Cranberry Harvest

In the fall of 1955, I was working on the home farm waiting to go on active duty in the army. By the first of October we were mostly caught up with the farm work. The corn had been harvested. The silo was filled, and we had finished the first round of making wood for our every hungry wood stoves.

Our neighbor friends, Jim and Dave Kolka suggested we could earn a few dollars working in the cranberry bogs located near Wisconsin Rapids. They knew a bog owner who paid $1.25 an hour, a quarter more than the standard $1.00 offered for laborers in those days. So my brother, Donald and I joined our friends in applying for this new job.

I had never paid much attention to cranberry growing and knew nothing about harvesting them. I would soon learn. The bog where we worked was one of the few left where the cranberries were raked by hand, using a rake similar to the one pictured above. I also learned that I needed to have a pair of hip boots, as we would be working in water.

Ranking cranberries by hand proved to be one of the most difficult jobs I’d ever had. By this time I’d worked in a pea cannery, in a pickle factory, and of course, did farm work of every stripe. On a scale of 1-10 for hard work, raking cranberries was 11. But the money was good and by late October, with frosty mornings and cold, cold water to wade in all day, we finished the job. Army basic training was nothing compared to raking cranberries.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A little hard physical work never hurt anyone.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

-October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregne’s, Westby. Book Signing with daughter, Sue.

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.


Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835
DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Garden Report

As summer reluctantly moves into autumn, it’s time to report on Roshara’s vegetable garden. We’ve planted a vegetable garden for more than fifty years, and each year, we see failure and success.

Overall, I’d rate this year’s garden as below average compared to other years. The green beans were an exception. Last year the green beans did nothing. This year they win a solid A.

I must award our tomato crop a D. I planted seven different varieties, and all of them, every last one of 50 some plants, was taken down with blight, some affected more than others. We managed to harvest a couple bushels, but many of the individual tomatoes were far from the perfection that we expected.

As for the potatoes, they started out well, looked great all through June, then, the heavy rains came and the high humidity. And the blight. Maybe two plus bushels.


The sweet corn crop ranked a D as well. Poor yield. Same for the squash and pumpkins—a dozen or so squash and only four pumpkins. Pathetic.

On the other hand, an A to the radishes, lettuce, kale, and zucchini. But as the saying goes, if you can’t grow zucchini, best you hang up your hoe.

The weather has a lot to do with a vegetable garden’s success. We started the season with lots of rain, then an extended dry spell, then fifteen inches of rain in ten days, along with 90 degree plus temperatures and equally high humidity.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Remembering his father’s oft said words: Next year will be better.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept. 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregne’s, Westby. Book Signing with daughter, Sue.

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.


Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835
DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Thriving Prairie

In 1867, Tom Stewart, a Civil War Veteran, homesteaded my farm. When he arrived, he saw a mixture of open prairie land with small clumps of trees. Stewart hired a neighbor, who had oxen and a breaking plow, to turn over the wild grasses and flowers that had grown there for several thousand years. He likely planted this “new” land to wheat, which was commonly grown throughout central and southern Wisconsin counties at the time.

Now, more than 150 years later, I am working to restore some of Tom Stewart’s prairie land to its original state. I know that is probably impossible as Stewart’s prairie land had been cultivated until I started my prairie restoration in 1968. Corn had been the final cultivated crop on this land before I allowed it to begin returning to its original state.

I encouraged the prairie restoration by cutting rogue brush and trees, and I occasionally mow it. I have several pine plantations that surround my prairie, so I have been skittish about doing a burn.

Over the years, new wildflowers have appeared as well as grasses I had not seen before. This year, with the late summer rains, my early autumn wildflowers have been spectacular, especially the blazing star and goldenrods. I’ve also seen monarch butterflies everywhere. A couple weeks ago, my daughter Sue, and I counted a dozen monarchs in one cluster.

Each year I see something new in my prairie, some new grass and wildflower, and often a butterfly I hadn’t seen before. To help the monarch population, we have lots of milkweed plants. With the recent rains on our sandy soil, our droughty prairie has thrived.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Prairie restoration requires patience, but what a joy to see something new each season.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept. 21, Evening, Wisconsin Writers Association Meeting, Milwaukee. Keynote Speaker

--Sept.22. 9-2:00 p.m. All Writers Workshop, Waukesha

--Sept. 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregne’s, Westby. Book Signing

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.


Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)

The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Rain

Last year, I wrote a book titled “Never Curse the Rain,” published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, and I did an hour-long documentary with Wisconsin Public TV with the same title. The idea came from my dad, who had farmed during the dry-weather Depression years of the 1930s, and the occasional dry summers that followed on our sandy, western Waushara County Farm. My brothers and I dared not ever say a bad word about rain, as, according to Pa, we never had enough.

Now, late summer 2018. It has rained. And rained. Fifteen inches of rain at my Waushara County Farm in 10 days. We have survived quite well. Some rotten potatoes, some spoiled tomatoes. Some trail washing. Not so in many parts of Wisconsin. My nephew, Jim Olson, farms west of Westby. All of his valley fences washed away. He managed to save his cattle from drowning. Coon Valley is flooded. Reedsburg is flooded. Montello bridge is out. And many, many other places have suffered, including some Madison streets that are flooded. Several roads and bridges destroyed. Farm crop losses are unknown, but there will be many.

“Now can we curse the rain?” several people have asked me. (Photo is my son, Steve, clearing dead brush in our pond so he can photograph it. The pond is the highest it has been in 40 years.)

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: “Under certain circumstances, a bad word about too much rain is probably appropriate.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept 14, 7:00 p.m. The Local Store, Eau Claire. Simple Things and Old Farm Country Cookbook

--Sept. 21, Evening, Wisconsin Writers Association Meeting, Milwaukee. Keynote Speaker

--Sept.22. 9-2:00 p.m. All Writers Workshop, Waukesha

--September 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregni’s, Westby. Book Signing

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.


Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835
DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.