The 1940s Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Applebox Belles: The Women of Lake Country’s Packinghouses

A. P. brand apple box label

The switch from wooden to cardboard boxes also saw the end of the brightly coloured apple box labels such as this one from Alex Phillip’s orchard in Oyama. […]

Vernon Fruit Union, Oyama, 1940

At the packinghouse fruit was sized and graded and apples considered not suitable for market due to bruises, blemishes, or poor colour were culled. In the early years, […]

Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1940s

The sorting line at the Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1940s.

Winoka Cooperative Exchange staff, 1946

Winoka Cooperative Exchange staff, Okanagan Centre, October 10th, 1946. Ann Cook, Curly McDonald, Edie Gibbons, Helen Lidstone, Mrs. French, Joyce Buckley, Bryan Cooney, Minnie Dehnke, Norm Simpson, Hiroshi […]

Okanagan Centre, 1948

Main Street, Okanagan Centre, 1948. The packinghouse had an overhead conveyor which transported the boxed apples from the packinghouse to the storage facility across the road.

The packing line at the Vernon Fruit Union, Winfield, early 1940s

As each packer completed her pack she stamped her number on the end of the box. This formed the basis for payment.

The sorting line at the Vernon Fruit Union, Winfield, early 1940s

The belles normally worked ten hours a day. Sorters were paid by the hour, earning less than $15 per week.

Women at work in the Woodsdale packinghouse, 1944

Grandmothers Helping to Pack Fruit Crop Grandmothers, schoolgirls and housewives have joined forces at Kelowna to play a big role in this year’s bumper apple crop. Clad in […]

Winsome Winnie Winfield

Winnie Draper Heyworth Interview September 21st, 2015. Winnie Draper was born in Glenella, Manitoba July 27th, 1916. Her family moved to Winfield, British Columbia in 1926. Winnie began […]