November 19th is National Entrepreneur Day, and we celebrate Small Business Day on November 30th, and National Small Business Week bookends April into May each year.
But the fact is, part of the charm of our region is the year-round proliferation of what once were called mom-and-pop businesses. Not sure what today’s more PC appellation should be, but the appeal continues to inspire: gender-free Davids with a passion for the personal touch, going up against the faceless, hulking Goliaths of mass-market retail and generic corporate service providers.
COVID shut down many entrepreneurial ventures, and we mourn their passing. But one, located behind a stately, lemon-chiffon yellow house in Sierra Madre, has stood its ground for more than 100 years: E. Waldo Ward & Son.
Of the location, Jeff Ward, great-grandson of the founder, says, “When people are coming here for a job interview, a lot of times they just drive right past us. They don’t realize that our business is right here.”
The founder’s “Aha!” moment was the desire to create English-style marmalade for the swanky dining cars that made the Union Pacific and other rail lines heading west the height of turn-of-the-century luxury, as well as for the Harvey House franchise. In 1891, E. Waldo Ward, Sr. arrived in Sierra Madre and, in 1902, built his home and barn on the 30-acre property, which once was thick with navel orange groves used to produce the brand’s marmalade. By 1917, the company was in full swing, and has yet to hit “Pause.”
Today, marmalade represents only about 10 percent of the brand’s small-batch, gourmet output, which consists of between 90 to 100 items. Much of the fruit used in Ward products is still grown on the Ward property, which now measures between 2.5 and 3 acres. Additional citrus is sometimes purchased from growers in Riverside, and berries are brought in from the Pacific Northwest. Two Seville orange trees brought from Spain by Ward’s great grandfather, prized for their fruit’s slight, tonic bitterness, still grow here and continue to produce.
If you’re wondering, Jeff Ward explains that jam is made from crushed fruit, with the seeds strained out, jelly and syrup are transparent, made from filtered juice, and preserves contain chunks and seeds. Spreads and butters, as in Apple Butter, are soft-serve and have some fiber and pulp texture.
The company’s current catalog also contains imported olives, teriyaki marinade, spicy barbecue sauce, and meat and BBQ sauce, of which Ward says, “…my great-grandfather is probably rolling in his grave.”
Ward says he draws the line at pasta sauce and salad dressing.
In addition to creating its own branded items, E. Waldo Ward & Son formulates and produces customized private-label products for favorite restaurants in need of a secret sauce.
The company also collaborates with a few other jam-and-jelly brands, including Laura Ann’s Jam, created by Laura Ann Masura, maker of cinnamon and cardamom-spiked “Hollywood Marmalade.” Other items in Masura’s line produced in the Ward kitchen include gourmet Blueberry Basil, Strawberry Vanilla and Raspberry Habañero preserves, which go far beyond the tameness of morning toast. These are jarred sweets with a wicked rock-and-roll edge (a Chicagoan, Masura is a former band drummer), making themselves welcome party guests as drink mixers, glaze, and an accoutrement for meat and cheese. “A glob of any of these is great in a gin martini,” she says.
She’s been a Ward customer for more than a decade. This fellow entrepreneur, based in East LA, says, “No one else would ever care about my product the way that Jeff does. There’s a level of personal commitment here that you just can’t find with an industrial packer. And I like the fact that they’re nearby.”
Ward says he’s selective and doesn’t take all new requests. To do so would upset the brand’s winning formula.
One variant Ward does not produce: sugar-free products. “We did try out a few,” he says, “but they just didn’t taste all that great. We understand that people’s needs vary, and people are concerned about their weight. But we’re committed to our super high standard of quality. The product has to, first of all, taste a certain way, look a certain way, be handled a certain way, and be stored a certain way. We do not compromise. So, for some, our products might be best for a special occasion.”
Sugar is absolutely an important part of the Ward equation for success. The Ward recipes use cane sugar, while most others in the space use high-fructose corn syrup, which is 10 to 30 percent cheaper to manufacture. Not surprisingly, when the back door to the onsite industrial kitchen has been left ajar on particularly hot syrup-making days, local bears have been known to investigate.
