🤯 Maybe the strangest food label ever
Original SUN‑TINT Brand Purple Plums in Water label from Rogue River Packing Corporation, Medford, Oregon, circa 1930s.
Front and center they proudly scream in a big boxed banner: “BELOW STANDARD IN QUALITY – GOOD FOOD – NOT HIGH GRADE.” No fine print, no spin—just brutally honest canned plums.

📜 Not a government grade, just brutal honesty
Early federal food‑grading rules did create quality categories, but there was no official consumer grade called “Below Standard in Quality” for canned plums back then.
That makes this line a deliberate branding choice by Rogue River Packing, aimed at Depression‑era bargain shoppers rather than something a regulator forced them to print.

🌄 Oregon orchard country with a twist
Behind the copy is a gorgeous Rogue Valley landscape: orchards laid out below snow‑capped mountains under a wide sky.
It’s classic West Coast fruit‑crate art… paired with a slogan that sounds more like a joke than something a real company would pay to print.

🧾 Details

• Original unused paper label, about 7 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches.

• New old stock from long‑stored packing‑house inventory, tins never applied.

• You will receive one label like the ones shown, all from the same NOS batch.

🖼️ Conversation‑starter wall art
Hang this in a kitchen, bar, grocery, or cafe and watch people stop to read it out loud.
Perfect for anyone who loves weird advertising, bad marketing decisions, Oregon history, or design so honest it circles back to genius. 🍑