"Apple of My Eye"

Today we are here to celebrate the beautiful apple trees of the valley, the apples they bore that contributed to the historical and economic development of the valley, and particularly to remember and to honor the women, who equally with men, built this legendary industry of "Apple Valley."

The historic westward migration of the apple from Central Asia, to Europe, to North America, and thence throughout the United States, left a trail of cultural and literary references from Greek mythology, from the Biblical Genesis story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and from the later King James version from which comes :

"Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings". (Book of Psalms)

The apple has nourished our bodies and souls for all time and the work of men and women has ensured the endurance and evolution of this most important fruit.

The earliest recorded planting of apples in the valley took place in the 1850s, when several mixed orchards were planted. In this way, it could be determined which fruits thrived best. It has been written that the first apple orchard was planted by Jesse Carr on the Silliman place off Riverside Road. Many of you remember my dear mother in law, Patricia Silliman Martinelli, who grew up on that very site. On the heels of the first apple orchard at what is now Silliman Ranch, came Louis Martinelli's orchard along the current day Martinelli Street. Throughout the rest of the 1800s, plantings increased and the success of several apple varieties became apparent, preeminent among them was the Newton Pippin, brought to the New World by Benjamin Franklin in the 1700's. Apples clearly thrived beyond pears, plums, prunes and cherries, in our valley.

As the market for fresh apples grew, more and more acres were planted in apples. A large commercial marketing effort was eventually launched, and fresh Pajaro Valley apples were, at first, shipped to outlying customers by sea, via Moss Landing. Contributing to the increase in commercial plantings of apples was the completion of the railroad to Pajaro by the 1870s, and the decrease in the Santa Clara Valley apple output, due to scale and the codling moth.

There is no doubt that, in those early days of farming apples in our valley, whole families turned out to help with the harvest.
Mrs. Haselhofer was 100 years old in 1992 when she told this story.
"My folks had a small apple orchard, and since we had no boys in the family, I and my two sisters had to help with the orchard. At a certain time of the year, we had to soak burlap sacks in kerosene, and wrap and tie these sacks around the trunks of the apple trees to catch the codling moth larvae. Later, we had to unwrap the trees and make sure all the insects caught in the soaked burlap were dead."

Women seldom made their mark as growers and financial managers of orchards, but there were a few from the very beginning:

Mrs. Mariya (like the wind) Westdorff farmed her own 5-acre apple orchard on Mt. Madonna, from the early 1920s thru the 1950s. The orchard may have been planted by her father, John Hoover, who arrived here in 1864. In the early 20s, Mariya was a widow with two small girls to raise. Her main income became the apple orchard where she plowed, weeded, thinned and picked her apples. It is said she could harness a team of horses as well as any man! Her grandson, Frank Estrada, remembers that she used to hire her younger brother, Ed Hoover, to do the high-ladde- picking work. Mariya sold her Newtown Pippins to whoever was giving her the best price that year – Ruso, Hiura, Copriviza, Oliver, Valentine, Travers and Martinelli's. {Frank Estrada. 2011]

Eva Rowe's husband died in 1906, leaving her to manage an apple orchard, a packing house in town, as well as livestock and alfalfa fields. In 1915, her farm near San Miguel Canyon Rd. produced the first commercial crop of lettuce shipped from the Watsonville-Salinas district. [Frank Orr, R-P 1930]

Sarah Coward took over the management of part of her parent's ranch in the Railroad District in 1917. For the next 25 years this included caring for a small apple orchard; tending crops of lettuce, beans, and hay; and looking after cows, sheep, pigs and turkeys. She could run a milk separator, milk a string of cows and cultivate with horse drawn equipment. [Frank Orr. 1930]

Other than these three women from the "pioneer" era, how many other women might there have been actively farming right down to the present day with Nita Gizdich, Silvia Prevedelli and many of you here today? We hope these stories will be told in order to take their rightful claim to a part of our history.

As increases in apple production were encouraged, mainly by the purchase of all of the apple production from entire orchards, a significant development was the ability of a widow, to remain in charge of her orchard and to negotiate herself the sale of the fall harvest with a broker.

As apple orchards began to dominate the Pajaro Valley, the Newtown Pippin and Belleflower varieties commanded the highest prices. Along with the growing and picking of apples, came the development of the packing houses, where apples were sorted for grade and size, and packed for transportation to market. The additional labor needed for the work related to preparing apples for shipment and marketing, was initially provided by men and young boys. When sufficient "manpower" was harder to come by, "womanpower" found a place in the male dominated sheds.

In 1988 Vivian Caudill talked about women's work in the apple dryers:

"If you've never seen an apple dryer in process, it's kind of hard to describe. They had these apple peelers — women operated those, as a rule. In the plant that my uncles and grandfather had, there were power peelers. The women just sat there and poked the apples on the peelers. There were two prongs that held up the apples and it would flip. They'd put an apple on the peeler and while that apple was turning it was peeled. In the meantime, the machine flipped over with another prong on the other side of the machine. The woman would then poke an apple on that one. The machines were all power driven and the apples were peeled and cored at the same time.

For the women who worked in the dryers, that was their nice little livelihood every winter. Starting in the apple season about the first of September, they got work until after the first of the year -- until they got all the apples put in the dryers."

Eventually, women were in great demand as packing house workers, as evidenced in the advertisements for workers. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Watsonville Woman's Club carried out pioneering work in the matters of childcare and health. As an example, the club sent letters to all packers and canners in Watsonville, telling them that the members would call on them personally, to contribute to "a day nursery, where the young children of mothers employed in the packing houses and canneries, may be properly cared for during working hours."

The amount of support requested would be on the basis of the number of carloads of fruit handled by the establishment, at 25 cents a carload. Club members contributed toys, games, food and hundreds of hours of their time in staffing the facility, and it was in operation through the 1930s.

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In the Pajaronian October of 1900, it was reported "P.W. Lettunich & Co. has employed several girls to grade apples. It is a branch of work in which girls excel . . ."

Two years later, the Pajaronian reported: "These are busy days at the Earl Fruit Co.'s packing house in this city. There are about 25 people employed there at present, 18 of whom are young ladies. The force will be doubled by the middle of next week . . . . No unnecessary talking is permitted among the graders, and each is watched very closely in order to prevent the packing of inferior stock under the heading of first class fruit. An abundance of light is provided, so that the graders and packers can readily detect bad fruit. Each apple is carefully wiped with a cloth and enters the box, as bright as if it had been polished. The boxes are all packed with a swell center, so that the swell will take up the shrinkage that will naturally occur while the apples are in transit."

As the harvest season began the following year, a summer 1903 headline read:
11,000 Workers Required to harvest Fruit Crop.

The June 8th article read:
"The fruit growers of California are beginning to cast about for a sufficient supply of help to harvest the immense fruit crop which is fast coming on, in the various sections of the State. . . 5 The fruit industry affords employment not only for men and boys, but also for women and girls. In fact, the canners, dried fruit packers and growers are very much in need of female help. . . (Evening Pajaronian, 8 Jun 1903.)

As to the details of the work of packing, the Pajaronian is able to furnish a complete account through the courtesy of A.B. Lettunich. . . From 30 to 40 men are employed in the outside work of picking and hauling the fruit in open boxes to the packing house, where it is passed over to the sorters – some dozen or more young ladies whose quick eyes promptly detect the presence of bruises, blight, moth, or other objectionable features, and who select the sound apples and discard the culls. The selected fruit is then carried to the wrappers. Chinamen are employed in this work and are paid by the day. . . . (Evening Pajaronian 21 Sep 1903)

At the end of the 1903 season, a disagreement arose between the M.N. Lettunich Co. and their female employees hired to sort apples. As customary for that industry, sorters worked 10-hour days for a wage of $1 a day. The Ladies Union of apple sorters walked out on strike after being denied a 9-hour work day for the same wage.

