TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Anne Bridgman of Bridgman Farm - Anne Described the Process of Sorting and Packing Cherries.

The sour cherries were all taken to the factory and they were picked without the stems whereas sweet cherries were picked with the stems and there were several factories that we dealt with at the same time. E.D. Smith's being the one in Winona. There was one in the east end of Hamilton, Statford's, and Biggars Rostad Foods in Vineland, which is now Cherrylane. Basically again, it was a whole gang of people working by piece work; those were picked usually in eleven quart baskets where sweet cherries were picked in six quart baskets and they weren't usually sorted, they just went to the factory as they were and you got a grade depending on so you were trying to encourage the pickers to pick properly and throw out the bruised ones, and so on and occasionally, again they got paid by the basket and occasionally I know, not only on our farm, on other farms somebody would be a little lazy and be putting a rock in the bottom of the basket instead of cherries which was a quick way to fill your basket but I don't think it was appreciated at the other end especially when, of course, they were paid by the weight and you were rated at the factory and it was, you got the money according to the grade of like if you got above, I think if it was 96%, then you got the full price, and if it was below that, you got a lesser price per ton with them.