Jeff Ward studied food science at UC Davis and monitors the behaviors and interactions of ingredients closely. “Our recipes are high-sugar, and this means there’s not a whole lot of moisture in the product. Their low pH and low water activity bind the water to the sugar molecule. This allows the product to resist microbes in the air. Moisture attracts floating bacteria and fungus spores, which leads to spoilage. It’s perfectly safe to keep our opened product at room temperature, unrefrigerated, as long as you put the lid on, of course.”
Ward estimates that his products generally will be safe, opened but covered, at room temperature for up to six months. Unopened, they remain fresh and safe on the shelf for up to three years, but they’ll never last that long if there’s a spoon anywhere in the vicinity.
Higher water content in other brands makes refrigeration necessary. He says that refrigeration of Ward products will lead to crystallization because the pure cane sugar used as sweetener is not an invert sugar. Crystallization does not ruin the product, he says: just remove the lid and microwave for about 15 seconds to restore the product to its original soft, uncrunchy texture.
Wandering into the immaculate Ward kitchen triggers an element of steampunk by way of Willie Wonka: some of the equipment here, still in regular use, dates back to the brand’s founding era. A gleaming row of 100-gallon and 250-gallon steel pots stands at the ready. The original gallery of 100 iron gas burners, working antiques that once were the sole cooking surface here, are still used often to test and taste new products.
“We think we’re the oldest jam company in California,” says Jeff Ward, motioning to the English-made “Chipper,” a BCH Ltd. marmalade machine that his grandfather bought in 1931.
The history of BCH (Brierly, Collier & Hartley) predates E. Waldo Ward & Son by more than eight decades but mirrors the latter brand’s commitment to longevity and quality. Among other BCH accomplishments, the company, helmed by inventor William Brierley, patented a device in 1903 claimed to be the “fastest toffee-cutting machine in the world, with an output of 1 tonne per hour.”
Ward explains that his company’s signature marmalade differs from others in several ways. First, his brand uses fresh, whole, shredded citrus, while others use canned rind.
“Ours has 30 percent peel, which is suspended in the jelly. And, of course, we only can make marmalade when oranges are in season, which limits our production.” He says that the trusty BCH Chipper can process 110 pounds of oranges per “cook” or batch, with each cook yielding about 40 dozen 10-ounce jars.
In marmalade season, The Huntington Library, Museum, and Botanical Garden brings oranges to Ward to produce their coveted signature marmalade brand — Ward’s kitchen produces four batches a day. Today, the Ward marmalade menu includes Blood Orange Marmalade, Cranberry Orange Marmalade and Ginger Marmalade.
Limited production does not concern Ward. “We’re happy to keep it small,” he says, noting that most of his 15 employees have been with the company for many years. If you’ve looked for Ward at Trader Joe’s and elsewhere, you won’t find it. The reason, says Ward, is that going big would jeopardize quality.
In a rare brush with Hollywood, he’s amused that part of the kooky cult film “Eating Raul” (“Mmm! So tender!”) was filmed on his premises but otherwise is content with the aura of a business that retains a quirky, nostalgic modesty. Arnold’s Frontier Hardware and Taylor’s Ol’ Fashioned Market in Sierra Madre carry the line in keeping with a small-town Americana vibe.
The closest thing to a parallel story unfolded this year. In 1995, the Knott family of Knott’s Berry Farm sold the food brand, which began as a California family roadside stand in the 1920s, to ConAgra Inc., which later re-sold the brand to The J.M. Smucker Company in 2008. In January 2024, J.M. Smucker discontinued the Knott’s Berry Farm brand, which is no longer sold in grocery stores. The berry products are still sold under the “Berry Market” label at the theme park, but that’s the extent of the product’s current distribution.
Jeff Ward doesn’t want his family’s business to go that way.
“This is my dream job. I love it,” says Ward, who still works on the production line. “I’ve got five nephews that I’m hoping will want to carry on the tradition. I don’t know, but I’m still hoping.”
