Monday 12 November 2007

THE END OF THE APPLE BOXES

The Jameson family of Corbridge, near Newcastle, England shipped out their daughters and one son to B.C. in the early part of the 20th century. These girls whose family owned the potteries in Corbridge planted fruit trees as shown here below. The orchard farm was called Tynedale. The writing on the back of the photos says "Cross marks Tynedale barn and row of crosses [marks] the boundary of Lee's orchard." It marks the present day Lakeshore Road.

Lee returned to England to run the business - naturally - and the girls all married and settled in British Columbia. My grandmother, Gladys, now married with 3 of a family, stayed on this land and eventually my father, Allen Booth, continued to work it, first as an orchard with cattle and latterly as an orchard which he sold off bit by bit over the years for housing.


This was the Tynedale Orchard. When he married and settled at Broadview Corner with his trucking business and orchard he continued to pick apples from both orchards. The Salmon Arm Farmers Exchange, a co-op known as 'The SAFE', was where the apples were received and shipped to the lower Okanagan for export or, as was more often the case, for juice, i.e. they were 'second best'. He never made money as far as I am aware. And in the last years of his life I recall visiting and seeing how he had let the whole crop drop to the ground; it simply wasn't worthwhile picking them.

Some years ago Denis Marshall (of the newspaper The Observer) used one of the Salmon Arm Farmers Exchange apple-box labels and printed them on a T-shirt. I guess that about says it all ....





No comments: