Summertime - Life on a Market Garden in Newton
In summer we grew Tomatoes outdoors and in glasshouses which were watered through channels created along the rows. The water came from a big concrete tank at the bottom of the seventeen acre garden pumped through pipes laid along the boundary of the property to Montacute Road, Newton. Sometimes the pump would stop working because the belt would come lose and fly off the wheel. When this happened which was mainly at night one of the children would have to run a quarter of a mile down to the pump house to put the belt back on the wheel and start the centrifugal pump again then run back home. The tank was also used as a swimming pool. The tank was twelve feet in height off the ground and to check the level of the water there was a metal rung ladder hooked over the top the tank. The tank had spikes placed every two feet apart around the top. We would climb up the ladder move between the spikes and when the last two kids came up they had to pull up the ladder and put it inside the tank so we all could get up to the top and get out again. Another small tank near the sheds was used for washing the carrots clean after pulling them from the dirt. When it was very hot sometimes we would climb into this tank to get cool. Often it was half full of mud but that did not stop us getting wet and cool. Sprinklers were another option to keep cool during the hot nights when the temperature was still high.
Watering took place each day by placing the canvas outlet into the channels to flow along the base of the tomatoes to soak only the root system. Then the canvas would have to be moved to the next row. This was the children’s job to watch the water before it reached the end of the row and flooded and wasted the water. Sometimes the children would be too busy playing tennis and forget to check the water flow and then you would hear angry shouting and whose turn is was on that day would take off like a hare to rectify the situation. When the tomatoes ripen they are picked every day and place in trays in the shed to be graded into different sizes and placed in half crates made of wood and lined with butcher’s paper. This was a job for the family to do as the cases are filled. Sometimes not finishing the packing until one o’clock at night then off at three o’clock in the morning to be sold in the East End Market on East Terrace Adelaide where we had a market stall. The ripe tomatoes left over from the crop were chopped and mashed together with easy sauce (a bottle of pre-mixed spices to add to the flavour of the sauce) then boiled until it became a thick tomato sauce. At the end of the season all green tomatoes on the vines were picked and used for green tomato chutney. Summer was always early morning starts with long working days and nights, a lot of hands on work to be done.
Corn was grown around the perimeter of the block to protect the tomatoes from the wind. When the corn ripened we would strip the ripe fresh corn and eat it raw. On full moon nights it was light as daylight and the neighbourhood kids would come over to play hide and seek around the house gardens. It was very exciting and sometimes scary when you were caught.
The Glasshouses would get very hot and steamy and the glass windows were slid along the grooves to let the excessive heat out and to keep the temperature at a steady heat so that the cucumbers would not go mouldy. Then the glass windows were closed later in the day.
The garden also grew lettuce, onions, cucumbers, pumpkins, gherkins, watermelons, sweet melons. The onions, when ready to pull were placed in long rows with the onions facing outward. In the school holidays if the children wanted to earn some money they would sit at one end of the onion rows and top and tail the onion (remove the leaves and roots) one at a time and place it in the crate.
When the crate was full which could take all morning or afternoon to fill, the children would earn twenty shillings ($2.00) per crate. When it was very hot weather we would use a large hessian potato bag turned in at one corner and make a head covering to protect us from the sun. The baby gherkins were delivered to the Spring Gully pickle factory on Arcoona Avenue in Rostrevor along with the small onions to be left whole or sliced and made into bottled pickles.
On weekends we would have a stall set up on the side of the road with our produce and weighing scales to calculate the weight of the fruit to be purchased. The watermelons and sweet melons were sold to people who stopped along the road to purchase the products.
When the watermelon were near the end of the season it was fun to gather the cousins over to have over ripe watermelon fights together breaking the watermelon in pieces and throwing them at one another. Lots of squeals and laughter trying to avoid getting hit!
As all the fruit and summer grown vegetable came into season it was all hands on deck to make plum, apricot, fig, marmalade jams. Having to stand over the hot stove and take turns stirring the jam. When it started boiling the jam would spit out onto our arms and hand and we would complain to try and get out of stirring the jam. Then it was heating all the jam jars in the oven ready for the jam to go into them while they were still hot. Once the jam cooled we needed to put the cellophane covers on the jars, label and date them. The stock of jams took us through the winter month until the next summer season crop. We would stone and slice fruit to be placed neatly in the preserving jars ready to be cooked in the special preserving unit.
