Hi, to add my memories to the lot...I too picked strawberries on my Dad's farm, for Henry Flaxbeard, Elvin Brattin, Clarence Sanders, Red Crider all in the east of Wheaton. we sometimes got a nickle a quart for each box, and later was paid 7 cents. These had to be rounded carriers full. The smaller kids used 4 quart carriers and the adults used the six quart carriers. If your berries were not rounded up well you sometimes got sent back to the patch to add some more to make up for bad ones or over ripes. Some pickers were so good that the ladies in the berry shed did not have to Cull their berries, they only picked good berires. I never got that good! All of us farm kids were expected to pick strawberries somewhere right after school was out in the spring. The growers would go to a fore mentioned place and pick up pickers in the back of a pick up truck. You had to provide your own hats, clothing for cool or hot weather and lunch bucket. Some ladies still wore sunbonnets and gloves with the fingers cut off to keep from tanning their hands. The Row Boss came around and kept you from trampling the berries, watched to see if you got all the ripe berries, if not you were sent back to re pick your row. as already mentioned, the stems had to be a certain length. We learned a lot in the strawwberry patch! The last year I remember picking was in about 1951 and we picked Blakemore berries for processing (Freezing) and we stemed them in the patch. got 10 cents a quart for those! All those berries were shipped out by train, and by Berry Associations from Wheaton, Butterfield, Purdy and Exeter. Most of our mothers and young women worked in the tomato canning factories in the late summer. Wheaton, New Hope, Shoal Creek ( Smallwoods), Ridgley, Corsicana and others. It seems anywhere there was ample water, Creek or Spring, a canning factory was there. It was important to be close to the tomato patches, in the early years, they had to be hauled by wagons and horses, of course later by truck. My Dad also had a market for " Fancy packed Pinks" and large truck would park at our farm during early tomato season and stay there until he had a load of Pink tomatoes. My mother was the primary packer of those. Those tomatoes later ripened, maybe even in transit. I still have my Mother's tomato corer knife. Sharpened just right! from when she peeled in the canning factory. Most of the factories just canned tomatoes but in the late 40's some experimented with bean canning, at least the Factory in Wheaton Canned beans. My Dad also grew field s of green beans. They were not much fun to pick! I do not recall a single factory for making jams in our area. They always had an end of the season Social, manty times Ice cream was the main event! There were lots of grapes grown around Exeter, not for wine, but for Welch's grape juice. When we were teens, we sometimes sneaked a few grapes until one night a farmer met us with his shot gun! Gave us a good talking to, I think he knew all our Dad's! needless to say we never tried that again! Learned a lot in the vineyard Too! During blackberry season, everyone in the family got up early went to the blackberry patch and picked until it got really hot and then finished for the day. W protected ourselves from chiggers and ticks many ways. most of which did not work really good! We sometimes stopped off at the creek for a swim. We used turpentine, sulphur bags dusted on our ankles, and a bleach bath when we got home! Blackberries started the season out high and as the season wore on they became cheaper. I think $4.00 per crate was pretty good money. As I remember these events it seems to me that they were as much a social event and chance to be with friends and family all working together. And a good way to earn a little much needed cash for school clothes for next year! Betty Lamberson