Strawberries Fresh from the Patch

With the strawberry season just over, I cannot help but remember the strawberry patch that I grew up with.  Dad always had “weed-free” gardens, and his strawberry patch was the same.  The vines were beautiful and, with our cattle, we always had all the fertilizer we needed.

Dad was very particular, not wanting his vines torn up or trampled on.  Therefore, he used his own help – that was us – his own children.  Paying us 3 cents for each quart we picked, we could make quite a bit of money for that day and time.  We had a neighbor with five children who desperately wanted to help us and make some of that money, but Dad never did let them pick.

Dad raised those big Dunlap berries, and when we started early in the morning, there would be people waiting for us to pick them a crate of berries.  A crate was 24 quarts, and we could fill those big wooden crates quickly.

After picking our patch, Dad would load us into our 1928 Chevrolet, and we drove east of Chanute, over the Neosho River Bridge on Highway 39 to the Anderson patch to pick for them.  They liked for us to come, as we knew how to take care of their plants and were able to pick the rows “clean”.

With our fortunes, Dad would stop at Woods Grocery, and we would buy our favorite candy.  I usually got a chocolate BB Bat sucker.  It cost one cent and lasted a long time.

You could say that I am not really fond of strawberries, but I do respect them as I know what it takes to get them from the patch to the table.

Let us all be thankful.

~ Submitted by Ernie Cain

 

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First Christian Church is a Disciples of Christ congregation. Learn more about the Disciples on our Kansas region site and our main denomination page.

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First Christian Church

319 W. Laurel St.
Independence, KS 67301

620-273-2525