|
Did you ever pick black currants or red currants here in Westfield? Do you remember Elton Tubbs, a local inventor of anelectromechanical currant picker? Whatever happened to the currant industries that used to thrive inWestfield? These three questions, and more, have come up several times overthe past nine years since I returned to my hometown of Westfieldand in several basically unrelated situations. Picking red currants during the hot summers of the 1950s was one ofseveral ways for me to earn money for college in 1958. Elton Tubbsand his wife Florence, or "Tubby" and "Flossie" as we knew them,lived diagonally across North Portage Street from where my familylived from 1950-1955. We had raised and picked red currants on bothof our farms - on Persons Road and 169 North Portage Street. From the time we first moved to North Portage, my parents sharedmany hours with Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs, watching "the fights" on TV ateach other's houses, and my dad, Don Blackburn, and Elton Tubbsconversed about all sorts of interesting inventions that Tubby hadinvented or was in the process of inventing. One of the inventions Tubby was working on, and eventuallyperfected and applied for a patent for, was an electromechanicalcurrant picker. Since my dad and I were photographers for theWestfield Republican when I was in high school, Tubby asked us tophotograph his currant picker for a brochure for both the patentprocess and for marketing the machine. While digging through oldboxes of family souvenirs a few years ago, we actually found a copyof the brochure, but now it has been "filed" someplace that escapesour memories. Imagine my excitement when I found a Buffalo Courier-Expressnewspaper clipping in the scrapbook of a friend's mother, datedApril 23, 1961, "Inventor Develops Current-Picker" by Gerry Wiser,Courier-Express Dunkirk Bureau. There was also a photo of "Elton H.Tubbs and his newly developed currant picking machinetheculmination of 10 years of tinkering." But about black currants in Westfield, the first time I heard ofthem was at a "New Neighbors Night" at the Patterson Library abouta year after I came back in 2003-04. The Westfield DevelopmentCorporation, WDC, was represented by John Rawlinson, and during hispresentation he suggested a revived interest in growing blackcurrants because of a number of recently researched health benefitsmight be another economic stimulus for our lagging agricultureindustry here in Westfield. When asked whether she remembered anything about black currantshere in Westfield, my mother, Fran Anderson, recalled when herfamily moved from Bliss Street to her grandfather's farm on AcademyStreet there were some black currant bushes. She thought they hadbeen removed because of some disease. Research on the history of black currants located a British websitethat confirmed this, saying, "As for the U.S., black currants wereonce very popular there as well, but in the 20th century thegovernment banned them in almost all of the states. The reason wasthat black currant shrubs can host and spread a disease, the 'whitepine blister rust', which threatened the booming timber industry inearly 1900s." According to the article, "In 1966 the federal banwas moved to individual States' jurisdiction led to many savvystates lifting the ban as did the New York State in 2003" One of the heirloom fruits being researched and written about byWestfield resident and farmer Jay Stratton is the currant. Strattonasked me if I had any information about what may have caused thedemise of the currant as a viable fruit for Westfield agriculture,suggesting the closing of the one remaining fruit plant thatprocessed currants may have been a reason. A future BeeLines will address history of fruit processingfactories here in Westfield and perhaps will discover the answerStratton's question as well as unravel the mysteries of the namesof the many Westfield fruit processing companies over the past twocenturies. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Induction Melting Equipment , Induction Pipe Heater, and more. For more , please visit Induction Heater Machine today!
Related Articles -
China Induction Melting Equipment, Induction Pipe Heater,
|
