17. Clarence ‘Clary’ Daws (Part 3) - Harvesting

Harvesting Clary’s crops was done the same as the larger farms in Thanet, but on a much smaller scale. Apart from the small tonnage of wheat and barley he grew, all of his vegetables went to local small greengrocers of which there were many in the 1960’s/70’s.

Early and main crop potatoes would be picked and put in paper bags, the bags would always be second hand which Clary would get from the greengrocers. Late potatoes were picked up in hessian sack, taken back to the farm and emptied on to the floor of one of the middle barns. When all the late potatoes were in the barn the clamp would be covered in straw to protect them from freezing in the winter. These late potatoes would be put over a hand turned riddle and bagged up throughout the winter, for four of us doing this on a Saturday morning, about once a month, was a much appreciated bit of pocket money.

Most of Clary’s greens, cauliflowers, sprouts and cabbages, would be cut on a basis of how much the greengrocers needed that particular week. This would mean going into the field with tractor and trailer with various wooden crates, all second hand, and cutting what was needed for the next day, not forgetting that this had to be done in all sorts of weather throughout the winter. On occasions, cauliflowers would have to be cut in larger amounts. Hard to imagine now, but there would be four or five 14/15 year old boys cutting cauliflowers with 18 inch machete’s, but nobody messed around with these knives.

In my time with Clary one of the local farms would come and cut the wheat and barley. It would be dumped on the floor of the first barn. The moisture content of these crops for storage then was 17%, if it wasn’t quite dry enough, we would have to move it manually about the floor until it was. Clary brought an old Massey Fergusson combine in the early 1970’s which was driven by Robert Jakeman for a time.

Getting paid was a time that I will never forget. At the end of the day or week we would go to Clary’s to see his ‘Old Ma’ as he called his mother. She would come to the door with a book called ‘ A Ready Reckoner’. She would ask how old we were and how many hours we had worked, and in the book she would find the appropriate page for our age and it would tell her how much we had earned.

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (January 2024).