Spring Farm and Asparagus Farming 1953

Here are some photos of our family farming businesses in 1953.My father, Jack and my uncle, Richard and my grandfather, San Tong, and his cousin, Loon  had a roadside produce market in the San Fernando Valley called Spring Farm. They sold some of their own produce as well as produce from other farmers. Auntie Soo-Jan writes: "In the Spring Farm Interior photo that has a large tomato sign, that's Chan Lum (Loon) by the sign and Jack in the background. I remember the evening in the family room (big house) at the Vanowen Ranch when the topic of conversation was about what to name the new produce market that was to open soon. San Tong, Jack, Richard and Loon were all there. Many names were bantered about, and they became more and more elaborate. Finally, Loon said, "Just name it Spring Farm." Everyone agreed that it was the perfect and simply stated name. So the name, Spring Farm came from Chan Lum. This gathering is very vivid in my mind......As a footnote to the story of Spring Farm... Richard was reminiscing about the early days at the Ranch and the topic of Spring Farm came up. He said that the store was doing exceedingly well, pulling in $800.00 per day in produce sales. This success did not escape the notice of the big chain supermarkets. The muscles of the supermarket unions was the force that closed Spring Farm prematurely."

 Here is my Dad, Jack, standing on the roadside sign.

Here is the interior of the produce market. Loon is  in the foreground and my Dad, Jack in the background.

 The family was also farming asparagus in Saugus at the time. Here are some pictures of farming equipment and workers at the Saugus farm.