by Jeannie Travis
We used to pick strawberries for the neighbors who took the day’s pickins to the train station and shipped them North. One time they wanted us to pick them with long stems, so the rich folks could hold the berries by the stem to eat them. One time they had us cap them as we picked, as those berries were headed for a jam factory. We got the princely sum of 10 cents per quart that day! As a general rule we got a nickle a quart, and picked half of the row on each side of us as we crawled down the row. Once some ‘Big boys’ were picking and one of them only picked the large berries and left the rest, of course those he shared a row with had to clean the row. We were glad he didn’t come back!
When my Mama was a teenager the neighborhood kids went and stayed with a family that raised a LOT of berries. I guess they stayed all the time the crop was in and made money for clothes and other needs. Mama said they had a real good time visiting with other teens. I bet she took her guitar along and entertained them. She used to play and sing at Play Parties in the neighborhood, and won prizes, such as a string of pearls and some nylons. She sang folk songs like “Beautiful brown eyes, Great Speckled Bird, Red Wing…..stuff like that…
You’d think I’d had enough berry picking, but I still love to head out to the patch and pick a few. One Spring I’d had some serious surgery done, but I went pickin’ anyhow. I must have been a sight, crawling, sitting down, standing up and bending over to pick….walking on my knees. When I got tired and went to pay up they told me I’d picked way yonder more than I thought I had…I was so amazed I said ” That’s got to be wrong, I can’t pick that many berries!” They had a good laugh and showed me the scales. None went to waste, I make freezer strawberry jam…and once you’ve tasted that no other strawberry jam is considered. I found a recipe that takes less sugar and I’m anxious to try it.
But I’ll surely make some shortcake first….While hubby shakes up the cream in a jar I make a pancake like deal…adding a dab of sugar, coffee creamer, vanilla, and butter shortening to self rising White Lily flour. While this is cooking in a ‘buttered’ skillet with a lid, I cap the berries, mash them and add sugar. Start to finish it takes just a few minutes.. The cream is thick by the time I’m done and I add sugar and a dab of vanilla and stir it up….It’s a good thing.
Yes, we wore those old slat bonnets when we didn’t have a straw hat….Not a breath of fresh air could get back to your face wearing one of those things! Mama made hers out of a bleached white feed sack, and I don’t know where she got the cardboard for the slats, shoe box, maybe. I understand today’s bonnet makers use slats cut from a milk jug. They’d still have to be taken out for washing, though. That’s why the back of the slat slot was unsewn…Ah, the good old days !