Froz Fruit

It is one thing to find your favorite frozen food in your grocer's freezer, and a whole other thing to find 106 year-old fruitcake in a building on Antarctica.

Russell Baker years and years ago observed that fruitcake was the one food that could qualify as a family heirloom. But could anyone anticipate that fruitcake would qualify as a science exhibit?

Consider the story in today's NYT that tells us of a tin of fruitcake, no doubt belonging to the British explorer Robert F. Scott, that was found in Antarctica's oldest building, constructed by a Norwegian explorer's team in 1899. So, not only is the food found in the freezer old, but the the food was found in a building that is even older.  This is all starting to make sense, when you think about it.

The fruitcake apparently is from the British biscuit maker Huntley & Palmers, a company that is still in business, and still boasting that their tins have turned up in the most unexpected places. The fruitcake has been removed from the hut in Antarctica, along with other artifacts, and is being conserved in a lab in Christchurch, New Zealand. It will eventually be returned to its spot on the frozen continent, since nothing is supposed to be removed from there.

Considering that Antarctica is basically off-limits to anyone not connected with scientific expeditions, there is no change that tourist traffic through the hut will at any time approach that of what Venice endures during the summer. It is one supermarket aisle that may be colder than your grocer's freezer, but it is also one you're not going to get to stroll through.

We know cold helps preserves things. There wouldn't be all those refrigerators in the world holding all the food they do if that weren't the case. But we also know some things other than food have been placed on ice.

Considering that the head of Ted Williams is being preserved somewhere as a cryogenics project in hopes of bringing the last .400 hitter back to life, one has to wonder, if all that is successful, what will be the first piece of food he'll be interested in eating? Could he do worse than starting off with a wedge of fruitcake? They'll be about the same age by then.

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