July 25, 2023 • 48 mins
The Quaker Oats brand wasn't founded by Quakers and has sold a lot more than oats. Anney and Lauren dig into the winding history of Quaker, oats and all.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm Learn vogel Baum, and today we have
an episode for you about Quaker Oats. Yes, and as always,
not a sponsor, Nope, just a just a brand of interest.
And what an interest it is because you and you
(00:29):
suggested this one. You said history is going to be
a bit twisty, and I was like, eh, I dismissed
it foolishly.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
She says that all the time, it'll be fine, we're professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
No. A week later, Oh my gosh, I got so frustrated.
And it's not it's really not the fault of anyone.
It was just like, give it to me straight man,
like what is this? And I this is something I
find in deering and very frustrating. But a lot of
times when we do these company ones, they just assume,
(01:06):
you know what and who they're talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
They don't feel the need to elaborate. They're just like, oh, yeah,
and then this dude did this thing with this company
at this time, and you're like, who was that and
why was the company and how is it involved? And
there yeah, And I mean like yeah, without a lot
I mean yeah, like you can do the legwork, but
holy heck, it can be frustrating.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yes, And there was a lot of especially around the
founding of it, where I was like, wait, but I
just read somewhere else these people founded it. And also
it was seven of these mills and now it's eleven
of these mills and now it's three. Like what it's
(01:51):
going on?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So between mysteries and histories and also write all of
that difficulty of trans translating that into the history into
the into the internet. I'm sorry, I think I don't know.
I think we have a timeline.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I think we do too, and it's it's a very
fascinating one. It goes all over the place. Oh yeah,
it's just I guess disclaimer caveat. It was a lot
to wrangle, and we to wrangle it.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, take take take this one with a grain of oats.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yes, which speaking of you can see our oatmeal episode,
which we do cover a lot of the a lot
of things that we talked about in here, because yeah,
Quaker oats a lot of people think of, especially in America,
I would say, uh, think about oatmeal. So yes, yes,
(02:50):
oh it's gonna be fun. Here we go We've got this,
we do, we do, all right, So Quaker oats, Yeah,
what is it? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Uh, Quaker is a brand that deals in breakfast cereals, snacks,
and other grain based and mostly oat based products. Historically,
they've owned a bunch of other food and beverage brands
and historically historically like weird other things too, But all
of those food and bev brands, along with Quaker are
(03:24):
now under the larger Pepsi Coo umbrella. All right, and yeah,
Quaker is just like a marketing powerhouse. Always have been
just really good and smart about managing their assets and
their image as this like straightforward, simple, healthy brand of foods,
even when that's been like not entirely the case.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Uh, they are just.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
A giant brand that leans on nostalgia and emphasizes convenience.
They're like a they're like if like like old Hollywood
was a food brand, like button down and aspirationally friendly
and like absolutely in your home and front facing perfect,
(04:10):
but there is so much effort behind seeming that honest
and friendly.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Once again, yep, very good.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Okay, all right, So today the Quaker brand mostly sells
dry cereals that are meant to be cooked with water
or milk or another liquid and consumed hot for breakfast.
They sell big cylindrical cardboard canisters of steel cutoats, rolled
oats and quick cooking oats, then boxes and single serving
(04:47):
microwavable bowls and little pouches of instant oatmeal, also oat
brand cereal, which is a ground oat cereal, and then
furthermore banisters, boxes and bowls and packets of white corn
grits in either standard or quick cooking varieties. Yes, the
(05:11):
oatmeal just into and of itself comes in plain or
all kinds of dang flavors and formulations. Flavors include, but
are not limited to, my friends, maple and brown sugar,
brown sugar and cinnamon, apples and cinnamon, apples and cranberries,
blueberries and cranberries, strawberry, banana, banana, maple, raisins and spice, raisin,
date and walnut, banana, nut, honey and almonds, cinnamon, pecan, cranberry, almond, coconut, caramel,
(05:35):
strawberries and cream, peaches and cream, blueberries and cream, cookies
and cream chocolates, some moors, dinosaur eggs, which are candies,
and fruit fusions which are like tinted in fruit colors
and come in blueberry, BlackBerry, strawberry, peach, and raspberry strawberry.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I did not get through that in one take.
I had to cough a little bit somewhere around cranberry
almond anyway. Yeah, So to achieve all these flavors, they
may have bits of dried or freeze dried fruit or
nuts or flavor powders involved. They also do have a
slightly fancier and or less processed line of microwaveable bowls
(06:16):
called real med leys. Ooh yeah, what's a real med lady,
I don't know. It's it's got like fruit and nuts
and like a little bit less sweetener.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The different formulations can include like twice the fiber, twice
the protein, twice the fiber and protein, lower sugar, gluten free,
and organic, which isn't really a formulation, but I kind
of didn't have a better place to put it.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
M m m.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The grits come in a plain or flavors like butter,
cheddar cheese, Jolapano cheddar cheese, lovers, country bacon, and red
eye gravy and country ham right right.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
My mom? Like those right?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
They've also got lines after you get over the hot cereals.
They've got lines of manufactured breakfast cereals that are meant
to be eaten cold with milk, including Life Brand, which
is like puffed multi grain squares, Oatmeal squares which are
like like like mini shredded wheat, but made with oats
instead of wheat, Chewy Brand granola cereal, and Quisp which
(07:26):
is a puffed cornflake type cereal quiz Wisp, Oh goodness,
and another peak behind the curtain, friends, I have someone
trying to construct a shipping crate home just one street
(07:47):
over and it makes the very worst noises on the
whole planet all day, all day. And so if there's
any hammering that we don't cut around or take out,
I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you're hearing it. I don't
want to hear it either. Here we are back to
Quaker oats. Okay, all right? After cereals, they also have
(08:08):
packaged snacks, including Yes, Chewy brand granola bars, which are
soft and chewy and usually pretty sweet, with flavors including
chocolate chip and peanut butter and like apple or strawberry.
They also have some puffed rice cakes and like crackers
and chips in both sweet and savory flavors from like
caramel corn to white cheddar, to tangy barbecue to sweet barbecue.
(08:30):
I don't know what the difference is. And then they
also sell cereal grains that are meant to be used
in in like not necessarily breakfast recipes, like like oat flour,
white or yellow corn meal, tortilla mixes like masaharna or
harina preparata, and barley in both normal or fast cooking varieties.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So a lot, a lot, yes, mm hmmm mm hmm.
Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Do not eat brands. I've said it before, I'll say
it again, do not eat brands. As for the nutritional
value of all of those things I just rattled off,
I mean, goodness, migracious, It depends. But you know or
read your nutrition labels. You know, everything else other than
what is on the nutrition label itself that is listed
(09:24):
on the package is marketing. It's marketing, So you know,
read your nutrition labels and pay attention, pay attention to
what it says. Yeah, some of these are very, very
very sugary. I, as a human who tends towards hypoglycemia,
these are definitely too sugary for me to consume in
(09:44):
a lot of cases. But right, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And that's another thing is like, I know that was
a big couple of years ago. Everyone was like, not
only do you look at the nutrition labels, like make
sure go look at how much you're supposed to having
a day, because sometimes you're like, got twenty doesn't seem bad. No,
it's a lot of Yeah, just.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
As we talked about on salt.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, yes, indeed, uh, we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
We do. Okay, So, Quaker's plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
employs over nine hundred people into and of itself and
produces one hundred and twenty million big round canisters of
oatmeal every year. Who.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
According to one industry estimate that I do not know
if it's correct, but I'm going to report it anyway,
the whole company had over ten thousand employees and was
making three point eight billion dollars a year in revenue
as of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah. And then that last one might be someone else's fault.
This one might be my fault, because it's a possibility
that I'm using Google wrong, but I'm pretty sure that
I turned up four four hundred and fifty eight patents
that are currently held by the Quaker company.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Okay, I mean they did do a lot, I could
see it.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I see it.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
They have a long history of being innovators in one
way or another. They heckn do.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And we are going to get into that history after
we get back from a quick break for word from
our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And yes, as we've kind of mentioned, alluded to a lot,
a lot of the history of Quaker oats, Quaker has
to do with marketing, and again you can see our
oatmeal episode because we did discuss some of that when
we were going over the history of that food, perhaps
especially in the United States. Quaker was first trademarked in
(11:57):
eighteen seventy seven Quaker Oats. At the time, there was
a lot of competition and infighting in the industry, and
over the next several decades this resulted in competing oat
milling companies joining to make one single congomerate under the
name Quaker Oats in nineteen oh one. And yes, that's
where a lot of my confusion lies, and the resources
(12:21):
are also confused.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
So yeah, yeah, but yeah, we're gonna we're gonna get
through it together.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We are we are, because let's unpack some of that
a bit, starting with some of the big players. One
of the founders of what would become the Quaker Oats
Company was a man who immigrated from Germany to the
US in eighteen fifty one by the name Ferdinand Schumacher,
and at the time, in Europe people regularly ate porridge
and oats, but upon coming to America, Schoemacher found that
(12:48):
Americans largely saw oats as food for horses and therefore
not people food, not something that they wanted to eat.
