen veggie kings.

Bestsellers this week at Sonoma’s local bookstore, Readers’ Books.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. The author, a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than three decades, discusses his recently released book​“The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.”

New books by Carl Hiaasen and John Seabrook tell distinctly American stories. Carl Hiaasen and John Seabrook are out with new books that draw from their personal experiences in order to tell distinctly American stories. First, many of the scenarios in the novel Fever Beach were inspired by Hiaasen’s experience living in South Florida. The book satirizes the white nationalist movement, following a ragtag militia that forms when its leader is kicked out of the Proud Boys. In today’s episode, Hiaasen speaks with Here & Now’s Robin Young about striking a balance between satire and reality. Then, New Jersey’s Seabrook Farms was once called the biggest vegetable factory on earth. But the family that ran it — according to John Seabrook — was backstabbing, alcoholic, and ruthless. In The Spinach King, Seabrook tells the true story behind his family’s empire. In today’s episode, he joins NPR’s Ari Shapiro for a conversation about the man behind Seabrook Farms, the violence that underlies large fortunes, and family betrayal.

How C. F. Seabrook became the Lear of the vegetable fields.

‘The Spinach King’ is a tale of American success — and family betrayal.NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with John Seabrook about his book _​The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, which tells the story of his family’s frozen vegetable empire.

John Seabrook on the Destructive Family Battles of​“The Spinach King.“The writer’s grandfather founded an agricultural empire, but destroyed his business and his family rather than cede control to his sons.​“It’s​‘Succession,’ with spinach,” Seabrook says.

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

BETRAYAL, REVENGE AND FAMILY SECRETS: A FROZEN FOOD​“SUCCESSION.” This week, we share a story of revenge, betrayal and secrets … at a frozen vegetable empire. John Seabrook investigates why running​“the biggest vegetable factory on Earth” led to generations of drama in his family, like a real-life version of the TV show​“Succession.”