A head of lettuce is mostly water, grown near Monterey Bay and sold to customers a week away by train. Ice solved it: Pacific Fruit Express bunker cars, crushed ice over the crates, and packing sheds on the rail spur. Acreage rose from 175 in 1922 to over 40,000 by 1930, and lettuce became nearly half the county's farm income. The episode also checks the legend behind the name "iceberg."
Who's who
- Bruce Church+2 more episodesGrower-shipper who packed his first crop under ice in 1926
- Whitney KnowltonChurch's early partner and financial backer
- Andrea D'Arrigo+1 more episodeSicilian-born produce merchant who trademarked "Andy Boy" in 1927
- Stefano D'Arrigo+1 more episodeSicilian-born produce merchant who found California land in 1925
- Bud Antle+1 more episodePacker who founded Bud Antle, Inc. in 1942
- Henry L. Strobel+2 more episodesFirst president of the Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association
- Dorothea LangePhotographer whose 1939 Salinas Valley captions describe the industry's structure
Where it happens
- Salinas Valley, California+7 more episodesLettuce capital shipping about 20,000 rail cars a year by 1930
- Imperial Valley, California+2 more episodesWinter end of the lettuce year
- Yuma, Arizona+2 more episodesWinter lettuce shuttle; where Bruce Church died in 1958
- Roseville, CaliforniaSite of Pacific Fruit Express's huge ice plant
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania+6 more episodesHome of the seed company that sold Iceberg lettuce in 1894
Timeline
- 1894W. Atlee Burpee & Co. introduces "Iceberg" lettuce in its catalog.
- December 7, 1906Pacific Fruit Express is founded as a Southern Pacific and Union Pacific venture.
- 1922The valley plants 175 acres of lettuce and begins production for eastern markets.
- 1930The valley reaches 43,000 acres and 20,101 rail cars; shippers found the Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association.
- 1936The lettuce-shed strike runs from 4 September to 3 November.
- 1946-1948First vacuum-cooling trials near Salinas begin the end of the ice era.
Still debated
The date and shipper of the first carload are unverified, with sources ranging from 1916 to 1922. The story that eastern children shouted about icebergs is undocumented and postdates the 1894 catalog name.