So to change this mindset, Schumacher got the idea to
essentially change up the packaging. So he sold cubed oats
and glass shars, which feels like something I could see today.
(13:09):
Oh yeah, a like farmer's market.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Be like ooh ooh, how pretty, how insacremmible, Yeah exactly,
And people enjoyed the convenience of it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Something furthered when Schumacher found a way to sell faster
cooking rolled oats in the early eighteen fifties in Akron, Ohio.
Around the same time, the North Star Mills Company was
founded by Robert Stewart and Canada, and he later opened
a mill in the US after moving there also a
source of confusion for me. But yes, yes, and this
(13:41):
sounds like I hope someone's done a real deep dive
into this in another podcast because I had to cut
myself off. But drama in fighting. Oh yeah, Schumacher's mill
was uninsured and when it caught fire in eighteen eighty six,
he lost everything that he does, which was good news
(14:02):
for some of his competitors, and Schumacher knew that too.
He knew they were reveling in that this had happened
to him, and over the next few decades he tried
to make a comeback. He tried to overtake them, and
at one point even reluctantly joined them, and then they
essentially forced him out.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, more on this in a minute. But no, there's
absolutely oatmeal drama.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Oh my gosh, there's so much drama. Yeah. Well, when
speaking of Okay, as mentioned, the brand name Quaker Oats
was established in eighteen seventy seven along with the logo.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yes, and this was the first trademark for a breakfast cereal.
It was taken out by another competitor in all of this,
one Henry Seymour, who owned the Quaker Mill in Ravina, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And let us talk about this logo for a second.
The Quaker oats Man was first created in eighteen seventy seven,
and over the years he has had a few different looks.
The more iconic close up of just his head that
most of us are familiar with debuted in nineteen fifty six,
and at first it was in black and white, but
a year later there was a color version. The drawing
(15:13):
was the works of Hadden Sumblum, who also designed the
Coca Cola Santa Claus we've discussed before. Over the next
few decades, the company mixed it up a few times
until two thousand and seven when they landed on the
design that most of us associate with the company today,
though in twenty twelve they quote took five pounds off him.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
All right, yep, uh huh, Sure that seems judge, but
that's fine.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yes. There has also been a lot of conversation and
a surprising amount, at least to me, of disagreement and
theories about who this friendly Quaker Man was or who
is based on if anyone. For a long time, it
was widely believed that it was William Penn, the founder
of Pennsylvania who became a Quaker in his early twenties. However,
(16:07):
the FAQ on the company website dismissed that quote. The
Quaker Man is not an actual person. His image is
that of a man dressed in the Quaker garb, chosen
because the Quaker faith projected the values of honesty, integrity,
purity and strength. That being said, some insiders at the
company called him Larry Oh, Larry yeah, Larry hey, Larry yes.
(16:32):
And this also led many to make this shocking realization
that it seems no Quakers were involved in the founding
of the company. Two former founders have confirmed that they
chose the Quaker Man this logo for the values associated
with Quakers and not any specific person.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, not because they were Quakers, not because right, yeah, right,
And I will say, like, like just very briefly, like
in the by that time, Quakers being people belonging to
a set of a Christian like religious and or social
movements known together as Quakerism, which began in the mid
sixteen hundreds in England as a pushback to the Church
(17:13):
of England. In the region. By that time, Quakers were
known as being kind of like educated and socially progressive,
often successful business people or leaders if maybe like a
bit staunch, but in a positive way, like getting stuff done,
you know. Yeah, anyway, Okay, So the Quaker Mill went
(17:36):
bankrupt and a third major competitor, Henry Parsons Crowell Crowell anyway,
he purchased it and the brand name Quaker and the
logo in eighteen eighty one.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And he really advertised the heck out of it, like
that name. He capitalized on it. A lot of people
have brought up she was like, not the Quaker way,
but whatever. Anyway. In eighteen eighty two, he launched the
first national advertising campaign for Breakfast Cereal.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, and he really was pretty successful at making the
Quaker brand, including that logo, a household name, right.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
But there was this was not without challenges because there
were several challenges that came with marketing a product many
Americans weren't familiar with. One was straight up packaging, getting
people to buy it in the first place. But then
there was the issue of cooking them in a way
people would find tasty so that they would be repeat customers. Again,
(18:31):
Americans didn't have a lot of experience with cooking and
eating oats, and they can be pretty bland and mushy,
not a good texture if you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
The Quaker brand may have been printing cooking instructions on
its packaging, like back before Crowell bought it. So for
a hot minute, right and.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Stepping back a bit, This was around the time of
the Civil War and the military needed cheap ways to
feed a lot of soldiers. The idea of eating oats
the same that their horses ate was introduced and adapted,
so that helped with acceptance of this product as well.
Crowd did something else that seems pretty common now but
at the time was sort of revolutionary, begetting in eighteen
(19:12):
ninety one, he printed recipes on the canisters.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, a recipe for oatmeal bread was the first. Their
first on box oatmeal cookie recipe came in nineteen oh eight, and.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
That wasn't their only innovation. The company also introduced the
trial size for people to try, placed in every mailbox
in Portland, Oregon. The story goes and prizes in the box.
One of the early prizes was a piece of China dishware,
and that.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Blows our mind, right, I mean, I guess very different.
I guess oats would be a good packing material. They
later on did mail in prizes, you know, where you
like clip the logo and send it in with maybe
some money and then they'd send you back whatever. One
of them in the nineteen twenties was a working crystal
type radio that you could build in to an oatmeal canister.
(20:04):
What it was like a build your own radio science
kit that you could build into an empty oatmeal canister.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I mean that sounds really cool, right, I'm having trouble
visualizing it, but it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It's like an oatmeal canister with like little electronic or
not electronic, but yeah, like like like little radio bits
sticking out of the top.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Okay, listeners, Oh my goodness, Oh yeah about this? Please?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And there's seven museums. I'll try to remember to link
on social please.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
And then the American Zero Company formed in eighteen eighty eight.
I guess our timeline is kind of jumping all over
the place, but yes, formed in eighteen eighty eight after
seven of the largest American oat millers consolidated. As I said,
that number kind of varies, but I think that's around it. Sure, yeah,
it's there. In nineteen oh one, they changed their name
(20:59):
to the Quick Oats Company.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yes, and as Annie mentioned earlier, there was so much
infighting amongst these three major players leading up to this,
like Schumacher forced Stewart and Crowell out of the consolidated organization,
but then they teamed up and bought up enough shares
to take control back from Schumacher.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oat drama, you know so much. I found this whole
timeline where you could like expand every bullet point and
my brain was like, no, I can't do this.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, I can't do too much oat drama.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, I mean it was a big business and of course,
so of course there was infighting, like it was a
very as we've talked about many many times on the show,
the serial business was really really, really going at this time.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So hmm Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Then in nineteen eleven, another acquisition gave Quaker control of
over half of all milling east of the Rockies. The
government actually filed the antitrust suit to try to prevent it,
but they eventually dropped it.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
In nineteen fifteen, Quaker launched the colorful round containers that
are still in use today, which was a design that
was unique in very eye catching at the time, and
it is still iconic.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, I wanted to mention one more said thing. In
nineteen sixteen, there was a tragic industrial accident at a
Quaker Oats plant in Ontario. Like it was wartime, crews
were working twenty four hours a day to help fill
UK Canadian military contracts, and out dust piled up and
a spark set off a deadly explosion. And this sort
(22:41):
of thing was sadly not uncommon in mills at the time.
We already talked about one that happened in Quaker's history.
Today it has gotten better thanks to safety regulations here
in the States. An explosion that happened at General Mills
led to some really meaningful change, but right can totally
still be an issue if you don't watch out. Quaker
(23:05):
introduced quick oats that cook in one minute in nineteen
twenty two. This was their first foray into real convenience products.
