During a holiday in the United States in 1915, Birdseye
married Eleanor Gannett. He returned to Labrador alone
because his wife was pregnant, but after the birth of the
child, Eleanor and the infant went to Labrador with
Birdseye. The couple would have three more children.
Now with family responsibilities, Birdseye needed to
provide for his family in Labrador’s harsh and inhospitable
climate. In particular, he had to be sure that they had
enough to eat.
The beginning of Birdseye’s experiments in freezing
food came about when he observed that the Labrador natives,
when they pulled fish from the water and laid it on
the ice, ended up with solidly frozen fish that, if kept
frozen, could be thawed and cooked weeks or even
months later. Fish preserved in this way tasted as good as
they would have on the day they were caught as long as
they were solidly frozen until they were cooked.