Farm Shops

[slinky.kate]

went to get strawberries(pick your own)as the farm shop had closed,i asked 'why' and the reply was they couldn't get staff to work in it .so it was closed.it a shame,as so many people are unemployed,i actually found that quite shocking it would have been a great wee job for school kids who are of age of course.

[slinky.kate]

such a shame as there must have been maybe just under 100 pickers there with their kids having great fun

[black_cat51]

it ceases to be fun if you have to do it for more than a few hours i bet

[slinky.kate]

but money comes to easy for some folks,we HAD to work for every penny

[Graham-W]

Picking peas never paid very well unless you picked like mad.
Potato picking paid better but was heavier work.
When I got a little older I used to do "stiking and singling" (Howing round sugarbeet plants). Got paid so much an acre and did quite well. Now they use mono-seed and selective weedkillers so no need for the workers any more.

[Graham-W]

^Hoeing^ not howing

[slinky.kate]

whats the danger element with gooseberries ?we called them goosegogs

[vakayu]

I used to have great fun berry picking in the school holidays,went with friends and had a great laugh,also tattie picking in the autumn,great way to earn a few bob,but sadly not enough for today's youngsters it would seem!

[vakayu]

Hi kate goosegogs have prickles!

[Georgiesmum]

I too went strawberry picking all day and took a picnic. All my friends came too and we loved it.
When the strawberries finished we picked raspberries, loganberries and blackcurrant I would have jumped at the chance of working in a farm shop, as it was i worked in a grocery schop while i was still at school. Yes, i agree kids these days just expect money to just fall in their laps without them having to earn it.
shop.

[vakayu]

Well the bushes have lol.

[ummmm]

No they don't Georgiesmum.

[slinky.kate]

I went to work when I was 11,washer upper in an hotel,got£2.50 a week,my mum took the £2 to help buy the school uniforms.

[vakayu]

Those were the days kate,times were not easy when I was young either,the berry picking money was me helping with the family budget(so I thought)it was a good feeling,plus a few pennies for myself of course.

[mikey4444]

When I was a kid growing up in West Somerset in the 60's, all us school kids would pick fruit for money. We used to pitch a small tent in the corner of the farmers field or orchard for a week or two. The worst fruit to pick were the blackcurrants, as they were so small and your fingers were stained dark blue until school started again in September !

Then we would spend our earnings on days tickets to get into Butlins in Minehead, a place I would avoid like the plague these days !

[Peter Pedant]

slinky that sounds stinky quite honestly

cant get staff to work for the totally crap wages I am offering
yeah that is more like it....

It was fruit picking - first wage 1/9d - and working on a plastic production line that persuaded me that the only way ahead was to go to uni ....