Social History Archives | Page 2 of 6 | Applebox Belles: The Women of Lake Country’s Packinghouses

Big Chief brand apple box label

The Okanagan Valley Land Company packed ‘C’ grade apples under the Big Chief label.

Nora Carter, 1936

Nora Carter at the Okanagan Centre packinghouse, age fourteen.

Inez Patterson Kenney

Inez Patterson Kenney Photo montage. Narrated by Bill Kenney, December 12th, 2015 Inez Patterson was born in 1917 in Manitoba. After moving first to Burnaby, BC, her family […]

Handipak boxes

The cardboard Handipak boxes changed the role of the packers and eliminated the work of the box makers.

Winfield packinghouse

The staff of the Vernon Fruit Union, Winfield, October 20th, 1955.

Nora, Yoshi, and Kate, 1948

Nora Carter, Yoshi Kobayashi, and Kate at the Okanagan Valley Land Company camp, 1948.

Doukhobor Girls, 1957

Five of the summer girls at the Woodsdale packinghouse, October 9th, 1957.

Marjorie Brixton

Marjorie Brixton with daughter Eleanor, 1948

Ivy Malpass Fallow

Ivy Malpass Fallow Photo montage. Narrated by Herb Fallow, November 13th, 2015 Ivy Malpass was born in 1907 in Lansdowne, BC. As a teenager, she worked at the […]

Applebox Belles at the Woodsdale packinghouse, 1940s

“We really got on with each other, even though there were so many different characters. There were so many memories.” Winnie Heyworth, 2012

Lake Country’s packinghouses, from 1913 to present

By 1911 there were almost 1,000,000 apple trees in the Okanagan. Packinghouses opened throughout the valley, and over the next fifty years at least twenty packinghouses operated in […]

Seaton packinghouse

Jack Seaton opened his first packinghouse in 1919. It was located near his orchard on Camp Road.