That same year, they organized a corporate division for their
overseas subsidiaries that ran milling operations, which they had been
involved in for a minute, but this is when they
(23:26):
really really got serious about it. The nineteen twenties is
also when Quaker started mass producing agricultural byproducts from their
oats and other grains like they opened a whole chemical
division to work with stuff. One of the products they
created was furferral, which is a chemical solvent. Quaker chemists
(23:48):
learned that it could be used to like clarify lubricating
oils and to help manufacture bake light products, so they
went into commercial production of it. Their Cedar rapids plant
was in fact the only commercial plant for this substance
when in nineteen forty two researchers figured out that it
could help manufacture synthetic rubber, which became very important to
(24:10):
the World War II effort. So that was going on. Meanwhile,
during the war, Quaker also operated a bomb assembly plant
staffed mostly by women in Nebraskada. And I want to
quote a newspiece from the time. Each worker secretly but
sincerely believes the bomb she helps create are destined for
(24:31):
either Hitler or hiro.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Hero whoa.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Goes all over the place indeed never know, never know
where it's going to take you.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Nope, we're speaking of also related to World War two.
That time. We did talk about this in our Oatmeal episode.
It was the original reason a listener requested us to
talk about it, but quickly because it is so wild.
In nineteen forty six, does of boys at Ferneled State
School joined the Science Club, and the main reason many
(25:05):
of them joined had more to do with all the
perks advertised to them. Tickets to baseball games, trips, toys,
and a lot of free food. Yes, and now, this
school was for mentally disabled children and for children who
had been abandoned by their parents their guardians. The children
were abused and often deprived of food and used for
(25:28):
manual labor. So these perks were huge for them. I mean,
any kid would be very excited about it. For these
kids especially, it was very exciting. On top of that,
one of the boys later said he'd hoped by joining
the scientists would see the abuse that they were suffering
at the school and put an end to it. But
(25:50):
the truth came out decades later that part of the
free food being fed to them was Quaker oats, oatmeal
and milk laced with radioactive iron and calcium. As part
of an experiment, other boys were directly injected with radioactive calcium.
This was not the only experiment like this going on
at the time, either, and in nineteen ninety four there
(26:12):
was a federal investigation into the whole thing. Thirty former
students ended up suing MIT, which was the institution that
ran the experiment in Quaker oats in nineteen ninety five.
And it's actually a whole fascinating thing that's like outside
the scope of this podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
But oh yeah, yeah, yeah, super interesting, very sad and
right like this was this was really unfortunately kind of
the forefront of nutritional science at the time, was right
like like making a particle radioactive so that you could
trace it going through someone's system, and just right like
at that point they already dang knew that that was
(26:49):
bad to do to someone's body, you know, the Radium
girls had happened decades earlier, and so.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Not great, not great, No, it really wasn't. Nope. But
all of that being said, Quaker oats did experience a
boost after World War II, when a lot of health
guidelines were being put into place. The Department of Agriculture
released their first dietary guidelines in nineteen forty three, and
in these guidelines, oats were recommended whole grain. The first
(27:21):
television commercials produced in the fifties leaned into this nutrition
aspect real hard and in apart because of this their
sales reached two hundred and seventy seven million dollars. However,
when research suggested that competitor cream of Wheat was better nutritionally,
Quaker Oats set about doing their own research to disprove this,
(27:44):
and the aforementioned study, horrific study is one of them. Yeah,
to prove like, no, we're the healthier product. They donated
the oats for that experiment. Yeah, yep, yep. And moving on,
instant oats hit grocery shelves in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Uh huh sixty six, I think, and then the first flavor,
maple and brown sugar hit in nineteen seventy. Meanwhile, Quaker
had started expanding into like a lot of different food products,
starting back in the nineteen twenties when they bought the
Anchemima pancake mix brand, and they really ramped up in
(28:30):
the fifties through the nineties with pet food, the Fisher
Price toy company, drinks like Gatorayes and Snapple, retailing specialists
like Joss Bank, Clotheiers and Brookstone, and of course other
breakfast cereals like Life and cap'n Crunch. And because I
(28:55):
was so delighted by Quisp I wanted to quote real
quick from Quaker's website. In nineteen sixty five, Quisp landed
on Earth with his Quazy cereal. Yeah it's uh, it's
sort of saucer shaped like that. The mascot is an alien.
(29:15):
They continue bring Quisp to your house and home planet today.
The crispy flavor is out of this world.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I'm gonna have to look into Cuisp. I have to
look into it. I just want to know more. That's
all the thing is.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I don't know if answers are out there. But hey again,
right in Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
The X Files, I knock off. We need Chris. The
answer might not be out there.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Get Scully and Molder on the case, yes, or quais
as I suppose the case baby, Oh my goodness. Okay, anyway, yeah,
all of this to say, like Quaker was like aggressive
and had a large portfolio, but like the day, by
the nineteen nineties, like mid nineties, they decided to focus
on consumer food products.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yes, but before that, before then yeah yeah, yes, let's
go back to that Fisher pricing. Ok yes, okay, all right,
So I know we've mentioned this in another podcast, but
every time it blows my mind. So I bring it
up again, and.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, because we've done an episode on Willy Wonka.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, so yes, Quaker Oats financed the nineteen seventy
one film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a
marketing opportunity for their planned Willy Wonka line of products.
And that is why it is called Willy Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory and not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
like the book.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, because they wanted to make a line of chocolates
and brand them Wonka and there you go.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yep, basically a film linked ad for their candies that
they were designing just for the release, and it was
for them like, oh, it was getting released by a
major studio. This is a big deal. However, there were
a handful of problems, as we did discuss in that episode,
including and nailing down the Wonka bar recipe, which they
did not manage before the movie came out. And in
(31:09):
nineteen eighty eight they sold this part of the company
to Nessley and that also is a really fascinating I'm
convincing it, but there's a fascinating history out there too.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I think how I think we
talked about that in the Wonka episode.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I think we might have also talked about it in
the Oatmeal episode. Okay, I think it's come up a
couple times, but anyway, Yeah, very interesting. And then speaking
of the infamous Life Cereal, which, as you said, it's
the Quaker Oats product introduced in the early sixties, they
had this commercial Mikey I think he likes it, and
it debuted in nineteen seventy two, and it was it
(31:48):
was just such a huge cultural moment. It had such
a huge impact. People still quote it not even knowing
where it came from.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Sure, Yeah, Mikey likes it. Yeah, is just a thing
that you can hear from people who have never seen
this commercial.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Have no idea where it's from. And as discussed in
a previous episode which I can't remember which one, but
we did talk about, we talked about the actor who
played Mikey, whose name John Gilchrist, who long rumored to
have died but is still alive, perplexed by the whole
thing and still eats live cereal. Yeah, we went into
(32:20):
like the whole.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Pop rox I think it was Pop Rocks.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
It might have been because we were talking about kind
of that like urban legend of yeah, mento's and coke
and your stomach will do something. Yeah, So why did
this catch on? It's really fascinating that kind of Oh yeah, yeah,
mental urban Yeah, something else I didn't know, okay. The
(32:43):
company also dabbled in video games and had a video
game division called US Games. In the nineteen eighties. Huh.
They developed fourteen games for the old Atari twenty six
hundred system. Apparently, and perhaps not surprisingly, they they were
reportedly terrible, like shockingly bad. There's one that some people
(33:04):
are like. This one's kind of okay. One was a
hide and seek game called Sneak and Peak, which people
were like, have you ever wanted to play hide and Seek?
Not just done? Yeah, that's fair. I don't know. I'm
fascinated by the whole thing though. Yeah. Something else we've
(33:28):
mentioned before and in this episode, and an effort to
get more kids to eat oatmeal. In the nineties, the
company introduced dinosaur egg oatmeal. The eggs would hatch into
pieces of candy. They were a hit and are still
around today. There were a couple of other like Pirates
Treasure version that they are around, but this one has less. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, little pieces that are that are meant to like
to like to like melt basically or dissolve in hot
milk and reveal more other candy. And I'm like, all right, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Would have been into that as a kid. In nineteen
ninety four, Quaker purchased Snapple. Chess is a line of drinks.
This is a very like nineties. This is a big Seinfeld.
Every time I think a sample, I think it's snymeld.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, like tea and juice based things.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Right. However, this partnership only lasted twenty seven months, and
the La Times labeled it one of the worst flops
in corporate merger history because apparently they invested one point
seven billion dollars to buy Snapple and then they sold
it for three hundred million dollars. Ouch. Wow, I know
(34:42):
it's not good. That's not good that I can fathom it.
I can get it's bad, but it's right. And then
I know this is also a Quaker has had their
hands and so many things. We've talked about this before.
They requested that the FDA allow them to advertise that
their product could help lower the risk of heart disease.
(35:04):
Before nineteen ninety seven, companies couldn't make specific health claims
about their products. So this was new May. Yeah, the
FDA agreed, and it completely changed the food advertising landscape.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Oh yeah, and the language you might have clocked it
or something like it. On packaging at some point it
goes soluble fiber from oatmeal as part of a low
saturated fat, low cholesterol diet may reduce the risk of
heart disease.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And several groups and organizations protested this whole thing, but
by nineteen ninety nine, Quaker was raking in the benefits
with reported record sales.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, in two thousand and seven, they stepped back on
some of their claims like this on packaging after being
threatened with a lawsuit by the Center for Science and
the Public Interest, which I think is great. I think
that's great because yeah, like all of those again, like
I said, like read the nutrition facts. Everything else is marketing.
