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We grew beans, peas, peppers and com, mostly for our own consumption but the main cash crops were tomatoes and cabbages. Each harvesting season lasted about three weeks and was the only time everyone went to the fields. All except for Aunt Minnie, who cooked for everyone, including Zack and his family. We all ate at a long table just a little way from the back porch.
The routine was the same every day during the harvest. The cabbages or tomatoes would be loaded onto the two wagons and we would set out for the packing sheds about ten miles away. I never will forget the first time they took me with them to the packing shed. We had been riding for about an hour when we came to an intersection of the road. It was the first time I had seen a paved road. It was slick as the pond on a calm afternoon.
We would see others along the way with their wagons loaded and heading to the sheds. Just before we reached the shed I heard my first train whistle and soon we were beside the tracks. Most farmers went through a buyer?s line where the buyers would bid for the load but Mr. G. had an agreement with one shed that he would get the top dollar so we went straight to that shed.
The sheds were open air and very big with an office on one end with train cars along the other side from the wagons. It was a while before I saw my first train engine. They would come only every three or four days to pick up the loaded freight cars. It was the tomato capital of the world and they shipped several thousand train cars every year, mostly to Chicago or Detroit.
When it was tomato season people from Florida came up and did most of the packing. They must have made good money to come that far. Some of them camped out while those with families stayed at a rooming house not far away. They were not wealthy but apparently made a decent living following the crops.
After all the harvesting was done, the last of the com gathered and winter had set in there was a lull when everyone seemed to catch their breath. It was not long though before the first frost had fallen and it was time to kill hogs. This is the only time everyone came to the big house. Zack and his family would come and stay all day.
There would be boiling water in the wash pots and tables set about where the meat was carved and the sausages stuffed. Other than the hams almost all of the hog was made into sausages and they were hung along with the hams in the smokehouse for curing. Smoking gave the meat a wonderful taste, but more importantly it would make the meat last for a long time without refrigeration.
Zack and his family were welcome to come to the smokehouse for hams or sausages any time they wanted. I began to help keep the fire going in the smokehouse. What kid doesn?t like to play with fire anyway?
At the very back of the smokehouse was a door where the cow was brought in to be milked.
Aunt Minnie usually did the milking, but on wash days Uncle Willie did it for her. Occasionally when Uncle Willie did the milking he would squirt some of the milk in the face of one of the many cats that were hanging around. Then they would all lick each other dry. Sometime Aunt Minnie would let me help chum the butter.
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