The first cash crop to be raised in Borculo was potatoes. Potatoes grew well in Borculo’s sandy soils. Almost every farmer raised a yearly supply for his family and then some farmers also raised potatoes on a few acres to sell. One of the problems of raising potatoes was where to find a good market for selling them.
In the early days before cold storage businesses, some farmers would store their potatoes over the winter months in a pit covered with straw and dirt. In the spring the pit was opened, and the potatoes were removed, as fresh as when they were put in the ground. Back in the 1930’s, the potatoes could be sold for a higher price in the Spring.
At the wholesale market there were produce buyers called ‘hucksters” who would buy the potatoes and resell them to housewives living along the residential streets of Grand Rapids. After the potatoes were sold, the farmers would begin the long ride home in the daylight.
One interesting place they passed on the ride home was Tubbs Corners, located at the intersection of Chicago Drive and Godfrey Avenue. It was the home of Tubbs Saloon which featured Silver Foam Beer from the Grand Rapids Brewing Company and other refreshments, before prohibition began in 1920.
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Another cash crop that Borculo farmers raised were pickles. The pickle growing that started in the Borculo area goes back to the Heinz Pickle Factory that was built in Holland, MI in 1897.
The Heintz Pickle Company gave away pickle lapel pins, which many kids collected. Pictured is the pickle lapel pin that I still have today! Don VandenBosch remembers having one too at one time. They were about 1 ¼” long. Heintz gave over 100 million of these away over the years, beginning at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.
We would often ask of father how large the pickle check was.
My cousin Corwin VandenBosch still remembers the pickle checks his family received from the 1 ½ acres of pickles they picked. It is how they got new school clothes for starting school each year at the Townline School, 3 miles south of Borculo.
In the 1950’s my brothers and I came up with an idea that we were going to convince our father to purchase a new auto with his pickle checks. We went to auto dealers to find the prices and brochures of new cars. After the 1953 pickle season ended, we convinced my father to at least take a car for a test drive. With the salesman’s help, he finally broke down and purchased a brand new 1953 Chevrolet Two-Ten 4-door sedan for $1,761.
My grandfather Roelof Essenburg started farming in Borculo on VanBuren Street in 1889. He soon started raising potatoes and strawberries as cash crops to supplement his income from general farming. Farmers like him often had large families who could help in harvesting their cash crops and contribute to the family income.
My father Martin Essenburg raised a lot of strawberries on his farm when he started farming in Borculo in 1937. He would hire many young people to help pick strawberries during the month of June. They were usually paid 2 cents a quart. A page from his 1940 farm account book shows his strawberry sales that year. Crates of strawberries sold for an average $2.81, or about 18 cents/box. He sold 135 crates for a total of $379.90. In 2020 dollars, considering inflation, that would amount to $7,291!
The strawberries were picked and placed in wooden one-quart boxes. Strawberries were usually sold by the crate of 16 boxes. A lot of the strawberries were sold locally to neighbors, friends and local grocery stores, with the surplus then sold at the Grand Rapids wholesale produce market. Some farmers from Borculo who sold their surplus in Grand Rapids were Frank Walters, John DeVries, Gerrit R. Essenburg, and my father. They would carry as many crates as their cars would hold.
In December of 1942, President Roosevelt ordered the national “Victory Speed Limit” of 35 miles per hour to conserve gasoline and rubber. This speed limit lasted until the war ended in 1945. Our trips to the market now took a little longer.
My father’s older brother Gerrit R. Essenburg had been raising strawberries on his farm east of Borculo for many years before my father. My Uncle Gerrit had switched to a new variety of strawberry called the “Premier”, which was a larger strawberry than the smaller Dunlaps which everyone else raised at this time. He became the largest grower in the Borculo area of the Premier. The Premier strawberry attracted the attention of some of the hucksters at the Grand Rapids market. One of these hucksters was Jacob Tuinstra. He would resell them to the housewives in town.
In 1949, Jacob Tuinstra, his son Bob and daughter Doris purchased property at the corner of Clyde Park Avenue and 28th Street and opened a produce market. It was one of the first businesses to locate on what was later known as the 28th street “miracle mile”. My uncle then started delivering his Premier strawberries directly to the 28th Street location.
In 1982 at the age of 16, my daughter Beverly was also one of the many teenagers to get a job working at Fruit Basket Flowerland, She met her future husband there, Steve Harkema. Beverly and my son Karl have been long-time employees at Flowerland, although they never saw the big, beautiful Premier strawberries grown in Borculo by their great uncle!