(36:06):
It might be scientifically solvent marketing, but like in what way,
like we say all the time, like human bodies are complicated,
and like when you have so many modifiers to your sentence,
to that sentence that I just said above, like it's yeah,
you're like, well how much and when and why and
(36:28):
in whom and where did you find this information, I
would like to know. I would like to subscribe to
your newsletter, not because I find it interesting, because I want.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
To check your facts.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Around this time, like like the early like the nineties
to the early two thousands, the breakfast scene was in
the midst of some changes. For about like a decade,
consumers had been switching from sit down breakfasts to two
more on the go options, and so Quaker began pretty
snack bars. As of the year two thousand, their snack
(37:04):
division was growing at a rate of four percent year
over year, which was more than twice what their overall
food division was doing. Then, in two thousand and one,
PepsiCo acquired Quaker Oats for some thirteen point four billion
dollars in stock. This was partially because Quaker owned Gatorade
(37:30):
among a bunch of other brands like Rice a Roni
and and Jemima and cap'n Crunch, and they also had
these like really streamlined, streamlined distribution systems for all of
these products. There was a bit of drama to the acquisition,
including Quaker rejecting an initial bid from Pepsi, and then
Coca Cola like their board like like blocked them from
(37:52):
putting forth a bid, possibly because Coca Cola already owned
Power Aid and the FTC would not have let them
keep both anyway. The merger made PepsiCo the fifth largest
food and beverage company in the world by revenue. Quaker
and Gatorade as brands were each doing over a billion
(38:15):
dollars in retail sales every year at the time. Wow, yeah, yep, oatmeal.
In two thousand and three, Quaker helped the University of
Iowa start on a project to reduce and eventually eliminate
coal based energy on campus. They began with using oathuls
(38:36):
as biomass fuel, along with a bunch of other programs.
University of Iowa hopes to be coal free by twenty
twenty five. Okay, yeah, you may have just heard a
cameo from my cat during that last bullet point. He
is now out of the room and doing whatever he wants.
That is out of the room, all right, Okay, here
(39:02):
we go, Here we go, uh Quaker in twenty twelve,
I'm so sorry that this one is so baddy. I
hope that you're having just a fine time following along
with us being a little bit baddy, all right. In
twenty twelve, Quaker launched their Quaker Oats Center of Excellence,
which is a research and development center meant to further
(39:23):
develop scientific research into oats nutritional impact and agricultural practices
and sustainability practices and product development. It does have a
scientific advisory board to help keep them all, you know,
on the up and up. But of course it is
hard to say whether sponsored research is unbiased. But of course,
(39:44):
where does the money for research come from without corporate sponsorship?
Speaker 3 (39:48):
M hm.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So all the things we have to keep in mind.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yep, yep, yep. In twenty eighteen, there was a wave
of concern about food safety after residues of glyphosphate, the
active ingredient and roundup weed killer was found in every
sample of Quaker and General Mills out based products. They
were like, well, those are within the legal standards, but
(40:14):
the industry kind of pushed back and was like, maybe
they're not like best practice safety standards because glyphosphate is
potentially cancer causing. So yeah, it's complicated and more research.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Is necessary indeed indeed.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
And then twenty twenty two was there one hundred and
forty fifth anniversary.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Yeah, wow, and what an and what a one hundred
and forty five years. It has been Yeah, full of intrigue, oh, intrigue,
all kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Oh my gosh, this one. Yeah, it was a it
was a push of the mind of this podcaster too. Yeah,
get my head around it. But very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, yeah, no, I love it.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
I really yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Like, like we've mentioned him a bunch of times, but
I guess I hadn't put it all together in my brain.
And there were also little pockets that I didn't realize,
like Fisher Price, pardon like what yes, like okay, yes, huh.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah, there was plenty that we just didn't have time
to cover.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
So yeah, if you have a favorite Quaker fact that
we did not cover, let us.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Know, yes, please, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Uh and we do already have some listener mail for you.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
We do, but first we have one more quick break
for a word from our sponsor. They we're back, Thank
you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with school. Well,
(42:04):
my mom used to make a really good oatmeal Laura, okay, okay,
but it made this specific sound because she made it
in the crock pot. Okay, of the like the condensation,
the heat, and it would like make this popping sound,
and I just I loved it so much. I loved
it when she made it because it was like much
(42:25):
better than just kind of the instance. Oh sure, yeah,
that sound. I just when I hear that sound, I
think of oatmeal. I know that's very specific in you. No, no,
I love it.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I was I was assuming it was some kind of
conglomerate noise.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, I mean it was coming together and then like
a funneling. But yeah, yeah, you know it works on
many levels, a little.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Bit of gelatinization. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
M h, That's definitely what I intended. Kelsey wrote. I
very much enjoyed hearing your recent BlackBerry episode, Lauren. Your poetic,
creative and evocative food descriptions never fail to delight me.
We have a volunteer BlackBerry bush, and I can confirm
tenacious is an accurate and kind descriptor. Insidious to irritatingly
(43:16):
persistent is another way to put it. I am forever
pulling suckers from my other garden buds. Anyway, we love it,
sweet tangy fruit babies, so stained from laying waste to
our BlackBerry patch. I like to say we ranch it,
but all we do is hack it. Back twice a year,
then it surges back every summer, producing so much fruit.
(43:36):
I am still making smoothies from last season's berries as
we approach another harvest time. Woh I have attached to
a photo of this thorny friend to my email, also
attached as an image of my own food thief. It
made me chuckle and think swiper, no swiping when I
heard another listener's story of their muffin stealing cat. Swiper,
(43:58):
my cat, Jack, unlike Laurren's respectful gray Cat, shows no
self restraint. Frustratingly, Jack tends to steal food choumpet only
enough to contaminate it leaves their s behind. He also
frequently tries to incriminate our dog, Hazel by leaving chewed
roomnants in the vicinity of her bowl or crate. Cats. Wow,
(44:22):
I mean you gotta appreciate it on someone. I mean, right,
that's that's Shenanigan's Yeah, and I'm thinking of framing someone.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
I mean that's advanced. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't. I'm gonna
I'm gonna offer another alternative that saying that gray Cat
is respectful is kind, I also tenacious. He is also persistent. Yes,
(44:54):
he is perhaps irritatingly persistent, as as you might hear
now that I've put him out of my studio, him
clawing at the door and screaming at me because it
is close enough to wet food o'clock that, Oh, that's
just what's happening.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Well, we can forgive that, though I should.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
I mean, no, absolutely fair. If I didn't have a
posable thumb, I would scream a lot too.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Also, yes, I'm very jealous of your I appreciate the
effort to maintain it from overtaking everything. But I'm jealous
of your BlackBerry smoothies and fresh blackberries.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Oh yeah, oh that sounds so delightful, Kate wrote, I'm
in Portland, Oregon, where the wild blackberries are everywhere. Many
say invasive. Did you know that goats like to eat
thorny BlackBerry bushes. Their prehensile tongues are well suited for
eating shrubs, spines, and leaves. It'll take eight to twelve
(45:48):
goats about two weeks to clear an acre of bushes.
People will rent out goats to clear your land. They
eat the branches and then make it easier to dig
out the roots without getting constantly stuck. I thought you
might be interested in this. You thought it correctly, Yeah, ay,
we always want to hear about goats.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yes, I have heard of this. I haven't heard of
this specifically. Yeah. We have a mutual friend who was
looking into renting goats, yeah, in their backyard, and I
was like, is that a thing? And they're like, oh, yeah,
oh that's definitely a thing.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah. Yeah, No, I had I had a neighbor a
while back who rented goats to clear their yard and
they were they were very noisy, but very delightful for
the time that they had them.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
That's funny. I love It's like one of the strangest
sentences I've ever written in an email. When I responded
to Kate, was like, yeah, I rented out those goats
and they had time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, it was really It was actually really cool because
whenever I would go out to my car, like like,
there would just be like a scream that would happen,
and it would take me a secon and to be
like child human, No goat, Okay, there we go Yep, Nope,
just a goat. Depending on my mood, sometimes I would
screen back. I you know, we would get into shouting matches.
It was I'm sure the neighbors loved it.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Oh, I'm sure they did. Sure they did. I mean,
the Goat's gonna let things out too communicate.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Absolutely got got its goat thoughts.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, yeah, you eat so many blackberries you got to
tell people about it.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Yeah, you got opinions.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
It's true, it's true. Well, thank you to vote that
these listeners who shared their opinions and thoughts with us.
