| Show valuable of food cheese every and two milk for pigs butter weeks He also ordered check by from brought the the bricks farmers and Creamery for hayracks and the supplied Pea Factory Then there was the pea factory located down the big lane west of town This hadbig impact on the community during the summer months It not only providedgood cash crop for the farmers but provided supplemental employment for many others in the town The farmers who raised peas could cut them at harvest haul kids time load them on their them to the pea factory would havegreat time ThatAs the when the wagonloads of peas were pulled down the town streets the kids would run after them pulling as many pea vines as they could grasp off the wagons Some of the more kind-hearted farmers would throw armsful of vines to the excited children Other not-sogenerous farmers would either goad their horses intomad gallop or grab their pitchfork and threaten any child who ventured near their wagon Some farmers lost as much as one fourth of their load before reaching the factory The marauding children did not waste their spoils The pods were picked off the vines shelled and the tender sometimes and they juicy were peas were eaten raw simmered with freshly-dug or new potatoes in white gravy sauce and enjoyed by the whole family The shelled pods aided bytiny stick became canoes to be raced down the irrigation ditches Even the vines were fed to the cows Those vines that made it to and through the pea factory were stacked and aged as silage which was distributed to the pea-growers in pro portion to the peas supplied the factory The Depot The Ephraim Depot burned to the groundnumber of yeafts ago but what memories it holds for me When we were young it was an exciting event to go to the depot and watch the train come in We would hear the trainshrill and when it pulled into whistle as it approached the of station black the smoke big engine belched forth columns |