The animals on the market garden were fowls, chickens, bantams, one rooster, four ducks, one billy goat and ‘Jemima’ a female goat, one cat, ‘Lassie’ the Border collie dog that rounded up the chickens all day. When the oat-grass was very high we would play hide and seek with Lassie. We would run and hide and Lassie would be jumping above the grass trying to find us all excited when she found us lying in the grass. The pigeons lived in the Pear tree. ‘Bill’ the goat was a real character. He was tethered by a large log steel chain to a large steel peg in the block of land near the house. He would often work hard to pull the stake out of the ground. One day there was a knock on the front door and a man who was driving a large quarry truck said that the goat was standing in the middle of the road stopping his truck from get through. My father had to go and try and round up Bill and put him in the yard. This was no easy feat as when Bill got excited he would stand on his hind legs and be difficult to rope him with a lead.
The cow would be milked every day and we would separate the milk, make butter and boil some milk to get nice thick cream to go on our home made jam sandwiches. Our draught horse ‘Dolly’ was used to plough all the land after each crop has finished its season ready for the winter season plantings. Eventually Dolly was getting too old to work anymore so she had to be taken to the abattoirs. Watching her being taken away was very sad we were all very tearful that day. The chickens were free range and were fed wheat, bran pellets, vegetable scraps and green grasses. The eggs were pickled with a product called KePeg which was rubbed over eggs to protect them and they were kept in a very cool place.
The tractor was an old Farmall which was replace by a new larger and safer Ferguson tractor. The Ransome was a small tractor which ran on tracks like a tank. We all could drive this machine and help with the jobs on the land. Often we sat on the huge metal rake which scarified and broke up the big clods of soil into fine dirt. When we look back some of the things we were expected to do were quite dangerous, but all was well.
During the hot season the weather was somewhat unexpected at times and the hot north wind would burn the sensitive crops black and be not saleable for market. There was also the disease to consider as they can ruin crops very quickly. This vermin was overcome with mostly a DDT powder spray over the crops. After these sprays the workers would be covered with white dust from the powder which over the years affected their health. This work was done on less windy days to prevent loss of coverage over the plants. Kerosene was used on the carrots as they propagated into small plants to overcome disease. If sprayed too late in the growing season the carrots would taste of kerosene. We used flax to tie the bunch vegetables in bundles. The flax leaves had to be put on the nail stripper to make the ties. This job was accomplished in the school holidays to earn some money for our family birthday and Christmas cards and presents.
The biggest threat for the summer harvest was the locusts which came over the property as a black cloud and devoured everything in their path leaving nothing behind them. The noise of them eating the crops was like a low thunder rumbling across the paddocks.
Summertime was also time we could build cubby houses out of wooden boxes layered together to form the walls and hessian bags to tack to the boxes to be the entrance and put on the dirt floor. The roof was usually a piece of tin to protect us in inclement weather. Games were play with our family and friends and use our plastic tea service to have make-believe afternoon teas.
We also built billy carts and took them up to the Morialta Conservation Park and raced them down the hill then did a sharp turn at the bottom to avoid going headfirst into the creek. Then pull the cart up the hill for the next persons turn. We took long walks to the Morialta Falls to see the waterfalls and bird life. Took bike rides after church on Sundays with friends along the Gorge road to the weir on the River Torrens or play tennis.
With all the trials and tribulations of working a market garden there was a lot to be thankful for as the life was healthy, happy with a lot of freedom and fun.
This is some of the history of market gardening in the era of the late 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
Personal reminiscences of life in Campbelltown by Barbara Titheradge (nee Lomman), from the Campbelltown Library “Digital Diggers” group.
If you have any comments or questions regarding the information in this local history article, please contact the Local History officer on 8366 9357 or hthiselton@campbelltown.sa.gov.au
Photo credits
It's Market Day on East Terrace (1947, June 14). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55884756
Vegetable Picking Industry (1949, May 26). Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), p. 12. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93329505
Now is fruit-bottling time (1940, March 23). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), p. 5 (Supplement to "The Mail."). Retrieved December 16, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55776184