Once a year in Lethbridge, on Newfoundland's Bonavista Peninsula, local farmers and their families gathered for Farmers Field Day on the third Saturday of every August.
It was a time to come together — a local gathering that was several years old by the time Land & Sea visited in 1984.
Bob Peddle was one of those area farmers at the festival that year, and a successful one.
Peddle owned almost 400 acres of cleared land that could yield 24,000 sacks of turnips and potatoes in a good year.
When Peddle was young, that land was virgin forest. He cleared the land himself, and continued to work it every year with several members of his family.
His son took a mechanics course, which he put to use on the farm. His daughter sold vegetables on the roadside, and his daughter in law did his bookkeeping. Other family members, down to the grandchildren, helped out in different ways throughout the farming season.
"We takes all the family in," Peddle said.
'I wouldn't change it'
The year was one of ups and downs for Peddle and his family. When Land & Sea came by again after a wet spring, the potatoes were in full bloom but the cabbage was suffering due to dry weather.
But the strawberries were doing well, and Peddle's grandchildren were working in the field for the first day that year picking them. On a nice day, the family often got together on the fields for a meal and some time together in between the work.
Later in the summer, the rain finally arrived, and with that the vegetables and hay crop — sold to the nearby dairy farms — had perked up.
It was good news for Wayde Peddle, who had begun farming full time with his father 15 years earlier.
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