I’m originally from the small northern California town of Watsonville, a place that was (and still is) a big agricultural area. (Also where Martinelli’s apple juice comes from. Hooray.)
Anyhow, I’ve recently begun collecting any and every type of fruit crate label from Watsonville that I can find. Started doing a little research, too. Turns out lots and lots of people collect these things.
I don’t collect them, but I did buy a few from a guy off of eBay and they look great. My wife has a fruit themed kitchen and I found some labels from a company called “Pete’s Best” and since our little boy is named Pete I bought them and she framed them and now they’re on the kitchen wall.
I think the guy was called “labelman” (?) on eBay and he was a retired CA fruit/ag inspector and he would get the fruit crate labels the growers were going to throw out and he has thousands of them.
I thought this a weird wacky guy thing to begin with but now I just want to say these labels probably look pretty good on a kitchen wall. Funny how you change your mind…
I don’t know any hardcore collectors, but I know people who have some slective choices. For example, my dad has a pretty big collection of Native American stuff, so he has some antique fruit crate labels that have some faux indian-related brand like “Big Chief” or somesuch. And my friend found a label that has his last name on it (it’s an unusual last name, too) with “& Sons.” So he framed it and gave it to his dad. It’s pretty cool.
Hooray.)
