We take potatoes for granted, consuming copious amounts of the fried, baked, mashed and chipped vegetable. York County growers have produced untold numbers of these staple tubers over the years. While transcribing my father’s diaries from his farming years, I realized how much work and care went into planting, cultivating,
Thanks to June Evans for sharing the history of the Horn Farm Center for Educational Agriculture with me, as well as these old photographs of the site. See the captions for more identification and attribution. A portion of the eastern part of the present farm goes back to Christian Crowl
Fall brings big pumpkins, beautiful chrysanthemums and colorful changing leaves. Folk artist Lewis Miller didn’t say much about York County flowers, but he did show local strawberries, cabbages, corn, potatoes and pumpkins. “The caption on the champion pumpkin above reads: Christian Lehman, Big and large Pumpkin, Grown in his garden.
Robert Cathcart, long-time Presbyterian minister of York County, recorded notable occurrences in his diary, as did many others. He noted the flood that devastated much of York in 1817 and mentioned the deaths of leading citizens. He recorded the comings and goings of members of his family and some of
A friend and I were discussing my recent York Sunday News column on York County canning houses. I remember my father growing tomatoes in Chanceford Township for the canneries when I a small child. My friend’s father had a much larger farming operation and continued farming longer than my family.
Tomatoes and Shakespeare and York County? I recently wrote my York Sunday News column on the canning houses of York County, going back to the 1920s through the 1950s when the canneries dotted the county. Local farmers could easily haul their fresh vegetables just down the road to be canned
Lucky canning house, probably 1930s My 96-year-old mother-in-law remembers picking string beans at farms in Chanceford Township when she was 10 or so in the 1920s. She says she picked beans during the day and then helped snip them at the Lucky canning house in the evening. I purchased a