E. Waldo Ward & Son

E. Waldo Ward & Son

Company type	Private
Industry	Food production
Founded	1917
Founder	Edwin Waldo Ward
Headquarters	Sierra Madre, California , United States
Products	Fruit preserves, marmalades, jams, olives, relishes, sauces
Owner	Ward family (including Richard Ward and Jeff Ward)

E. Waldo Ward & Son is a handcrafted specialty foods and preserves enterprise, as well as a museum, situated at 273 E. Highland Ave., Sierra Madre, California. Established in 1917, the company focuses on producing premium fruit preserves.

History

Originally from New York, Edwin Waldo Ward relocated to California in 1891 seeking better health. In 1903, he acquired a 10-acre property in Sierra Madre, later expanding it to 30 acres featuring a citrus orchard. Having previously marketed English-style marmalade for Union Pacific dining cars and the Harvey House chain, Ward began crafting his own marmalades starting with Seville orange varieties. After experimenting with recipes around 1915, he officially launched his business in 1917, supplying railroad dining cars and Harvey House establishments. By the following decade, the product range expanded to include jams, and by the 1940s, Ward was importing Spanish olives which were hand-stuffed.

Today, the company produces between 90 and 100 items such as brandied cherries and pears, seafood cocktail sauce, chili sauce, corn and cranberry relishes, mango chutney, various fruit butters and preserves including apple, pumpkin, cherry, and apricot, raspberry jalapeño jam, multiple marmalades (orange, lemon, lime, tangelo), as well as currant jelly, mint jelly, and acai pomegranate jelly among others. The Ward family cultivates pesticide-free citrus fruits like blood oranges, Valencias, Sevilles, tangerines, tangelos, and kumquats on their remaining 2.5 to 3-acre orchard but supplements these with citrus sourced from Riverside and berries from the Pacific Northwest.

In addition to their own products, they produce jams for clients such as Laura Ann's Jam—offering flavors like blueberry basil and raspberry habañero—and Simmie J's Gourmet Barbecue Sauce. Their production process still utilizes vintage equipment including burners dating back to 1915, a stainless steel citrus-peel slicer from 1930, and kettles used during World War II. The company is presently managed by Richard Ward and Jeff Ward, Edwin’s grandson and great-grandson.

Museum

Visitors to E. Waldo Ward can enjoy guided tours of the factory and barn that exhibit original machinery such as the jar-capping device, historic citrus crate labels, and a restored 1952 Chevrolet truck.