{HISTORY}

Adding a touch of authentic farmhouse aesthetic to your kitchen, this vintage Oxnard Brand lemon label panel was once part of a 1940s-era wood packing crate.  Although chippy and tanned in some spots, this is a wonderful example of California's unique 20th-century agricultural history.

The Oxnard Lemon Company brand dates back to the 1940s, to the rich soil surrounding the Port of Hueneme, located between Los Angeles and San Diego. Ideal for growing lemon trees, in addition to beets and beans, the farm fields surrounding this area of California became a bustling production and distribution center for a variety of agricultural products including fruit, flowers, and vegetables as well as automobiles.  

Packing locally grown lemons for the Sunkist brand, the Oxnard Lemons label with its image of a pastoral oxen-plowed field, southwestern architecture, and Mexican farmer reflects the Mexican-American history steeped in this section of the state and the invaluable contributions Mexican-Americans made to the food industry.

Located just one mile away from the Port of Hueneme, Oxnard grew to become a large packing plant for Sunkist eventually reaching over four million boxes a year (about half a billion lemons) for the global market. Mostly run by women, packing houses in the 20th-century, post-WWI, were a bustling environment where fruit was sorted, graded, and boxed for travel on ships and trains.

Like vintage luggage, wood fruit crates from this era bear all sorts of hallmarks akin to their rough and tumble handling.  Never intended for long-term use, just simply a transportation vessel between here and there, all vintage and antique crates (and their labels) bear distinctive wear and tear in the form of lovely old nail holes, dents, peeling paper and wood nicks. In keeping with such adventuresome spirits, this panel contains all those typical marks expected on such a well traveled wood box that is over 80 years old. 

In 2018, Oxnard was acquired by the  Limoneira Company and then by the Ventura County Railway Comapny in 2022. A fire in spring of 2024 destroyed the packing plant completely. That makes this lemon carte all the more special as an ambassador to history and food production in the 20th century. 

Saved from a partially destroyed 1940s era crate, this panel featuring the original 1940s Oxnard Brand Lemons paper label was turned into a wall hanging with the help of a picture hanger attached on back. Its aged appearance and beautiful color palette add instant history to any space. Given the papers fragile nature, we'd recommend displaying this vintage art in a place out of direct sunlight to ensure that the color palette and the paper do not degrade further.

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

• Hard to find fruit crate label 
• Original 1940s aesthetic
• Colors include teal, lemon yellow, celadon, spring green, chocolate, nutmeg, peacock blue,  peach, apricot, medium grey and tangerine

{CONDITION}

Please see all photos and the description above. 

{SIZE}

Measures 10" inches (width) x 13" inches (length) x .5" inches (depth) and weighs 1.3 lbs.