—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 15, 1972
20
Mrs. Margaret Ober
Her Green Thumb
by Mrs. Charles McSparran
Farm Feature Writer
This is the season for luscious
raspberries. If anyone has a yen
to go out and pick their own, one
of the best places is at the farm of
Levi S Ober, Elizabethtown RDI.
To reach his farm go west on
Bambndge Road from
Elizabethtown Turn left on
Miller Road and right on West
Ridge Road, and it is the first
farm Obers have about three
acres of black raspberries in
three different patches. They
have three varieties—Bristol,
Cumberland and New Logan
They started ripening about
two weeks ago and there should
be some for another week or so
but Obers advise phoning ahead
to be certain there are some. It is
not uncommon to see about fifty
automobiles parked there about
daybreak or soon after and
pickers all over the patches.
There’s no possibility of buying a
box that is already picked. Mrs.
Ober says “We don’t even pick
them for the preacher. He picked
them in his good clothes.”
Mrs. Ober is a floor lady at
Marvin Bodenstein Co. garment
factory but she takes her
vacation during raspberry
season to receive phone calls,
park cars, direct the pickers to
the right patch and collect the
money. She also cans raspberries
Mrs. Ober holds her most prized vase from her collection
of 65 vases.
for pies and to use in the winter
for their favorite desserts.
Levi has been raising rasp
berries for 25 or 30 years. He
starts all the plants and they are
certified by state inspectors.
Mrs. Ober helps plant some of the
new plants They sell them in
bunches of 25 plants in the spring.
Levi works the best part of the
year with his raspberries. He
cultivates and mulches them to
keep them as weed free as
possible.
Mrs. Ober holds a star
hobnail compote and a blue
flowered ironstone bowl from
the Ober family antique dish
collection.
Raises Great Fruits, Flowers
Levi is the third generation to
own this fifty acre farm. His
grandfather, Levi Sweigart
bought it originally. Besides
raspberries he raises ten acres of
corn, twenty acres of grass which
a neighbor harvests on the halves
and three and a half acres is in
pasture land. He also plants
about 3,000 Jersey and vineless
sweet potato plants from which
he harvests about 75 bushels of
sweet potatoes
He has all kinds of fruit and nut
trees. Mrs. Ober says “He’s
pretty good at grafting.” He has
grafted many trees, grape vines
and started many raspberry
plants. He has cherry trees to
attract the birds away from the
raspberries. He has black cherry
trees, six red sweet cherry trees,
several yellow cherries, two
Montmorency sour cherry trees
and a water cherry tree (they
look more like blueberries than
cherries and they are also sweet
and juicy and good to use.
Obers have at least ten apple
trees—Transparent, Winesap,
Stark’s Delicious, Northern Spy
and Greening. They have Seckel,
Bartlett, two Kieffer pear trees
and several young pear trees that
Levi grafted. They have an
apricot, three peach trees and
three young peach trees. They
have twenty plum trees. One of
the plum trees is an Early red
June plum that Mrs. Ober sent to
Tennessee for four years ago.
This year the fruit on it is so thick
the limbs had to be propped and
probably will have to be thinned.
They have four shellbark nut
trees, four chestnuts, black
walnuts and English walnuts.
They also have blueberries,
elderberries, gooseberries, many
Copies of LANCASTER FARMING ore not always easy to
find they are not sold on newsstands and perhaps some of
your friends may not be acquainted with our weekly service.
We'll be glad to send, without charge, several copies of LAN
CASTER FARMING to your friends or business associates. Just
write their names and addresses below (You'll be doing both
them and us a favor!)
Street Address & R. D,
City, State and Zip Code
(You are not limited to two names. Use separate sheet for additional names.)
□ CHECK here if you prefer to send a Year’s (52 issues) GIFT subscription for
$2 each ($3 each outside of Lancaster County) to your friends listed above
If so $ enclosed, or
□ Bill me later.
Please mail this form to:
LANCASTER FARMING
Mrs. Margaret Ober is expecting a large crop from this
four-year-old Early Red June plurj: tree she sent to Ten
nessee for.
grape vines and a few red
raspberries for themselves. Mrs.
Ober sells some of the fruit,
particularly plums where she
works. Some people come there
to pick cherries.
Mr. Ober keeps five Holstein
cows which he milks by hand and
Hershey Foods buys the milk. He
raised most of his heifers. He did
keep more cows but is catting
down on them. He has one horse
which he doesn’t use now. He also
has twelve dogs. Three are
thoroughbred Airedale and the
rest part Airedale.
Mrs. Ober has many hobbies.
Probably her favorite is raising
FREE SAMPLE COPIES
Your Name
P.O. BOX 266. LITITZ. PA. 17543
flowers. Most of them are
perennials and annuals. Also a
(Continued On Page 22)
GARBER
OIL CO.
TEXACO
HEATING OIL
BURNERSALES
AND SERVICE
MOUNT JOY, PA
Ph. 653-1821
Street Address & 11. D,
City, State and Zip Code
Address