If you would like to share with us, you can
or email us hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod, and we
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
(48:00):
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm Learn vogel Baum, and today we have
an episode for you about Quaker Oats. Yes, and as always,
not a sponsor, Nope, just a just a brand of interest.
And what an interest it is because you and you
(00:29):
suggested this one. You said history is going to be
a bit twisty, and I was like, eh, I dismissed
it foolishly.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
She says that all the time, it'll be fine, we're professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
No. A week later, Oh my gosh, I got so frustrated.
And it's not it's really not the fault of anyone.
It was just like, give it to me straight man,
like what is this? And I this is something I
find in deering and very frustrating. But a lot of
times when we do these company ones, they just assume,
(01:06):
you know what and who they're talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
They don't feel the need to elaborate. They're just like, oh, yeah,
and then this dude did this thing with this company
at this time, and you're like, who was that and
why was the company and how is it involved? And
there yeah, And I mean like yeah, without a lot
I mean yeah, like you can do the legwork, but
holy heck, it can be frustrating.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yes, And there was a lot of especially around the
founding of it, where I was like, wait, but I
just read somewhere else these people founded it. And also
it was seven of these mills and now it's eleven
of these mills and now it's three. Like what it's
(01:51):
going on?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So between mysteries and histories and also write all of
that difficulty of trans translating that into the history into
the into the internet. I'm sorry, I think I don't know.
I think we have a timeline.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I think we do too, and it's it's a very
fascinating one. It goes all over the place. Oh yeah,
it's just I guess disclaimer caveat. It was a lot
to wrangle, and we to wrangle it.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, take take take this one with a grain of oats.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yes, which speaking of you can see our oatmeal episode,
which we do cover a lot of the a lot
of things that we talked about in here, because yeah,
Quaker oats a lot of people think of, especially in America,
I would say, uh, think about oatmeal. So yes, yes,
(02:50):
oh it's gonna be fun. Here we go We've got this,
we do, we do, all right, So Quaker oats, Yeah,
what is it? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Uh, Quaker is a brand that deals in breakfast cereals, snacks,
and other grain based and mostly oat based products. Historically,
they've owned a bunch of other food and beverage brands
and historically historically like weird other things too, But all
of those food and bev brands, along with Quaker are
(03:24):
now under the larger Pepsi Coo umbrella. All right, and yeah,
Quaker is just like a marketing powerhouse. Always have been
just really good and smart about managing their assets and
their image as this like straightforward, simple, healthy brand of foods,
even when that's been like not entirely the case.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Uh, they are just.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
A giant brand that leans on nostalgia and emphasizes convenience.
They're like a they're like if like like old Hollywood
was a food brand, like button down and aspirationally friendly
and like absolutely in your home and front facing perfect,
(04:10):
but there is so much effort behind seeming that honest
and friendly.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Once again, yep, very good.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Okay, all right, So today the Quaker brand mostly sells
dry cereals that are meant to be cooked with water
or milk or another liquid and consumed hot for breakfast.
They sell big cylindrical cardboard canisters of steel cutoats, rolled
oats and quick cooking oats, then boxes and single serving
(04:47):
microwavable bowls and little pouches of instant oatmeal, also oat
brand cereal, which is a ground oat cereal, and then
furthermore banisters, boxes and bowls and packets of white corn
grits in either standard or quick cooking varieties. Yes, the
(05:11):
oatmeal just into and of itself comes in plain or
all kinds of dang flavors and formulations. Flavors include, but
are not limited to, my friends, maple and brown sugar,
brown sugar and cinnamon, apples and cinnamon, apples and cranberries,
blueberries and cranberries, strawberry, banana, banana, maple, raisins and spice, raisin,
date and walnut, banana, nut, honey and almonds, cinnamon, pecan, cranberry, almond, coconut, caramel,
(05:35):
strawberries and cream, peaches and cream, blueberries and cream, cookies
and cream chocolates, some moors, dinosaur eggs, which are candies,
and fruit fusions which are like tinted in fruit colors
and come in blueberry, BlackBerry, strawberry, peach, and raspberry strawberry.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I did not get through that in one take.
I had to cough a little bit somewhere around cranberry
almond anyway. Yeah, So to achieve all these flavors, they
may have bits of dried or freeze dried fruit or
nuts or flavor powders involved. They also do have a
slightly fancier and or less processed line of microwaveable bowls
(06:16):
called real med leys. Ooh yeah, what's a real med lady,
I don't know. It's it's got like fruit and nuts
and like a little bit less sweetener.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The different formulations can include like twice the fiber, twice
the protein, twice the fiber and protein, lower sugar, gluten free,
and organic, which isn't really a formulation, but I kind
of didn't have a better place to put it.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
M m m.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
The grits come in a plain or flavors like butter,
cheddar cheese, Jolapano cheddar cheese, lovers, country bacon, and red
eye gravy and country ham right right.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
My mom? Like those right?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
They've also got lines after you get over the hot cereals.
They've got lines of manufactured breakfast cereals that are meant
to be eaten cold with milk, including Life Brand, which
is like puffed multi grain squares, Oatmeal squares which are
like like like mini shredded wheat, but made with oats
instead of wheat, Chewy Brand granola cereal, and Quisp which
(07:26):
is a puffed cornflake type cereal quiz Wisp, Oh goodness,
and another peak behind the curtain, friends, I have someone
trying to construct a shipping crate home just one street
(07:47):
over and it makes the very worst noises on the
whole planet all day, all day. And so if there's
any hammering that we don't cut around or take out,
I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you're hearing it. I don't
want to hear it either. Here we are back to
Quaker oats. Okay, all right? After cereals, they also have
(08:08):
packaged snacks, including Yes, Chewy brand granola bars, which are
soft and chewy and usually pretty sweet, with flavors including
chocolate chip and peanut butter and like apple or strawberry.
They also have some puffed rice cakes and like crackers
and chips in both sweet and savory flavors from like
caramel corn to white cheddar, to tangy barbecue to sweet barbecue.
(08:30):
I don't know what the difference is. And then they
also sell cereal grains that are meant to be used
in in like not necessarily breakfast recipes, like like oat flour,
white or yellow corn meal, tortilla mixes like masaharna or
harina preparata, and barley in both normal or fast cooking varieties.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So a lot, a lot, yes, mm hmmm mm hmm.
Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Do not eat brands. I've said it before, I'll say
it again, do not eat brands. As for the nutritional
value of all of those things I just rattled off,
I mean, goodness, migracious, It depends. But you know or
read your nutrition labels. You know, everything else other than
what is on the nutrition label itself that is listed
(09:24):
on the package is marketing. It's marketing, So you know,
read your nutrition labels and pay attention, pay attention to
what it says. Yeah, some of these are very, very
very sugary. I, as a human who tends towards hypoglycemia,
these are definitely too sugary for me to consume in
(09:44):
a lot of cases. But right, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And that's another thing is like, I know that was
a big couple of years ago. Everyone was like, not
only do you look at the nutrition labels, like make
sure go look at how much you're supposed to having
a day, because sometimes you're like, got twenty doesn't seem bad. No,
it's a lot of Yeah, just.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
As we talked about on salt.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, yes, indeed, uh, we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
We do. Okay, So, Quaker's plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
employs over nine hundred people into and of itself and
produces one hundred and twenty million big round canisters of
oatmeal every year. Who.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
According to one industry estimate that I do not know
if it's correct, but I'm going to report it anyway,
the whole company had over ten thousand employees and was
making three point eight billion dollars a year in revenue
as of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah. And then that last one might be someone else's fault.
This one might be my fault, because it's a possibility
that I'm using Google wrong, but I'm pretty sure that
I turned up four four hundred and fifty eight patents
that are currently held by the Quaker company.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Okay, I mean they did do a lot, I could
see it.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I see it.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
They have a long history of being innovators in one
way or another. They heckn do.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And we are going to get into that history after
we get back from a quick break for word from
our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And yes, as we've kind of mentioned, alluded to a lot,
a lot of the history of Quaker oats, Quaker has
to do with marketing, and again you can see our
oatmeal episode because we did discuss some of that when
we were going over the history of that food, perhaps
especially in the United States. Quaker was first trademarked in
(11:57):
eighteen seventy seven Quaker Oats. At the time, there was
a lot of competition and infighting in the industry, and
over the next several decades this resulted in competing oat
milling companies joining to make one single congomerate under the
name Quaker Oats in nineteen oh one. And yes, that's
where a lot of my confusion lies, and the resources
(12:21):
are also confused.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
So yeah, yeah, but yeah, we're gonna we're gonna get
through it together.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We are we are, because let's unpack some of that
a bit, starting with some of the big players. One
of the founders of what would become the Quaker Oats
Company was a man who immigrated from Germany to the
US in eighteen fifty one by the name Ferdinand Schumacher,
and at the time, in Europe people regularly ate porridge
and oats, but upon coming to America, Schoemacher found that
(12:48):
Americans largely saw oats as food for horses and therefore
not people food, not something that they wanted to eat.
