Vintage 1950s Green Guard Asparagus Crate Label 🌱 from California

Who Packed Green Guard Asparagus? 💂 Green Guard Brand California Asparagus, K. R. Nutting Co., Salinas, California

Size: 9 3/4" x 9 1/2" ~ Little to no wear.

A guardsman standing at attention in a tall black bearskin cap and a bright green tunic, rifle at the ready, behind a big red GREEN GUARD banner slashing across a jet black ground. This is a vintage 1950s Green Guard crate label for California asparagus from the K. R. Nutting Co., head office Salinas, California, and never pasted on a crate. I love the joke in it: a row of green asparagus spears standing tall like guardsmen on parade!

🔍 What's on it

At the top, MINIMUM NET WEIGHT 30 LBS. On the left stands the guardsman in a tall plumed cap, braided tunic and sash, holding a rifle with a fixed bayonet. GREEN GUARD runs across the middle, then CALIFORNIA ASPARAGUS, with K. R. NUTTING CO., HEAD OFFICE, SALINAS, CALIFORNIA on one side and PRODUCE OF U. S. A. on the other. The back is plain, with GREEN GUARD and ASPARAGUS showing faintly through in reverse.

🥬 Why asparagus labels are a funny shape

Asparagus stalks taper, so asparagus went to market in trapezoid-shaped boxes, and the labels were cut to match, a little broader at the base and narrowing toward the top so they'd sit right on the box end. That's why this one isn't a perfect square. Paper crate labels like this stayed in use up into the 1950s, until produce moved into cheaper cardboard boxes with the printing right on the box, and the leftover unused labels are what collectors treasure today.

🧊 K. R. Nutting and the Salad Bowl

The K. R. Nutting name belongs to Salinas produce history. In 1936 four Salinas Valley men, T.R. Merrill, Bruce Church, K.R. "Ken" Nutting and E.E. "Gene" Harden, founded the Growers Ice Company to serve the valley's fresh produce business. Ice was everything back then, with trainloads of lettuce going across the country on Growers Ice ice, and those four are credited with helping make Salinas the salad bowl of the United States. The story they tell at Growers Ice is that the name "iceberg lettuce" was coined in the 1930s because of those ice-packed trainloads of lettuce rolling out of Salinas. Growers Ice is still in business in Salinas today.

🏡 Display

Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room! That guardsman looks great framed in a kitchen, a den or a man cave, and it's a perfect gift for a gardener, a veteran, a Salinas Valley farm family, or anybody who loves their asparagus.

Crate labels are a reminder of a bygone era, and the lithography on them is unparalleled even to this day, in my opinion. Museums and art institutes have galleries dedicated to them, and more and more collectors are seeking them out to preserve their history. Once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries, they will be very difficult to acquire.