The cannery finally opened its doors in Rougemont in 1918, all set to preserve tomatoes and beans grown by local farmers. And that remained Lassonde’s core business until 1959. But since it was not the only cannery to ply its wares, Aristide Lassonde wondered how he might encourage housewives to choose his canned tomatoes rather than those of a rival cannery.

And so the label became a vital marketing tool. Colour photography didn’t yet exist back then, but a black and white tomato wasn’t likely to make shoppers mouths water! There had to be a way to catch their eye and appeal to their senses. Commercial printers enlisted the help of illustrators. The end of the 19th century was the golden age of advertising and there were some famous people associated with it, including the painter Toulouse-Lautrec. Their talents were recruited for promotional pieces of all kinds: publicity for shows, army recruitment posters, magazine covers – Norman Rockwell illustrated the cover of the Saturday Evening Post for nearly 50 years – travel ads, and packaging for a wide range of products.

Aristide Lassonde did business with the travelling salesman for a commercial printer, Montreal Lithographing Co. Ltd., which printed the lovely red Rougemont brand tomato, the first official A. Lassonde brand, by the thousands.

Next column: Meeting Anastase