So to change this mindset, Schumacher got the idea to
essentially change up the packaging. So he sold cubed oats
and glass shars, which feels like something I could see today.
(13:09):
Oh yeah, a like farmer's market.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Be like ooh ooh, how pretty, how insacremmible, Yeah exactly,
And people enjoyed the convenience of it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Something furthered when Schumacher found a way to sell faster
cooking rolled oats in the early eighteen fifties in Akron, Ohio.
Around the same time, the North Star Mills Company was
founded by Robert Stewart and Canada, and he later opened
a mill in the US after moving there also a
source of confusion for me. But yes, yes, and this
(13:41):
sounds like I hope someone's done a real deep dive
into this in another podcast because I had to cut
myself off. But drama in fighting. Oh yeah, Schumacher's mill
was uninsured and when it caught fire in eighteen eighty six,
he lost everything that he does, which was good news
(14:02):
for some of his competitors, and Schumacher knew that too.
He knew they were reveling in that this had happened
to him, and over the next few decades he tried
to make a comeback. He tried to overtake them, and
at one point even reluctantly joined them, and then they
essentially forced him out.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, more on this in a minute. But no, there's
absolutely oatmeal drama.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Oh my gosh, there's so much drama. Yeah. Well, when
speaking of Okay, as mentioned, the brand name Quaker Oats
was established in eighteen seventy seven along with the logo.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yes, and this was the first trademark for a breakfast cereal.
It was taken out by another competitor in all of this,
one Henry Seymour, who owned the Quaker Mill in Ravina, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And let us talk about this logo for a second.
The Quaker oats Man was first created in eighteen seventy seven,
and over the years he has had a few different looks.
The more iconic close up of just his head that
most of us are familiar with debuted in nineteen fifty six,
and at first it was in black and white, but
a year later there was a color version. The drawing
(15:13):
was the works of Hadden Sumblum, who also designed the
Coca Cola Santa Claus we've discussed before. Over the next
few decades, the company mixed it up a few times
until two thousand and seven when they landed on the
design that most of us associate with the company today,
though in twenty twelve they quote took five pounds off him.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
All right, yep, uh huh, Sure that seems judge, but
that's fine.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yes. There has also been a lot of conversation and
a surprising amount, at least to me, of disagreement and
theories about who this friendly Quaker Man was or who
is based on if anyone. For a long time, it
was widely believed that it was William Penn, the founder
of Pennsylvania who became a Quaker in his early twenties. However,
(16:07):
the FAQ on the company website dismissed that quote. The
Quaker Man is not an actual person. His image is
that of a man dressed in the Quaker garb, chosen
because the Quaker faith projected the values of honesty, integrity,
purity and strength. That being said, some insiders at the
company called him Larry Oh, Larry yeah, Larry hey, Larry yes.
(16:32):
And this also led many to make this shocking realization
that it seems no Quakers were involved in the founding
of the company. Two former founders have confirmed that they
chose the Quaker Man this logo for the values associated
with Quakers and not any specific person.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, not because they were Quakers, not because right, yeah, right,
And I will say, like, like just very briefly, like
in the by that time, Quakers being people belonging to
a set of a Christian like religious and or social
movements known together as Quakerism, which began in the mid
sixteen hundreds in England as a pushback to the Church
(17:13):
of England. In the region. By that time, Quakers were
known as being kind of like educated and socially progressive,
often successful business people or leaders if maybe like a
bit staunch, but in a positive way, like getting stuff done,
you know. Yeah, anyway, Okay, So the Quaker Mill went
(17:36):
bankrupt and a third major competitor, Henry Parsons Crowell Crowell anyway,
he purchased it and the brand name Quaker and the
logo in eighteen eighty one.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And he really advertised the heck out of it, like
that name. He capitalized on it. A lot of people
have brought up she was like, not the Quaker way,
but whatever. Anyway. In eighteen eighty two, he launched the
first national advertising campaign for Breakfast Cereal.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, and he really was pretty successful at making the
Quaker brand, including that logo, a household name, right.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
But there was this was not without challenges because there
were several challenges that came with marketing a product many
Americans weren't familiar with. One was straight up packaging, getting
people to buy it in the first place. But then
there was the issue of cooking them in a way
people would find tasty so that they would be repeat customers. Again,
(18:31):
Americans didn't have a lot of experience with cooking and
eating oats, and they can be pretty bland and mushy,
not a good texture if you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
The Quaker brand may have been printing cooking instructions on
its packaging, like back before Crowell bought it. So for
a hot minute, right and.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Stepping back a bit, This was around the time of
the Civil War and the military needed cheap ways to
feed a lot of soldiers. The idea of eating oats
the same that their horses ate was introduced and adapted,
so that helped with acceptance of this product as well.
Crowd did something else that seems pretty common now but
at the time was sort of revolutionary, begetting in eighteen
(19:12):
ninety one, he printed recipes on the canisters.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, a recipe for oatmeal bread was the first. Their
first on box oatmeal cookie recipe came in nineteen oh eight, and.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
That wasn't their only innovation. The company also introduced the
trial size for people to try, placed in every mailbox
in Portland, Oregon. The story goes and prizes in the box.
One of the early prizes was a piece of China dishware,
and that.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Blows our mind, right, I mean, I guess very different.
I guess oats would be a good packing material. They
later on did mail in prizes, you know, where you
like clip the logo and send it in with maybe
some money and then they'd send you back whatever. One
of them in the nineteen twenties was a working crystal
type radio that you could build in to an oatmeal canister.
(20:04):
What it was like a build your own radio science
kit that you could build into an empty oatmeal canister.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I mean that sounds really cool, right, I'm having trouble
visualizing it, but it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It's like an oatmeal canister with like little electronic or
not electronic, but yeah, like like like little radio bits
sticking out of the top.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Okay, listeners, Oh my goodness, Oh yeah about this? Please?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And there's seven museums. I'll try to remember to link
on social please.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
And then the American Zero Company formed in eighteen eighty eight.
I guess our timeline is kind of jumping all over
the place, but yes, formed in eighteen eighty eight after
seven of the largest American oat millers consolidated. As I said,
that number kind of varies, but I think that's around it. Sure, yeah,
it's there. In nineteen oh one, they changed their name
(20:59):
to the Quick Oats Company.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yes, and as Annie mentioned earlier, there was so much
infighting amongst these three major players leading up to this,
like Schumacher forced Stewart and Crowell out of the consolidated organization,
but then they teamed up and bought up enough shares
to take control back from Schumacher.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oat drama, you know so much. I found this whole
timeline where you could like expand every bullet point and
my brain was like, no, I can't do this.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, I can't do too much oat drama.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, I mean it was a big business and of course,
so of course there was infighting, like it was a
very as we've talked about many many times on the show,
the serial business was really really, really going at this time.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So hmm Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Then in nineteen eleven, another acquisition gave Quaker control of
over half of all milling east of the Rockies. The
government actually filed the antitrust suit to try to prevent it,
but they eventually dropped it.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
In nineteen fifteen, Quaker launched the colorful round containers that
are still in use today, which was a design that
was unique in very eye catching at the time, and
it is still iconic.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, I wanted to mention one more said thing. In
nineteen sixteen, there was a tragic industrial accident at a
Quaker Oats plant in Ontario. Like it was wartime, crews
were working twenty four hours a day to help fill
UK Canadian military contracts, and out dust piled up and
a spark set off a deadly explosion. And this sort
(22:41):
of thing was sadly not uncommon in mills at the time.
We already talked about one that happened in Quaker's history.
Today it has gotten better thanks to safety regulations here
in the States. An explosion that happened at General Mills
led to some really meaningful change, but right can totally
still be an issue if you don't watch out. Quaker
(23:05):
introduced quick oats that cook in one minute in nineteen
twenty two. This was their first foray into real convenience products.
That same year, they organized a corporate division for their
overseas subsidiaries that ran milling operations, which they had been
involved in for a minute, but this is when they
(23:26):
really really got serious about it. The nineteen twenties is
also when Quaker started mass producing agricultural byproducts from their
oats and other grains like they opened a whole chemical
division to work with stuff. One of the products they
created was furferral, which is a chemical solvent. Quaker chemists
(23:48):
learned that it could be used to like clarify lubricating
oils and to help manufacture bake light products, so they
went into commercial production of it. Their Cedar rapids plant
was in fact the only commercial plant for this substance
when in nineteen forty two researchers figured out that it
could help manufacture synthetic rubber, which became very important to
(24:10):
the World War II effort. So that was going on. Meanwhile,
during the war, Quaker also operated a bomb assembly plant
staffed mostly by women in Nebraskada. And I want to
quote a newspiece from the time. Each worker secretly but
sincerely believes the bomb she helps create are destined for
(24:31):
either Hitler or hiro.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Hero whoa.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Goes all over the place indeed never know, never know
where it's going to take you.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Nope, we're speaking of also related to World War two.
