ARKANSAS!

One of my projects at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum was setting up a state exhibit on Arkansas. Who knew that Arkansas is famous for its pink tomato or that Alma, Arkansas is the spinach capital of the world? Better yet- did you know that the Arkansas state cookware is the Dutch Oven? This my friends, its what food history is all about! Finding treasures in small town pride! Here are a few pictures of the exhibit done by "yours truly"




I also set up a small exhibit on the Laitram Automatic Shrimp Peeler which was invented by a teenage boy in the first half of the 20th century. The adapted washing-machine-shrimp-peeler he invented completely revolutionized the shrimp industry because the machine peeled shrimp 10 times faster than workers peeling by hand!

So we went out to the antique shops and found an old washing machine from the 1920s that is a similar style to the washing machine that this boy would have modified to make it into a shrimp peeler. You can see it below:

The basic principle: When you push a shrimp up again the turning rubber-wringer with the appropriate pressure; the rubber will grab the shrimp shell and not the meat, pulling away the shell from the delicious shrimp! YUM!