What happened to

[Bobthebuilder]

depends how hot it is

 

[wasted years]

Does your slow cooker give you a cuddle and a kiss when you get in ?

What's the difference between a cooker and a woman?
A cooker doesn't fart when you take the meat out.

So sorry about that ladies.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Me and mrs SF have our meals together
We are the only staff.
Christmas work do is cheap enough !

After working with Prince Pooper for 20 odd-years it was only a couple of years ago I was allowed a 'works Christmas Do!!'.

As mentioned above, I think one of the reasons is that the farmer's wife is not necessarily just on domestic duties. Most either work off-farm either part or full time or have an integral involvement in hands-on farm work where grabbing a quick sandwich at lunch is hard enough let alone feeding a workforce.
That said, I think on farms with staff a post-harvest meal is essential as is a Christmas do. Doesn't have to be flash just a pub meal will suffice but a home cooked meal round the farmhouse table even better.

 

[Willie adie]

I work on my own fencing up and oyt if house if fencing by7 am.
Stop for fly break between 9 and 9.30 fot ten mins.

Lunch at 12pm it dry half hour if wet hour.

Fly again at 3pm.

But i believe a physical job like that earns decent breaks.

At marts its different have breakfast before starting and then it depends when sales stops or someone lets you away.i always have mine then let others away if i can

 

[DrWazzock]

Up in Scotland the threshing gang always used to dine in the farmhouse round the table. They recalled that at one place they visited they ate straight off the table. The farmer's wife would shout "kep" and tip the bowl of boiled tatties straight onto the table. (she shouted "kep" to warn the diners to have their hands ready to catch any tatties that might roll off).

 

[DrWazzock]

Here in Lincolnshire traditionally you start at 7 or earlier after having a cup of tea.

Stop at 9 (after gaffing the beast) for breakfast of fat bacon and pickles. Get going again at 9.30.

DInner at 1 o'clock. Main meal.
Might stop mid afternoon for a cuppa if it's arduous work.
Tea at 5. Usually cold ham and bread.

Breakfast tends to have moved to 6.45 am and changed to cereals and toast. Then tea and a sandwich at 9. Still have main meal at 1pm and tea at 5. Can't be doing with big meals late in the day.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Best ever communal breakfasts I had were hop-picking in the 1980's in Worcs. Started work 6.30 hauling hops from the hopyard to the picking machine and by late Sept there were frequent frosts in the Teme Valley - it was dark at start-time. Hauled until breakfast was brought round. Boss's wife brought hot bacon rolls wrapped in a towel put in a blackcurrant box filled with hay and a big enamel jug of tea. All stopped for half an hour and sat down together. Picking shed stopped first as breakfast arrived there first, it was nearest the farmhouse. Then the tea truck went down to the hop yards. Workers were a mix of permanent staff - mainly locals born and bred, the foreman had been born on the farm - and local gypsy families who came for the fruit and hop picking, and students - some ag students, and some doing other things. There would be about 12 of us for breakfast down on the hop yards, depending where in the system the tractor hauling drivers had stopped.

We stopped at lunch for an hour, went back to our digs and made that ourselves. Then all stopped - I think for 20 mins - at 4pm, fruit cake and tea brought round again, not as longed for as the breakfasts though. The 2 and half hours from the cold dark mist at start of work until 9am seemed very long! Usually finished between 6 and 7pm unless it was a bad day for breakdowns. Breakdowns on the picking machine meant boss was in a bad mood - paying the wages of about 35 folks to sit there doing nothing.

Where we are in the month now - first frosts and autumnal mornings - is real 'hop-picking weather' and always, always, takes me back to happy memories of the quiet chug chug of the bine loader tractors down in the Teme Valley. (It did pee down some years - hilarious sliding around in the mud on little Massey 135 tractors gamely trying to pull hop trailers through a foot of mud on top of compacted headlands. )

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Alcohol? While operating machinery? Surely not?

Thought that's what the cup holders were for?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Here in Lincolnshire traditionally you start at 7 or earlier after having a cup of tea.

Stop at 9 (after gaffing the beast) for breakfast of fat bacon and pickles. Get going again at 9.30.

