Description
Book SynopsisPickers came from near and far year after year – and from a variety of backgrounds – for the berry-picking season. For local people, adults and children, it was an opportunity to supplement the family income; Glasgow folk combined it with a holiday. For the Scottish Traveller community it was an annual opportunity to meet up with friends and family, and forge new relationships.
Roger Leitch encouraged many of those local berry pickers to share their recollections for this book – which is published at a time of political change with challenges for the soft fruit cultivation business. He also interviewed workers in other seasonal employments such as potato picking and ghillieing.
Trade Review' … Fascinating material is presented throughout … The focus on the wide range of oral testimonies presented, mostly from a particular region of Scotland that has thus far not received in-depth attention in the wider historiography, means that the book offers important insights for the historical agenda.' Scottish Archives
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Caroline Milligan
1. Fieldwork and the Ethnologist
2. Seasonal Rural Employment
3. Life at the Tatties
4. Berryopolis
5. The Growth of the Raspberry Industry in Scotland by G. M. Hodge
6. Life Away From Home
7. At Home
Notes
Glossary
Contributors
Bibliography
Index
