Capital Gain Brand Vegetables

Fruits, Vegetables, and Nuts


Folder: Topics
Ephemera and photos related to fruits, vegetables, and nuts (and some grains--like corn--too).

People Picking Pumpkins (Cropped)

28 Oct 2018 2 195
See also the full version of this real photo postcard.

A Merry Halloween—Corncob Jack-o'-Lantern Scarecro…

28 Oct 2018 3 2 364
An early twentieth-century postcard with a Corncob Jack-o'-Lantern Scarecrow smoking a corncob pipe. For another corny creature, see I'm All Ears .

Merry Lemony Christmas

25 Dec 2018 3 4 429
An early twentieth-century postcard with a shiny "Merry Christmas" greeting that's actually an attached metal piece. Why does the women in the illustration have a silly grin on her face and why is she holding a lemon, you ask? At the time this postcard was published, handing someone a lemon was a humorous way to say "skidoo" or "23 skidoo," meaning "scram" or "beat it." So those who knew about this 23 skidoo fad quickly realized that the lemon signified that this was a tongue-in-cheek greeting. For another lemon postcard with a backhanded Christmas greeting, see I'm Sending You a Lemon for a Merry Christmas . To learn how lemons came to be associated with the 23 skidoo fad in the early twentieth century, see Skidoo 23 Is Now 37 .

Some Good Size Murphys

04 Aug 2019 2 2 353
Photomontage in a tall-tale or exaggeration photo for the theme of photographic tricks and amusements during the free-for-all week of Wild Card Month in the Vintage Photos Theme Park. "Some Good Size Murphys." Giant potatoes created by an unidentified photographer.

May Your Thanksgiving Blessings Be Ripened by a Su…

28 Nov 2019 2 554
"May your Thanksgiving blessings be ripened by a sunshiny heart! H.B.G." A Thanksgiving postcard illustrated by H. B. Griggs (H.B.G.). For other postcards by Griggs, see: -- 'Rah, 'Rah, 'Rah, Thanksgiving!!! -- Were It Not for Friday's Pain -- Thanksgiving Nightmare -- May Love Always Serve Your Thanksgiving Feast Addressed on the other side to Mrs. Laura Pease, 107 Stone St., Spokane, Wash., and postmarked in Charles City, Iowa, on November 14, 1910. Handwritten message: "Have not heard from you for a long time. How are you all. We are all well. I wrote to you two or three weeks ago and got no answer. Love to all. A.J.M." Printed on the verso: "L.&E. Serie 2263."

You Are the Apple of My Eye—We Should Make a Good…

15 Mar 2020 3 2 404
"You are the [apple] of my [eye]. We should make a good [pear]." A postcard addressed on the other side to "Miss E. Jonkin [or Tonkin], Trescobease Manor, Falmouth, [Cornwall, England] ." Handwritten note on the verso: "Dear E., So sorry we shall not make a pair this year on account of this terrible war. Your devoted G." Printed on the other side: "'National' Series. Made in Gt. Britain. No. 1866." Although there's no date or postmark (and the stamp once affixed to the back of the postcard is missing), "G." was evidently writing to "E." sometime during the "terrible" years of World War I (1914-1918). For other romantic rebuses featuring fruit and vegetables, see You Had Better Ask Papa and A Farmer's Love Letter .

Harvest Home

09 Apr 2015 1 333
Mouse over the image above for close-up view of the fruits and vegetables that surround the pulpit in this Harvest Home church display. If "Day: 40" on the hymn board on the wall refers to the fortieth week of the year, then it's likely that this church was decorated like this for a Harvest Home service sometime in late September or early October.

Harvest Home (Detail)

09 Apr 2015 1 325
For more information, see the full version of this real photo postcard:

Harvest Home Display with Canning Jars

09 Apr 2015 2 416
A church Harvest Home display with jars containing recently harvested and canned fruits and vegetables. For similar photos, see my Harvest Home album.