DInner at 1 o'clock. Main meal.
Might stop mid afternoon for a cuppa if it's arduous work.
Tea at 5. Usually cold ham and bread.

Breakfast tends to have moved to 6.45 am and changed to cereals and toast. Then tea and a sandwich at 9. Still have main meal at 1pm and tea at 5. Can't be doing with big meals late in the day.

I hate a big meal at lunch time, makes you full and lethargic

 

[johnspeehs]

Don't think I could eat at 10, then again at 12.30 and 4.

I do a bit of work occasionally for a dairy farming neighbour and they start off at 6.00 with porridge, 9.00 is a fry, 1.00 is a full dinner and 6.00 is usually chips and sausage or the likes and if its silage time its sandwiches and all the buns you can eat before you go home. His wife bakes fruit scones or wheaten bread every morning, poor woman never gets out of the kitchen. They get offended if you don't eat much but I'm not used to eating as often and I cant work cos I'm to bloody full.

 

[had e nuff]

I hate a big meal at lunch time, makes you full and lethargic

Thats why you need a nap after lunch

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Thats why you need a nap after lunch

I don't think I could sleep during the day, I only sleep 6 hours a day now

 

[Still Farming]

I do a bit of work occasionally for a dairy farming neighbour and they start off at 6.00 with porridge, 9.00 is a fry, 1.00 is a full dinner and 6.00 is usually chips and sausage or the likes and if its silage time its sandwiches and all the buns you can eat before you go home. His wife bakes fruit scones or wheaten bread every morning, poor woman never gets out of the kitchen. They get offended if you don't eat much but I'm not used to eating as often and I cant work cos I'm to bloody full.

Marvellous they can move at all ???

 

[Ducati899]

The 3 of us at our farm start 4.30, brekkie at 9 for a hour...lunch at 1 for a hour then we all have a cup of tea at 3.30 before milking then me and the OH have our evening meal at 7ish

 

[johnspeehs]

Marvellous they can move at all ???

Well both father and son are "sturdy" and I'm pretty sure unless its silage time they have a wee afternoon nap most days, don't start milking in the evening until about 10.30 pm, don't know how they can be bothered.

 

[glasshouse]

Well both father and son are "sturdy" and I'm pretty sure unless its silage time they have a wee afternoon nap most days, don't start milking in the evening until about 10.30 pm, don't know how they can be bothered.

 

[glasshouse]

Marvellous they can move at all ???

 

[ollie989898]

Being of the slender young sort, I used to eat virtually around the clock just to keep my brain warm if nothing else. Generally had a stoppage of sorts at 9.30-10am for a bit and a stop of sorts for lunch at 12 or so. In the world of contracting it very much depended on the customer. I remember one family brought us out tea and cakes and rolls at about 6pm once during the silage.

 

[JWL]

Very rarely have I worked on farms where I got fed by the farm, first pace used to bring out a cooked tea for the family members and a flask for us other workers and we were expected to sit elsewhere. I can say hand on heart that was the only place apart from the large estate where the old dear that lived in the house next to the sheep yards would come out at 3pm with a tray with a full teapot, china cups and a slice or three of a homemade cake or the like. If you were on night lambing she would come out at 10pm with the same.
Everywhere else it's been up to me to have enough food with me and I allways used to do my own sandwiches, me ex did them once and I thought "How sweet" untill I opened up the box at 10am after starting at 6 to find the aroma of Marmite wafting round the cab, I absolutely hate the stuff and cannot bring myself to eat anything that has been contaminated by it! I got desperate enough to try to eat round it but couldn't and nearly resorted to eating the seat by 6pm, bloody long days drilling that was!
It wasn't restricted to farming, I spent a few years making and erecting wooden stables and I took a gang of four of us to finish off a really posh block of stables for a well moneyed customer on a really really hot day. The wife asked us if we wanted a cold drink and threequarters of an hour later a groom appeared with three glasses of tap water, all mismatched and absolutely filthy!

 

[DaveB]

I don't think I could sleep during the day, I only sleep 6 hours a day now

Long time ago ,I could never understand how anyone could sleep in the day, I can now!