The Jolly Green Giant

The Jolly Green Giant. . In 1903, fourteen of Le Sueur's leading businessmen met in the back of the Cosgrove Harness Shop to start a canning factory. They called it the Minnesota Valley Canning Company. Sixty-seven shares of stock at one hundred dollars per share were sold that evening. The sale provided enough money to buy one kettle, seed, sugar, salt and cans. Corn was brought in from the fields with horse-drawn wagons. Women husked the corn by hand for three cents per bushel. , Eleven thousand seven hundred cases of white cream style corn were sold that first year. The profit from this was enough to buy two more kettles. The company continued to grow, and in 1907 it began canning peas under the Blue and Gold label. In 1925, the Green Giant brand of peas was added. Vacuum packed Niblet brand yellow whole kernel corn was introduced in 1929. Though the company continued to expand, packing a variety of vegetables and opening canning facilities throughout the United States, only corn and peas were ever canned in Le Sueur. , In the early 1940s, during World War II, many of the local men went into the military service. That left a shortage of help. Laborers from Mexico and Jamaica and German prisoners of war were assigned to help harvest the vital food crops needed. , In 1950, the Minnesota Valley Canning Company changed its name to the Green Giant Company. In 1978, one year before the company was acquired by Pillsbury, its national sales were over $485 million, and its net earnings were over $10 million. , Over the years, the canning company had a direct impact on the positive growth and development of the City of Le Sueur. The Le Sueur plant closed in 1995. Today its history remains and if you listen carefully, the gentle laughter of the Jolly Green Giant can still be heard echoing through his valley. , seal of Minnesota Department of Transportation , seal of The Minnesota Historical Society, Instituted 1849 , Erected by the Minnesota Historical Society , and the Pillsbury Company , 1998.