How quickly people forget
6 05 20082008
When I posted this photo of myself ridging potatoes by hand with a hoe, I had a number of comments and emails from people warning that working like this is not sustainable, that it’s too hard and age will soon take its toll. I’ve had similar responses before when I’ve mentioned some of the more physical jobs we tackle in the absence of a tractor. Actually, my own feeling is that we have it relatively easy on the croft. Yes, it’s harder than many Westerners would prefer, but it’s still a lot easier than people just a couple of generations ago (or for people in poorer parts of the world today). Then I remembered seeing this…
1966
James Hunter, an Aberdeenshire farmer, will still out hoeing his neep field in 1966 when he was 79—and his field was much bigger than my tattie field. There are more photographs of Mr Hunter doing similar jobs of hard graft scattered through Wirds an’ Wark ‘e Seasons Roon (Alexander Fenton, The Mercat Press, ISBN 1873644167). We also get occasional visitors who confirm that our way of working was once the norm, with one old bloke recently describing how his father’s farm used to employ eight to 10 men to hoe the tattie fields. They worked in lines across the field, working their way down the field from dawn to dusk—something I fortunately don’t have to do! I do like the length of Mr Hunter’s hoe handle, though.
Thanks to Thebeadden for the inspiration for this.
You’re absolutely right about the length of handle on the hoe. Mr Hunter has a much better working posture than you do, far kider to the back. I think many old tools had longer handles than they do today.
*holds out her own neep hoe for inspection* Aye lad, he sure had the right idea there, the extra length makes running the hoe through thousands of neeps & shetland kale so much easier.
Just been out doing the spring spreading of seaweed on the hay patch ( http://www.seaweedproducts.co.uk ) & generally admiring the growth of wild flower on the verges, counted 20 species of bird on our hay rig & veg garden.
We do most of our chores here as Mr Hunter himself would have, the tractor is used onto to plough. Hay is cut with a bar mower & hand turned to dry before being stooked. Crops are hand cut, stooked then hand threshed & winnowed. I couldnt run crops & then hairst them by machine, it takes half the joy of growing the cereal crop away from you, not to mention a well earned excuse for a cold jug of beer.
I’ve not been able to find a sturdy piece of ash longer than that already on the hoe. We’ve had to plant ash so I can have long handles in eight to 10 years. That’s our idea of forward planning!
“I’ve not been able to find a sturdy piece of ash longer than that already on the hoe. We’ve had to plant ash so I can have long handles in eight to 10 years. That’s our idea of forward planning!”
Ha! I love it!
I’m glad my photo inspired you. It’s usually you and your family inspiring me!
We just cut down an old plum tree last summer. It was barely hanging onto life. We have been grilling our dinner over it for the past few weeks. The flavor is just fantastic.
Brilliant - but you must eat a heap of tatties. Personally, I’d only go to all that bother for asparagus and raspberries. And peas. Oh, french beans too. Perhaps sweetcorn? Tomatoes of course. And the basil to go with them. Swiss chard is a must, as is celeriac. Butternut squash has pride of place. And then there’s the cucumbers - mine go rampant.
Between us and the pigs we get through a couple of tonnes of tatties a year. I’d grow even more if I had a tractor, a horse or more labour. There are few things better than freshly lifted tatties, boiled, buttered and peppered.
We also like to use different varieties for different purposes and exploring all the different tastes and textures. This year’s plantings include Courage, Valor, Red Duke of York, Orla, Robinta, Catriona, Cara (our main, main cropper), Pink Fir Apple, Cosmos, Verity and Kerrs Pink.
We also grow around 1,000 onions, half a tonne of mangels, half a tonne of neeps, kale, cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, kohl rabi, broad beans, runner beans, peas, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, sorrel, celeriac, garlic, leeks, chicory, rhubarb, raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, plums, apples, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes, tomatoes (in the sunporch), cucumbers (in the sunporch), an array of herbs and more. We also forage for wild crops such as nettles, dandelions, elderflowers and elderberries, wild raspberrries, wild blackcurrants, escaped rhubarb, and more.
I got given some really old tools at the end of last year which initially felt like they all had exceptionally long handles. In retrospect their brilliant to work with and all the “modern” tools we had have been relegated to the back of the shed.
How crazy to criticize a traditional form of farming! They must be very ignorant people.
In China there are people of 100 years old who work their land just like that and I am interested to do the same with my little veg garden and I have a wheel hoe which sees good use and just waiting for my Azada in the post.
My neighbour has been able to garden right up until the last couple of years when her eye sight started to fail and she is 99 this year.
Keep it up mate, you will out live all the cynics with their supermarket food and couch potato physiques.
I don’t know about not sustainable or hoes but one thing i do know about: age wouldn’t necessarily be a problem with continuing this kind of work. (ill health might, but that’s a different kettle of fish). My grandfather kept his own garden, a large one, with a substantial fruit and veg patch (and he lived in a home called Stoneheads
) and he took care of the entire garden without any real difficulties until he was 93. I think his sole concession to slowing down was to buy slightly more in the way of mechanised equipment: instead of a pair of hedge shears, for example, he bought a chainsaw looking jobbie to do the job instead (their garden had a long, and very very tall hedge). other than that, the garden was his pride and joy, and he loved providing fruit an veg for the dinner table. (he also got up before my gran at dawn every day to make fresh bread, put the laundry on and did the ironing on alternate days, before taking her breakfast in bed. He was a new man before the term was coined).
He finally stopped when he had a very nasty fall down the stairs that left him in a coma for about 3 months, then he died. Until then, he was as fit as a fiddle. Even a couple of years before he died, when he had another nasty fall (he was always tripping over his feet) and an ambulance was called, the paramedic wouldn’t believe my gran when she told him how old my grandpa was.
its my belief his love of gardening and the simple life is what kept him healthy - both in mind and body - as long as he lived. And i do think, if he’d not had that fall, he’d have been alive & healthy, and still gardening today - and would’ve been 98 this year. I wish he was.
keth
xx
I can remember my grand-parents doing this sort of thing on a bit of land about half the size of a football pitch. Mind you, they never had TV, computers of other dalliances to occupy their time. Their time was spent with the physical exertion of working land and reaping the benefits from the produce they grew, for themselves of to exchange with someone who grew other stuff. We now have so much other activity to replace the essentials.