That time. We did talk about this in our Oatmeal episode.
It was the original reason a listener requested us to
talk about it, but quickly because it is so wild.
In nineteen forty six, does of boys at Ferneled State
School joined the Science Club, and the main reason many
(25:05):
of them joined had more to do with all the
perks advertised to them. Tickets to baseball games, trips, toys,
and a lot of free food. Yes, and now, this
school was for mentally disabled children and for children who
had been abandoned by their parents their guardians. The children
were abused and often deprived of food and used for
(25:28):
manual labor. So these perks were huge for them. I mean,
any kid would be very excited about it. For these
kids especially, it was very exciting. On top of that,
one of the boys later said he'd hoped by joining
the scientists would see the abuse that they were suffering
at the school and put an end to it. But
(25:50):
the truth came out decades later that part of the
free food being fed to them was Quaker oats, oatmeal
and milk laced with radioactive iron and calcium. As part
of an experiment, other boys were directly injected with radioactive calcium.
This was not the only experiment like this going on
at the time, either, and in nineteen ninety four there
(26:12):
was a federal investigation into the whole thing. Thirty former
students ended up suing MIT, which was the institution that
ran the experiment in Quaker oats in nineteen ninety five.
And it's actually a whole fascinating thing that's like outside
the scope of this podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
But oh yeah, yeah, yeah, super interesting, very sad and
right like this was this was really unfortunately kind of
the forefront of nutritional science at the time, was right
like like making a particle radioactive so that you could
trace it going through someone's system, and just right like
at that point they already dang knew that that was
(26:49):
bad to do to someone's body, you know, the Radium
girls had happened decades earlier, and so.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Not great, not great, No, it really wasn't. Nope. But
all of that being said, Quaker oats did experience a
boost after World War II, when a lot of health
guidelines were being put into place. The Department of Agriculture
released their first dietary guidelines in nineteen forty three, and
in these guidelines, oats were recommended whole grain. The first
(27:21):
television commercials produced in the fifties leaned into this nutrition
aspect real hard and in apart because of this their
sales reached two hundred and seventy seven million dollars. However,
when research suggested that competitor cream of Wheat was better nutritionally,
Quaker Oats set about doing their own research to disprove this,
(27:44):
and the aforementioned study, horrific study is one of them. Yeah,
to prove like, no, we're the healthier product. They donated
the oats for that experiment. Yeah, yep, yep. And moving on,
instant oats hit grocery shelves in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Uh huh sixty six, I think, and then the first flavor,
maple and brown sugar hit in nineteen seventy. Meanwhile, Quaker
had started expanding into like a lot of different food products,
starting back in the nineteen twenties when they bought the
Anchemima pancake mix brand, and they really ramped up in
(28:30):
the fifties through the nineties with pet food, the Fisher
Price toy company, drinks like Gatorayes and Snapple, retailing specialists
like Joss Bank, Clotheiers and Brookstone, and of course other
breakfast cereals like Life and cap'n Crunch. And because I
(28:55):
was so delighted by Quisp I wanted to quote real
quick from Quaker's website. In nineteen sixty five, Quisp landed
on Earth with his Quazy cereal. Yeah it's uh, it's
sort of saucer shaped like that. The mascot is an alien.
(29:15):
They continue bring Quisp to your house and home planet today.
The crispy flavor is out of this world.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I'm gonna have to look into Cuisp. I have to
look into it. I just want to know more. That's
all the thing is.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I don't know if answers are out there. But hey again,
right in Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
The X Files, I knock off. We need Chris. The
answer might not be out there.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Get Scully and Molder on the case, yes, or quais
as I suppose the case baby, Oh my goodness. Okay, anyway, yeah,
all of this to say, like Quaker was like aggressive
and had a large portfolio, but like the day, by
the nineteen nineties, like mid nineties, they decided to focus
on consumer food products.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yes, but before that, before then yeah yeah, yes, let's
go back to that Fisher pricing. Ok yes, okay, all right,
So I know we've mentioned this in another podcast, but
every time it blows my mind. So I bring it
up again, and.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, because we've done an episode on Willy Wonka.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, so yes, Quaker Oats financed the nineteen seventy
one film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a
marketing opportunity for their planned Willy Wonka line of products.
And that is why it is called Willy Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory and not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
like the book.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, because they wanted to make a line of chocolates
and brand them Wonka and there you go.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yep, basically a film linked ad for their candies that
they were designing just for the release, and it was
for them like, oh, it was getting released by a
major studio. This is a big deal. However, there were
a handful of problems, as we did discuss in that episode,
including and nailing down the Wonka bar recipe, which they
did not manage before the movie came out. And in
(31:09):
nineteen eighty eight they sold this part of the company
to Nessley and that also is a really fascinating I'm
convincing it, but there's a fascinating history out there too.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I think how I think we
talked about that in the Wonka episode.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I think we might have also talked about it in
the Oatmeal episode. Okay, I think it's come up a
couple times, but anyway, Yeah, very interesting. And then speaking
of the infamous Life Cereal, which, as you said, it's
the Quaker Oats product introduced in the early sixties, they
had this commercial Mikey I think he likes it, and
it debuted in nineteen seventy two, and it was it
(31:48):
was just such a huge cultural moment. It had such
a huge impact. People still quote it not even knowing
where it came from.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Sure, Yeah, Mikey likes it. Yeah, is just a thing
that you can hear from people who have never seen
this commercial.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Have no idea where it's from. And as discussed in
a previous episode which I can't remember which one, but
we did talk about, we talked about the actor who
played Mikey, whose name John Gilchrist, who long rumored to
have died but is still alive, perplexed by the whole
thing and still eats live cereal. Yeah, we went into
(32:20):
like the whole.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Pop rox I think it was Pop Rocks.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
It might have been because we were talking about kind
of that like urban legend of yeah, mento's and coke
and your stomach will do something. Yeah, So why did
this catch on? It's really fascinating that kind of Oh yeah, yeah,
mental urban Yeah, something else I didn't know, okay. The
(32:43):
company also dabbled in video games and had a video
game division called US Games. In the nineteen eighties. Huh.
They developed fourteen games for the old Atari twenty six
hundred system. Apparently, and perhaps not surprisingly, they they were
reportedly terrible, like shockingly bad. There's one that some people
(33:04):
are like. This one's kind of okay. One was a
hide and seek game called Sneak and Peak, which people
were like, have you ever wanted to play hide and Seek?
Not just done? Yeah, that's fair. I don't know. I'm
fascinated by the whole thing though. Yeah. Something else we've
(33:28):
mentioned before and in this episode, and an effort to
get more kids to eat oatmeal. In the nineties, the
company introduced dinosaur egg oatmeal. The eggs would hatch into
pieces of candy. They were a hit and are still
around today. There were a couple of other like Pirates
Treasure version that they are around, but this one has less. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, little pieces that are that are meant to like
to like to like melt basically or dissolve in hot
milk and reveal more other candy. And I'm like, all right, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Would have been into that as a kid. In nineteen
ninety four, Quaker purchased Snapple. Chess is a line of drinks.
This is a very like nineties. This is a big Seinfeld.
Every time I think a sample, I think it's snymeld.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, like tea and juice based things.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Right. However, this partnership only lasted twenty seven months, and
the La Times labeled it one of the worst flops
in corporate merger history because apparently they invested one point
seven billion dollars to buy Snapple and then they sold
it for three hundred million dollars. Ouch. Wow, I know
(34:42):
it's not good. That's not good that I can fathom it.
I can get it's bad, but it's right. And then
I know this is also a Quaker has had their
hands and so many things. We've talked about this before.
They requested that the FDA allow them to advertise that
their product could help lower the risk of heart disease.
(35:04):
Before nineteen ninety seven, companies couldn't make specific health claims
about their products. So this was new May. Yeah, the
FDA agreed, and it completely changed the food advertising landscape.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Oh yeah, and the language you might have clocked it
or something like it. On packaging at some point it
goes soluble fiber from oatmeal as part of a low
saturated fat, low cholesterol diet may reduce the risk of
heart disease.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And several groups and organizations protested this whole thing, but
by nineteen ninety nine, Quaker was raking in the benefits
with reported record sales.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, in two thousand and seven, they stepped back on
some of their claims like this on packaging after being
threatened with a lawsuit by the Center for Science and
the Public Interest, which I think is great. I think
that's great because yeah, like all of those again, like
I said, like read the nutrition facts. Everything else is marketing.
