Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Oh, those cukes.

When we weren't calling cucumbers "pickles," we called them "cukes." During the 1940s and 1950s, nearly every farmer in the sand country of central Wisconsin had a pickle patch. For some reason we never called them cuke patches.
These pickle patches ranged from a quarter acre to sometimes as much as two acres, all picked by hand. You could guess the size of a farm family by driving by and checking the size of the pickle patch. The bigger the patch, the more kids in the family.

My upcoming new novel, IN A PICKLE, digs into the pickle business and its many fascinating dimensions.


Words for the day:

My wife says I never listen to her. At least that's what I think she said.

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