A compromise was reached that stated "nine-and –one-half hours shall constitute a day's work, and one dollar shall be the minimum wage, for women working at sorting apples in packing houses of the Packers' Association of Pajaro Valley, and no discrimination shall be made against Union Labor."

Interestingly, thirty years later, the wage paid to female shed workers was 35 cents an hour. That worked out to be $3.33 per day, assuming a 9 and ½ - hour workday. As apple orchards expanded, the marketing effort likewise had to grow, in order to create more of a demand for an increasing supply of apples. Marketing contacts had to reach beyond San Francisco, to the East Coast and overseas. The need for bookkeepers, accountants, and shipping clerks became critical. Many of these jobs were filled by women.

Louise Worthington, long time teacher and Dean of Girls at Watsonville High School said that the need for office workers was so critical that many early-day students did not continue until graduation, because, as soon as a student finished a typing class and a bookkeeping class, they'd be hired by a local business.

Promotion and advertising eventually became an extension of marketing, as seen in our display today of local, eye-catching bathing beauties, who were used to attract attention to locally grown apples. I'm sure the old-time growers would have turned in their graves had they known the girls were climbing up into and sitting atop the branches of a beautiful apple tree in bloom.

Truth be told, women have seldom been fully acknowledged for the part they played in the earliest days of the Pajaro Valley apple industry. One only needs to stop and reflect that without those pioneering women, there would not have been the large families,who provided a work force for the larger family-run orchards and packing houses. Absent would have been the many women who supplied the important work of preparing and staging agricultural products for processors of fresh, frozen, dried and juiced fruits and vegetables, for which the valley is known at home and abroad. Absent would have been the many women who trained as office workers who were needed, as apple distribution grew nationally and internationally. Furthermore, there would not have been the same creative inspiration that produced the apple annual festivals, the exhibits, the fairs, the apple pie contests, the colorful produce labels, and even the embroidery—all celebrating this remarkable industry.

I would like to flash forward in time to current day. All in attendance know of Nita and Silvia's prominent roles in today's local apple-growing industry. There are no doubt other women here, whom I have not mentioned, who also play significant roles in some facet of the industry. Well, since I have the inside track to S. Martinelli & Company, I would like to share with you just how important women are to our family business. Out of 170 machine and forklift operators, nearly 40 are women; out of an administrative staff of 20, 14 are women. The company employs a female Human Resource Supervisor and a female Accounting Manager. Our all-important apple buyer, who is our liaison with the valley's apple growers, is a woman. Sitting among you now is our esteemed Director of Finance, Julie Lambert. Lastly, we have Melanie Kett in the audience, one of four female descendants of the company's founder, Stephen Gaspar Martinelli, who are shareholders in the business. Thus, I can speak for the company when I say, "Where would we be without women!"

Thank you for your kind attention. I encourage you to look at the exhibit, prepared by Jane Borg and Pat Johns. Together, they researched the role of women in the early days of the Pajaro Valley apple industry, and they truly shaped my speech. Jane and Pat will be standing by the exhibit and would love for you to share with them your stories of women in apples!

Megan Martinelli was born and raised in the Bay Area. She graduated from Santa Clara University in 1984 with a degree in Biology. From 1984 -86, she worked for a Life Science Researcher at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. Megan can count herself among the relative few who have sent a payload into space via the Space Shuttle, Discovery. In 1985, Megan married John Martinelli and moved to Watsonville. With the phasing out of the NASA's Life Sciences Division following the Challenger Disaster in 1986, Megan left her career in the sciences and went to work for S. Martinelli & Co. in the fledgling sales department. The first of four children was born in 1989. Committed to volunteerism, Megan has served on the boards of United Way and Cabrillo College Foundation. Her experienced hand in fundraising has benefited many local institutions including Watsonville Community Hospital and her children's schools. At Moreland Notre Dame School in Watsonville, Megan coaches the cross-country team and directs drama productions. She currently serves on the St. Francis High School Development Committee, as well as serving as the St Francis Parents' Association President.