(36:06):
It might be scientifically solvent marketing, but like in what way,
like we say all the time, like human bodies are complicated,
and like when you have so many modifiers to your sentence,
to that sentence that I just said above, like it's yeah,
you're like, well how much and when and why and
(36:28):
in whom and where did you find this information, I
would like to know. I would like to subscribe to
your newsletter, not because I find it interesting, because I want.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
To check your facts.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Around this time, like like the early like the nineties
to the early two thousands, the breakfast scene was in
the midst of some changes. For about like a decade,
consumers had been switching from sit down breakfasts to two
more on the go options, and so Quaker began pretty
snack bars. As of the year two thousand, their snack
(37:04):
division was growing at a rate of four percent year
over year, which was more than twice what their overall
food division was doing. Then, in two thousand and one,
PepsiCo acquired Quaker Oats for some thirteen point four billion
dollars in stock. This was partially because Quaker owned Gatorade
(37:30):
among a bunch of other brands like Rice a Roni
and and Jemima and cap'n Crunch, and they also had
these like really streamlined, streamlined distribution systems for all of
these products. There was a bit of drama to the acquisition,
including Quaker rejecting an initial bid from Pepsi, and then
Coca Cola like their board like like blocked them from
(37:52):
putting forth a bid, possibly because Coca Cola already owned
Power Aid and the FTC would not have let them
keep both anyway. The merger made PepsiCo the fifth largest
food and beverage company in the world by revenue. Quaker
and Gatorade as brands were each doing over a billion
(38:15):
dollars in retail sales every year at the time. Wow, yeah, yep, oatmeal.
In two thousand and three, Quaker helped the University of
Iowa start on a project to reduce and eventually eliminate
coal based energy on campus. They began with using oathuls
(38:36):
as biomass fuel, along with a bunch of other programs.
University of Iowa hopes to be coal free by twenty
twenty five. Okay, yeah, you may have just heard a
cameo from my cat during that last bullet point. He
is now out of the room and doing whatever he wants.
That is out of the room, all right, Okay, here
(39:02):
we go, Here we go, uh Quaker in twenty twelve,
I'm so sorry that this one is so baddy. I
hope that you're having just a fine time following along
with us being a little bit baddy, all right. In
twenty twelve, Quaker launched their Quaker Oats Center of Excellence,
which is a research and development center meant to further
(39:23):
develop scientific research into oats nutritional impact and agricultural practices
and sustainability practices and product development. It does have a
scientific advisory board to help keep them all, you know,
on the up and up. But of course it is
hard to say whether sponsored research is unbiased. But of course,
(39:44):
where does the money for research come from without corporate sponsorship?
Speaker 3 (39:48):
M hm.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So all the things we have to keep in mind.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yep, yep, yep. In twenty eighteen, there was a wave
of concern about food safety after residues of glyphosphate, the
active ingredient and roundup weed killer was found in every
sample of Quaker and General Mills out based products. They
were like, well, those are within the legal standards, but
(40:14):
the industry kind of pushed back and was like, maybe
they're not like best practice safety standards because glyphosphate is
potentially cancer causing. So yeah, it's complicated and more research.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Is necessary indeed indeed.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
And then twenty twenty two was there one hundred and
forty fifth anniversary.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Yeah, wow, and what an and what a one hundred
and forty five years. It has been Yeah, full of intrigue, oh, intrigue,
all kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Oh my gosh, this one. Yeah, it was a it
was a push of the mind of this podcaster too. Yeah,
get my head around it. But very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, yeah, no, I love it.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
I really yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Like, like we've mentioned him a bunch of times, but
I guess I hadn't put it all together in my brain.
And there were also little pockets that I didn't realize,
like Fisher Price, pardon like what yes, like okay, yes, huh.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah, there was plenty that we just didn't have time
to cover.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
So yeah, if you have a favorite Quaker fact that
we did not cover, let us.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Know, yes, please, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Uh and we do already have some listener mail for you.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
We do, but first we have one more quick break
for a word from our sponsor. They we're back, Thank
you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with school. Well,
(42:04):
my mom used to make a really good oatmeal Laura, okay, okay,
but it made this specific sound because she made it
in the crock pot. Okay, of the like the condensation,
the heat, and it would like make this popping sound,
and I just I loved it so much. I loved
it when she made it because it was like much
(42:25):
better than just kind of the instance. Oh sure, yeah,
that sound. I just when I hear that sound, I
think of oatmeal. I know that's very specific in you. No, no,
I love it.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I was I was assuming it was some kind of
conglomerate noise.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, I mean it was coming together and then like
a funneling. But yeah, yeah, you know it works on
many levels, a little.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Bit of gelatinization. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
M h, That's definitely what I intended. Kelsey wrote. I
very much enjoyed hearing your recent BlackBerry episode, Lauren. Your poetic,
creative and evocative food descriptions never fail to delight me.
We have a volunteer BlackBerry bush, and I can confirm
tenacious is an accurate and kind descriptor. Insidious to irritatingly
(43:16):
persistent is another way to put it. I am forever
pulling suckers from my other garden buds. Anyway, we love it,
sweet tangy fruit babies, so stained from laying waste to
our BlackBerry patch. I like to say we ranch it,
but all we do is hack it. Back twice a year,
then it surges back every summer, producing so much fruit.
(43:36):
I am still making smoothies from last season's berries as
we approach another harvest time. Woh I have attached to
a photo of this thorny friend to my email, also
attached as an image of my own food thief. It
made me chuckle and think swiper, no swiping when I
heard another listener's story of their muffin stealing cat. Swiper,
(43:58):
my cat, Jack, unlike Laurren's respectful gray Cat, shows no
self restraint. Frustratingly, Jack tends to steal food choumpet only
enough to contaminate it leaves their s behind. He also
frequently tries to incriminate our dog, Hazel by leaving chewed
roomnants in the vicinity of her bowl or crate. Cats. Wow,
(44:22):
I mean you gotta appreciate it on someone. I mean, right,
that's that's Shenanigan's Yeah, and I'm thinking of framing someone.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
I mean that's advanced. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't. I'm gonna
I'm gonna offer another alternative that saying that gray Cat
is respectful is kind, I also tenacious. He is also persistent. Yes,
(44:54):
he is perhaps irritatingly persistent, as as you might hear
now that I've put him out of my studio, him
clawing at the door and screaming at me because it
is close enough to wet food o'clock that, Oh, that's
just what's happening.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Well, we can forgive that, though I should.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
I mean, no, absolutely fair. If I didn't have a
posable thumb, I would scream a lot too.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Also, yes, I'm very jealous of your I appreciate the
effort to maintain it from overtaking everything. But I'm jealous
of your BlackBerry smoothies and fresh blackberries.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Oh yeah, oh that sounds so delightful, Kate wrote, I'm
in Portland, Oregon, where the wild blackberries are everywhere. Many
say invasive. Did you know that goats like to eat
thorny BlackBerry bushes. Their prehensile tongues are well suited for
eating shrubs, spines, and leaves. It'll take eight to twelve
(45:48):
goats about two weeks to clear an acre of bushes.
People will rent out goats to clear your land. They
eat the branches and then make it easier to dig
out the roots without getting constantly stuck. I thought you
might be interested in this. You thought it correctly, Yeah, ay,
we always want to hear about goats.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yes, I have heard of this. I haven't heard of
this specifically. Yeah. We have a mutual friend who was
looking into renting goats, yeah, in their backyard, and I
was like, is that a thing? And they're like, oh, yeah,
oh that's definitely a thing.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah. Yeah, No, I had I had a neighbor a
while back who rented goats to clear their yard and
they were they were very noisy, but very delightful for
the time that they had them.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
That's funny. I love It's like one of the strangest
sentences I've ever written in an email. When I responded
to Kate, was like, yeah, I rented out those goats
and they had time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, it was really It was actually really cool because
whenever I would go out to my car, like like,
there would just be like a scream that would happen,
and it would take me a secon and to be
like child human, No goat, Okay, there we go Yep, Nope,
just a goat. Depending on my mood, sometimes I would
screen back. I you know, we would get into shouting matches.
It was I'm sure the neighbors loved it.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Oh, I'm sure they did. Sure they did. I mean,
the Goat's gonna let things out too communicate.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Absolutely got got its goat thoughts.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, yeah, you eat so many blackberries you got to
tell people about it.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Yeah, you got opinions.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
It's true, it's true. Well, thank you to vote that
these listeners who shared their opinions and thoughts with us.
If you would like to share with us, you can
or email us hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod, and we
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
(48:00):
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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