Harvest crew using new technology, c1900.
I’d never heard of this until one of my older Woodbridge customers told me what the old boys used to do at the end of the harvest, he said. The folly was a dinner given to all the farmhands when everything was gathered in. Whether it was folly to deed them, or it meant the folly they got into or up to after the dinner had been washed down wasn’t clear, but you can make your own assumptions.
The hay was cut and dried in the fields, on a rack of five poles stacked together; when it was dry it was taken to the rickyard. The very last load of the year was put on the wagon and covered with oak leaves.
It was a hard, hard life, even though these boys are smiling for the camera. Perhaps a carpet of oak leaves and a half gallon of cider helped make it seem easier, one summer’s evening almost a lifetime ago.
You hear all kinds of things selling cheese. And talking to customers.
