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Smith Bros. branded whitefish caviar
The Smith family made their own fresh water whitefish caviar. The recipe for the caviar was developed by Delia Wassink Smith in her kitchen back in the 1920s. Smith Bros. produced its own caviar until the 1990s.A downpayment of the "story" from Danial Smith
I must think back to the days when in Nov. and Dec., from P. W., I made two annual visits to Duluth and to isolated outposts along the North Shore and to Grand Marais MN, & Grand Portage ,MN .......the first trip in early Nov. to make the deals and arrangements, and deliver the empty kegs (and later plastic pails.)...........then in mid- Dec. to make the pickups of salted HERRING roe.. then return (usually in the lower truck gears) to PORT Wash.-----An interesting story from Lincoln D. Smith
You had mentioned the info about caviar and Jack Lord of "Hawaii 5-0" TV series. Here is the "rest of the story": As office manager, I was particularly bothered one day with a lot of unimportant and "crank calls". Another call came in and was answered by our office receptionist who buzzed me and said that a Jack Lord was on the phone and wished to talk with our president(which was me). I said to her to verify the caller again, and she replied that the caller really did sound like Lord, so I took the call who again said he was Jack Lord, calling from Honolulu. He wanted to order 1-2 cases of our best caviar, explaining that he had tasted it before and liked it very much, but, could not find to buy it in Hawaii. He needed it to serve at a party he was planning.We thereafter shipped the caviar to the address he gave me. Then, we waited to see what the results were, I about 2 weeks, we received his personal check for the payment along with several souvenirs of his "5-0" show and appreciation for our cooperation!.Now, for the rest of the story.
About a year later, the Wis. Restaurant Association promoted a group of we members to go to Hawaii for a get-to-gether with the Hawaii Rest. group in Honolulu for about a week. I was ready for a vacation like this and, along with my wife (Maxine Smith), we went there, with, along with our luggage, took 2 more cases of caviar, with the idea of giving them to Jack Lord (for good PR, etc.). We were unable to see him in person, because he was "on location" at the studio, up in the hills. We ended up giving the caviar to the gate watchman, with request that he see that Lord gets it . As I never heard further from Mr. Lord, I don'tknow if he got the caviar, or, did the gate man!
Here are three of the labels that were used.
The first is the "Delia brand Fresh-Pack Whitefish Caviar" (above).
"Land O' Lakes Whitefish Caviar" (above)
"Sea Gold Whitefish Caviar" (above)