Harvest Home Display with Minister

17 Sep 2018 2 2 470
In this real photo postcard, a minister of a church (location and date unknown) stands in the midst of fruits and vegetables that decorate the altar in preparation for a Harvest Home service. "Harvest Home" is a religious celebration that's still held today at some Lutheran, Reformed, and other churches in Pennsylvania and elsewhere during the late summer or early fall. As seen here, the observance typically involves a display of tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, cornstalks, flowers, etc. For additional examples, see Harvest Service, Lutheran Church, Strasburg, Pa., 1907 , and Harvest Home Greetings, Methodist Church, Strasburg, Pa., 1909 . In this photo, the inscription at the bottom of the stained glass window on the right-hand side says, "Donated by Robert, Ella, & Sallie Wise." The signboard hanging on the wall on the left-hand side of the photo provides the following information about the church: Register - Attendance & Offering Number on the roll - 200 Attendance today - 114 Attendance a year ago today - 81 Offering today - 236 Offering a year ago today - 104

Shipping a Few of Our Peaches

03 May 2020 6 3 207
A fruits and vegetables photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. William H. Martin (1865-1940), a Kansas photographer, created this amusing photomontage and published it as a real photo postcard in 1909. This photo postcard was addressed on the other side to Mr. Alfie Watts, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and postmarked in Lima, Ohio, on Nov. 20, 1910. Handwritten message: "Lima, Nov. 20/10. Write soon. Friend James. 116 Circular St. W., Lima, Ohio."

A Mess of Potatoes

16 Aug 2020 2 1 179
A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the monthly theme of pick your favorite theme(s)—why is it (are they) your favorite(s)? (submit a photo on this topic each week in addition to—or instead of—a photo for the weekly topic). William H. Martin (1865-1940), a Kansas photographer who was a master of photomontage , created this real photo postcard in 1908. Postcards like this by Martin and other photographers were especially popular in the early twentieth century and featured gigantic fruits and vegetables, dangerously oversized animals and fish, and amusingly huge products. These humorous trick photos are some of my favorite kinds of vintage photographs. For more examples, see my album of Tall-Tale and Exaggeration Postcards , which includes both photographic and printed cards. This particular postcard bears a postmark of April 7, 1909, and is addressed to "Mrs. Susan W. Dick, Roaring Springs, Penna. Care [of] Ora L. Dick." The message on the other side refers to the photo on the front: "Dear Mother, Hope you are better. I thought I would send you a mess of potatoes. They look good. Thad & Sue."

Too Much Pork for Just One Fork

13 Sep 2020 1 151
The caption on the front of this exaggeration postcard is "Feeding Time," but I borrowed "Too Much Pork for Just One Fork" from Southern Culture on the Skids , who used it as a song and album title. This is a photomontage by Kansas photographer William H. Martin (1865-1940). For more examples of Martin's work, see Good Corn Makes Good Hogs and A Mess of Potatoes . This real photo postcard is addressed on the other side to Mr. Richard Storey, Medora, Ill., but there's no stamp or postmark. Handwritten message: "5/15 1910. They raise 'em like this in Indiana. J.O.B."

I'll Eat Oranges for You in Los Angeles — You Thro…

02 Apr 2023 4 1 111
A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of tree (in a studio photo) . Caption: "I'll Eat Oranges for You — You Throw Snow Balls for Me." This is a real photo postcard sent sometime after Thanksgiving in 1922 from "Aunt Orpha" in California to "Master George Myers" in Burbank, Ohio. Printed on the other side: "Orange Grove Souvenir. Novelty Studios, 520 S. Broadway & 414 W. 7th, Los Angeles, Cal." Handwritten message: "My dear George. This man is a male nurse. He was in training when I was. We had a turkey dinner [on] Thanksgiving. What did you have? Aunt Ella was with us and your Uncle Tom's niece. By-by. Your Aunt Orpha." The "eat oranges" / "throw snowballs" caption appeared on souvenir photo postcards like this one that tourists in sunny California could send to relatives enduring winter weather back home. For another example, see I'll Eat Oranges for You—You Throw Snowballs for Me .

Potatoes and Barrels

13 Aug 2023 3 4 69
A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of fields, crops, pastures . Empty barrels line the rows of dug-up potatoes in this photo of a potato harvest. On the right-hand side, men are placing barrels full of potatoes on a horse-drawn wagon. The horses on the left may be pulling a mechanical potato digger. A man standing in the middle and other workers in the far distance are using baskets to gather the potatoes and put them in the barrels. See a cropped version of the photo for a better view of the harvest activities in the field. This is an unused real photo postcard with no address, message, or date. The back of the card has an Azo stamp box design (with squares in all four corners) that suggests a time frame that may range from 1924 to 1949. Although there's no indication of the location where this photo was taken, an article by Paul E. Rand details a similar process of Harvesting Potatoes in Maine. His description is part of Presque Isle: The Star City , a site on the Maine Memory Network. For a similar harvest photo that's referenced in Rand's article, see Harvesting Potatoes, Presque Isle, 1940 .

Potatoes and Barrels (Cropped)

13 Aug 2023 32
For more information, see the full version of this real photo postcard.

70 items in total