On Photos I received from the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society, some showed the crate label. American Fruit Growers marketed their fruit under the Blue Goose label, so the orange square label sported a blue goose. The particularity of the Capistrano label is that it also had a small inset showing the ruins of the mission and also a swarm of swallows.
The legend of the swallows was publicly broadcast in the US in 1936. It says that a padre, angered at the destruction of swallows´nests by a hotelkeeper, opened his arms and welcomed the birds to the mission.
They nested there ever since. The return of the swallows is celebrated each year on St. Joseph's day with a parade.
So I absolutely needed a copy of this label. Many searches on the internet were fruitless and I almost lost hope of ever finding one, when a fine lady from Pico Rivera answered my call on the Citrus Modeling List and sent me a color picture of it.
The packing house also had a rooftop sign showing "American Fruit Growers, Inc California" and also a logo. Although hidden by a palm leaf I suspect that is is the Blue Goose on orange ground.
I tried as best as I could to reproduce the sign and logo, using my computer. I printed the signs out and glued them on a piece of styrene sheet. Until I have more detailed information about the font, background color and logo, this will be my make-do.
On the picture below you already see my next project, so please stay tuned for the addition of the packing house in a next post.
Do you have a Blue Goose jigsaw puzzle?
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