Food and Beverages

Many companies in the agriculture-based state of Nebraska produced food and beverages. Dairies, breweries, packinghouses, and distilleries are integral parts of Nebraska's manufacturing history. Clockwise, L. to R.: Bartlett pears, Allen Bros., Omaha; Wanda's Bread Mix, Nature Farm Foods, Inc., Lincoln; Honey, E. C. Leigh, Beatrice; Tostada Chips, Nebraska Land Dist. Co., Hastings; Sterling, Zipp Baking, Nebraska City; Meadow Land Honey, Alliance; Popcorn, Morrison Farms, Clearwater; Grama's, Lincoln Michael Cudahy founded the Cudahy Packing Company in 1886 and the plant continued in operation until 1967. It was one of the "Big Four" packing plants in Omaha, which also included Armour, Swift, and Morris. hog advertizing card, beef extract card, photo, photo, Puritan lard can The Eskimo Pie was invented by Christian Nelson, of Iowa. He came to Omaha to patent his idea in 1920. There he met Russell Stover, who convinced him to franchise his product. The name Eskimo Pie was coined when Stover sent his sister to the Omaha Public Library to find a word that conveyed "cold." The partners made a fortune the first year, but knockoff products, and delinquent royalty payments from franchisees, hurt their profits. Stover sold his share back to Nelson, who eventually sold the company. The Weaver's Potato Chip Company, Inc., began in 1932 with its hand-scrubbed "Weaver Brownie Vitamin Chips." Today Weaver's is located at 610 L Street in Lincoln and processes five thousand pounds of potatoes an hour. Hastings Inventor Edwin Perkins had problems marketing his Fruit Smack, a liquid drink concentrate. Packaged in bottles, the product was expensive to ship and often broke in transit, so to solve these problems Perkins developed a way to dehydrate the concentrate. Wildly successful, the Perkins Product Company moved to Chicago in 1931. Today Kraft Foods Company continues to manufacture Kool-Aid, a favorite of children for generations.

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