Edith Daley Seventh Street Cannery article

Pickles, Kraut Two Products of Big Plant By Edith Daley

July 31, 1919 San Jose Evening News

The California Packing Corporation has 82 plants. All but 15 of them are in this state. San Jose is proud to claim plant number 4, known as the “Seventh Street Cannery”, plant number 3 located on the west side, three dried fruit plants and a brand new pickle factory. This corporation is standardizing its factories and the program carried out along this line by Superintendent E. A. Francis at Number 4 is a policy of the “cleanliness that is next to godliness.”

Concrete floors are deluged with water every day; restaurant up-to-date and of an appealing neatness; roomy cloak rooms and lavatories; big airy fruit room and a first aid equipment that is a real delight! White paint that glistens and a white uniformed nurse who smiles! Never mind about a hospital. If you call the ambulance, just direct the driver to the first aid room at the Seventh street cannery. It’s sure sanitary.

This plant pioneered in the restaurant feature. It was also one of the first canneries to be fitted up with Anderson-Barngrover equipment. The first buildings of the group were erected in 1901. An immense solid concrete warehouse was added last year and a pear-ripening basement big enough to swallow up a dozen bungalows. Pears, unlike other fruits, have to ripen for about ten days before they are ready for canning. This year the pear crop is heavy and within the next two years new orchards will come into bearing, doubling the present pear production of the state.

About 410 employees operate the Seventh street cannery and over 500 are on the payroll at the west side plant of which Dominic Cerruti is the superintendent. The average pack of the two plants runs close to $1,000,000 cases in a season. Labor presents no problem to Supt. Francis’ cannery where every possible attention is given to keeping things clean and comfortable for the employees. There is a well equipped camp. A very modern nursery will be opened for the cannery kiddies in a few days. This nursery is the last word in attractiveness. It is a sunny place with rows of cradles and tiny beds—all new and white enameled. The woodwork has a finish that even the stickiest of baby hand’s can’t hurt—so there won’t have to be many “don’ts.”

There are to be rocking horses and choo-choo cars—and everything else that may help keep baby happy while mother works.

Some other plants simply dry the fruit pits. This cannery dries them, cracks them, sells the shells for fuel and the kernels for the making of a substitute for olive oil and an “almond paste.” Before the war nearly all the pits went to Europe.

Perhaps the most interesting recent development made by the Seventh Street Cannery is the operation of a modern pickle factory under the superintendence of J. W. Curow, who is a specialist in that particular line.

The “57 Varieties” concern will have to settle its laurel wreath very firmly. Right here in San Jose the California Packing Corporation is making big pickles, little pickles, sweet, sour, mustard and mixed pickles and dill pickles that are SOME PICKLES! The corporation purchased the old Graves’ Distillery, sold the “still” for junk, installed new machinery—and scored another triumph for the famous “Del Monte Brand.” This industry stimulates production and offers an opportunity to those with young orchards. By planting cucumbers between the rows of trees the income from the ranch may be considerably “augmented.”

The pickle factory commenced operations last year with the manufacturing of immense quantities of sauerkraut. A success from the beginning, the industry will be rapidly brought to full development. There are no half-way measures known to the California Packing Corporation. Pickles to San Joseans will no longer be merely “pickles.” They will be Del Monte Pickles!

Superintendent Francis’s clean, bright, well-conducted factory has a mascot, “Del Monte.” Yesterday, feeling somewhat weary of the grave responsibility of “miscoding” he curled up in the letter basket and went to sleep. Del Monte stands well with the office force even if he is just a purry, furry little kitten. He ought to like his job. The Seventh Street cannery is an institution of which the valley can be proud.

One of the big corporations’ latest ventures is the publication of a semi-monthly magazine “The Lug Box.” Two issues have appeared and they are bright, interesting, and filled from cover to cover with “cannery news” and helpful suggestions. The editorials are printed in four languages: plain United States, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The title page of the last number shows a broadly smiling cannery worker. In his arms are babies labeled respectively, “Higher Wages” and “8 Hour Day.” The caption is “Twins, by gosh!”