Fruit Drying and Packinghouses · Before Silicon Valley

Title: Fruit Drying and Packinghouses
Description: Orchard crops that ripened at the same time caused a problem for orchard ranchers as fruit flooded the local market and decreased profits. Ranchers needed to extend the shipping period in order to increase their profit margin. While train car refrigeration had not yet been invented, canning and drying fruit extended the purchase time by allowing fruit to be shipped to distant, more competitive markets, increasing sale prices.

Drying fruit could be processed easily at an orchard, with cut fruit spread on wooden trays to dry in the sun. Experimenting with different fruits, farmers discovered that the prune, le petit prune d’Agen, dried beautifully, resulting in a good appearance and delicious taste. Through most of the 20th century, fruit was dried in orchards and then sent to factories to be packed and shipped. Families were often hired to work in the drying sheds.

Packinghouses, on the other hand, were located next to train tracks for easy shipping and functioned much like a cannery. As historian Glenna Matthews notes, the main difference between packinghouse work and cannery work is that packinghouses jobs were not as rigidly segregated by gender. By the 1930s there were only 13 packinghouses in Santa Clara County compared to 38 canneries.
Additional Online Information: Success Story: Mayfair Packing - 1956
Identifier: B4SV Exhibit Topic Two: Slide 002