A look back at Basic Vegetable Products in Vacaville

Marine Corps Color Guard raises the Army-Navy E Award for excellence pennant presentation ceremony at the Vacaville Basic plant on March 31, 1944.Courtesy Photo, Vacaville Heritage Council

View from Opportunity Hill of the Basic Plant in March 1944 a few days before the E Award for excellence pennant presentation ceremony.Courtesy Photo, Vacaville Heritage Council

Community members and Basic employees gather for the E Award ceremony.Courtesy Photo, Vacaville Heritage Council

This is part of a series of occasional pieces contributed by the Vacaville Heritage Council. — Editor

If orchardist and prune drying company owner Ed Uhl had not gotten over his worryabout onion dust contaminating his prunes and making them taste like onions, Jack and William Hume may not have established Basic Vegetable Products in Vacaville.

Jack Hume still chuckled over that moment 50 years later when the Vacavillecommunity celebrated Hume and Basic's 50th anniversary in Vacaville, according to a1982 Vacaville Reporter news story.

The founder of Basic was looking for a Central Valley location with a dry climate forprocessing his Stockton-grown onions when he met Uhl and persuaded him to rentHume his prune dehydrator for the off-season.

In the first year after Uhl and the Humes made the deal, Basic managed to producemore than 40,000 pounds of dried onions and garlic.

In May 1939, a Vacaville Reporter article announced Basic was moving its operationfrom the Uhl ranch to the shipping shed of the Vacaville Fruit Growers Association onDavis and Stevenson streets.

"The new location gives the company better railroad access and large warehouse space to store the vegetables used in the manufacture of the products processed, which are shipped to all parts of the country and foreign countries," the May 28, 1939 article read.

By 1940, Basic's hard-driving marketing of their dehydrated onion products had made ita success. It could be used with canned goods such as stew, pork and beans or cornedbeef hash, according to a Basic's company history.

It was also the time when war was raging in Europe and the Army was getting ready forthe eventuality that America may get involved.

Assistant Quartermaster General, Col. Paul Logan of the Army's quartermaster Corps,was inspecting food manufacturers when he inspected Basic's dehydrating operationand came away impressed with what he saw, according to the company history.

"He decided that Basic should be a primary source of dried onion and garlic for thearmed forces," the history stated. "Supplying the military was so crucial, he stated, that if Jack decided to enlist, the Army would immediately detail him back to Vacaville to runthe plant."

The Army only requested one change, that Basic supply large pieces of dehydratedonion instead of the onion powder. Basic responded by re-engineering its processes toprovide the dried onion chips.

Basic became part of the massive nation-wide readiness effort that ranged fromconducting extensive military exercises such as the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941 andinstituting the draft in September 1940 to retooling industries such as Basic to be able to switch quickly from peacetime to wartime production.

By September 1941, Basic's work was impressive enough for Secretary of StateEdward Stettinius to visit the plant and personally thank the company for its role insupplying the military.

After America entered the war on Dec. 7, 1941, the Army contracted with Basic tosupply not only the U.S. armed forces, but also its allies through Lend-Lease.

The Davis Street plant was now pumping out millions of pounds a year and employingnearly a thousand workers.

Basic's product a space saver that the military prized. Basic would take in 25 railroadcarloads of onions into the plant which, after the dehydration process, would become one carload shipped back out.

The finished product was apparently a hit with the troops.

Historian Kristin Delaplane Conti quoted one lieutenant in New Guinea as saying "it ispossible to use (dried onions) for lunch and dinner on canned sausages, meat, stew,etc., and no matter how bad the stuff is, it always tastes good with the onions."

In 1944, Basic processed 10 million pounds of dried vegetables and more than half thedehydrated onion in the United States, according to the company history.

In March of the same year, Basic Vegetable was recognized for its work and wasawarded the prestigious Army-Navy E Award for excellence.

The award was first created in 1906 to honor excellence in gunnery. It was later used torecognize outstanding performance in engineering and communications. After PearlHarbor, it was awarded to organizations that excelled in producing equipment andsupplies for the military.

The ceremony was held on March 31, 1944 with the Vacaville Reporter stating"thousands predicted here to witness impressive program." The Chamber of Commerce encouraged local businesses to close that day so more people could attend the event.

Award was accepted by William Hume and the event was carried by five radio stations.Col. Arthur Stanley, director of procurement for the California Quartermaster Depot inOakland presented Basic officials with the pennant.

"You men and women of the Basic Vegetable Products Company are making aheartening contribution to victory and have reason to be proud of the record you aresetting," Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson said.

The pennant was raised over the plant by US Marine Corps color guard and theVacaville Drum Corps while the 261 st US Army Band played "The Caissons Go RollingAlong’, according to a Basic company history. A lapel "E" pin was given to everyemployee.

This was the first of three E Awards that the plant was to garner during the war.

The end of the war in September 1945 meant the abrupt end of a successful businesswith the Army.

"The government was left with a large inventory of dried onion, which it was planning todump on the US market," according to the company history. "Basic Vegetable offered tobuy back all the stock at the same price that the government paid for it."

The plan was to repackage the onions and sell them as ‘Magic Onions’ through H.J.Heinz Company, largely to restaurants, but that market unexplainably collapsed.

"We had this large repurchase from the military and no institutional market for Heinz,and we didn't know why," said Jack Hume in the history. "It was a disaster."

The brothers knuckled down to retool their sales efforts to buyers. They cut costs bynot taking a salary themselves and trimmed Basic to the bare bones until businessstarted picking up again.

Basic was further helped along when the Army started looking for firms that coulddehydrate surplus potatoes and make them palatable, making them taste like something other than glue.

In 1948, Basic won the contract to dehydrate potatoes that would be shipped into Berlinwhich was blockaded by the Soviets and "got us back on our feet and out of debt," JackHume said in the history.

The outbreak of the Korean War got Basic more contracts to make potato powder.

Basic remained a big part of Vacaville until the plant was relocated to King City in 1986.An ice rink, Brendan Theaters, several restaurants and commercial businesses nowstand on the site.

William Hume died in 1976 and Jack Hume died in 1991. The community's monumentto Jack Hume, Jack Hume Grove, with its redwoods, iris and California poppies, can befound on the bike path between the end of Butcher Road and Lagoon Valley Park.

The Vacaville Heritage Council is a community organization dedicated to preservinglocal history. It is located at 618 East Main Street. The Council can be reached byphone at 447-0518, by e-mail [email protected] or through itswebsite at www.vacavilleheritagecouncil.org.

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