Agriculture Archives | Applebox Belles: The Women of Lake Country’s Packinghouses

Before the strike – Applebox belles at the loading dock, 1940s

Vernon Fruit Union, Oyama.

Big Chief brand apple box label

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

Doukhobor Girls, 1957

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

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 […]

Okanagan Valley Land Company sorters, 1937

The sorters of the Okanagan Valley Land Company packinghouse, Okanagan Centre, 1937. Left to right: Back row: unknown, unknown, unknown, Ted Nuyens, unknown, Pam Wentworth Front row: Nellie […]

OK Apples brand box label

The OK Apples brand box label was used by the Vernon Fruit Union 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. […]

Dorothea Allison, 1912

My job at present is apple-packing. I rush over the cooking washing etc in the morning — have one of the pickers in to dinner, wash up and […]

Vernon Fruit Union, Oyama, 1914

The Vernon Fruit Union packing crew and their families, 1914. Back Row: Winnie Brown, Mrs. Curfoot, Charlie Phillips, Alec Philips, Sam Tyndall Front Row: Floyd Whipple, Ted Fudge […]

Packing in the orchard

Robert Allison packing apples in his orchard in Oyama, 1925.

Apple boxes

The size of the standard apple box was 10 x 11 x 20 inches, inside measurement. When fully packed it contained 40 pounds of apples for a total […]

Bluebird brand apple box label

The Bluebird brand was packed at the Seaton packinghouse in Winfield.