What do you tractor boys n girls like for your “in field” tea

[startinghandle]

Is there anyone here who are a certain age that put an egg in the header tank
of a Fordson to hard boil

 

[Johnnyboxer]

Thank god

''Twas a grand and lovely sight to behold, one that hadn't changed in generations I guess, with the younger wife being shown the proper way to do a harvest teatime, by her older mother in law.... no doubt

As life goes on,there's always time to sit, eat & chat - harvest or not

We had some fantastic hay and silage time teas, back In the day and all was safely gathered in, even if we were putting bales in a hay barn (under a tin roof) at midnight and then back up milking at 6am
The best times - life is all rush now and no substance

 

[kill]

The round baler killed the harvest tea times, no need for big squads, and nowhere to sit anyway

Pretty much but fusions nailed the lid down as no longer in the yard wrapping for even a chance cup of tea.

 

[yellowbelly]

Is there anyone here who are a certain age that put an egg in the header tank
of a Fordson to hard boil

No but I used to bake potatoes in tin foil on the exhaust manifold when winter ploughing

 

[Cheesehead]

Pretty much but fusions nailed the lid down as no longer in the yard wrapping for even a chance cup of tea.

You're lucky we can't wrap in the field due to all the blasted rooks and certain neighbours who leave their hedges to grow out halfway across the road

 

[glasshouse]

You're lucky we can't wrap in the field due to all the blasted rooks and certain neighbours who leave their hedges to grow out halfway across the road

Better wrapping in the yard

 

[Cheesehead]

Better wrapping in the yard

That what we do or rather in the field next to it.

 

[DRC]

Try this for a tasty on the combine meal.
A tortilla wrap with ham, cheese( shredded to make like a nest), with an egg broken into it.
cooked in tinfoil for twenty mins . Egg obviously cooks and the tinfoil keeps everything hot until it arrives .

 

[Av Gorritt]

When I was a LOT younger - War time in fact , My mother used to bring food out to the hayfield . it was usually a big "Butcher's basket" with chunks of bread , plenty of home made butter , chunks of cheese , mostly crumbly Lancashire , tomatoes , and a paper screw of salt 'n pepper . This was also before bottles on the retail milk round , and she would bring a 2 gallon delivery can full of hot tea . There always seemed to be a few kids about a hayfield , and the food had to be well guarded so that the men could have first go . There always was plenty for the kids afterwards . Years later , when I had a small "New Holland "baler , I was baling a field for a retail butcher one Sunday afternoon . His wife brought out a full Sunday dinner as a sandwich , Hot roast lamb, mint sauce , new potatoes , garden peas -- the lot , and a drink . Went down a treat I can tell you . Totally unlike another farm I was baling at , after a hard day , the wife brought out a full tea for Their staff , and completely ignored me . I ought to have packed up in protest - i wouldn't have minded quite so much , but I was fitting theirs in as a favour . Happier days though in spite of the graft . It always seemed a little bit of a social occasion then . Totally different now

 

[steveR]

Having tea at harvest time in the field is a very distant but pleasant memory for me . Also worth a mention is the smell of home cured ham frying at supper time when work was finished
I remember seeing bacon and ham
hanging the old fashion way at a butcher shop around the Dorrington
area several years ago

Dorrington, Shrewsbury?

That'll be Sadd's I reckon, on the side of the A49.

 

[steveR]

I was out Contract combining one day for a local farmer when he came across asked ,if I would like fish and chips and a drink. I said yes please we are just off down the chippy . When I sent him the Invoice for the combining there was a reduction of for the Price for the fish and chips and the can of coke .

Sounds like the sort of thing my Late FiL would have done....

 

[Cowcorn]

Meals eaten in fields have a special quality to them that sticks in your memory forever . When i was young i done a lot of contract drilling with a MF 3 0 and my mother would fill a big lunchbox with cold grilled rashers slabs of cheddar cheese yogurts brown bread and madeira cake . Two flasks of tea and i was sorted . Farmers for some reason didnt feed you when drilling but summers with the 124 baler were different tea was always brought out . Same with the combine
My father always fed his men whether at home or away , heaven knows how my mother managed with seven kids as well But the boss insisted as " an emty sack wont stand " .

 

[Bogweevil]

Father used to like a large lightly fried juicy beef steak, with plenty of fat, and a bottle of claret for his tea, which may explain why we stuck with horses long after everyone else had tractors.

Obviously such extravagance has no place nowadays and I have replaced the claret with a lighter drink, Beaujolais for example, served cold, which I would normally never do with a red, but time and place...

 

[steveR]

That what we do or rather in the field next to it.

My solution, is stack the wrapped bales in the field, which just happen to have a hard track handy

 

[Will 1594]

No but I used to bake potatoes in tin foil on the exhaust manifold when winter ploughing

Bottle of tea in front of rad to keep warm ,and army side canvas bags with you lowance box in hung off air cleaner

 

[Robt]

Mother never failed to make sure everyone got fed , no matter how many people it was
At harvest tea would always be 5.30 when Dad had finished milking and mother and him would pile the picnic basket full mostly of freshly baked pies , bread and cakes load us kids in the car and then go to whatever field the combine was in the balerman usually found his way there as did the local older youths who where carting bales and everyone sat down and had an unrushed tea
In fact mother fed everyone
The bulk tank driver always had a cup of tea and cake and any wagon drivers delivering also got same treatment
I remember coming home from a yfc do once and dad had called the vet out to a calving and they where both sitting at the kitchen table with the local copper who as he seemed to do frequently just happened to be driving past
In the middle of the kitchen table amongst all the fag smoke was a bottle of scotch that was getting emptied at an alarming rate
I guess mother drew a line at what time she fed guests

love these old memories, when I was 21 and a trainee salesman. I was fortunate to have the best ever dealer principle. The only time I ever got to drive his merc ( got to wash it a lot but never drive it) was the one deal he did each year. Him and a long standing customer would do the deal on new tractor over a bottle of whiskey. Negotiations didn’t start until bottle was finished... said legend dealer principle got wide to this and allowed me to sit in the house rather than the car. I was then his “witness” and had to remember the price they settled on. Those were the days. A few on here would have delt with him. Always drove a merc and taught me a lot. Best phrase he ever taught me to which I still use to this day . “Never judge someone by the mistake they make, but merely by how well they rectify it!”
sorry back to topic....
it’s called dinner not tea!

 

[Robt]

Back when I farmed in west Suffolk. Lovely farm owned by a true gent . Mr Martineau. The combine always stopped for lunch no matter the weather. We never did not get all the crops harvested. The constant rush rush now ain’t good for anyone

 

[startinghandle]

Dorrington, Shrewsbury?

That'll be Sadd's I reckon, on the side of the A49.

Yes Dorrington Shrewsbury
Do you know if it's still going

 

[yellowbelly]

and army side canvas bags with you lowance box in hung off air cleaner

Old Johnny from next door's bag rode there for that long it polished all the paint off the side of the bonnet of his MF65

 

[CrevisbigX]

@CrevisbigX Steve’s wife looks after us well whenever I’ve been with you lads it’s much appreciated

Yes to be fair we do get really well look after. Bacon and egg it 4 rounds of toast and a brew for breakfast take out own dinners and then a cook meal or fish & chips for tea