The Gateway Farm Toy Show is famous for its scratch-built and custom model contests. These are few and far between in the farm toy-collecting hobby and they allow visitors to see how talented and creative modelers can be.

 

The layout contest is also a special way for contestants to show their vision of a farmstead, and visitors can learn a lot from the artistic renditions these artists create. This year’s show offered an array of models, but Jim Gorman of Hillsboro, Ohio, took home first-place in the scratch built 1/16th-scale contest with his Pix-ALL green bean harvester.

Jim is a retired rural mail carrier. At this year’s show, although he had many items on display, the green bean picker was a runaway winner. The picker began because of Jim’s innate curiosity – he said green beans are a new crop in his neck of the woods.

“They had a tobacco buyout in Kentucky and southern Ohio, which was many people’s main crop,” Jim pointed out. “The buyout eliminated tobacco and a lot of people got into vegetable gardens.”

One such farmer was Ervin West of Berrysville, who decided to try green beans on his farm. “They got looking around and found they could get this green bean picker from Pennsylvania,” Jim explained.

So, he was fascinated and decided to check it out. Once he saw the green bean picker he knew he had to have his own miniature version. Building the picker took a while to figure out: “It was a little complicated. It took somewhere over 100 pieces to build it.”

Built from brass, the picker is extremely detailed. “Brass, to me, is easier for me to work with,” Jim said. “I have learned how to solder and bend it. Some people prefer aluminum or plastic; I like the brass because it is easier for me to work. Plastic never was my thing. Me and glue, I’d get it all over everything.”

 To recreate the picker, Jim took pictures last spring and early summer; then, he started building.

The Pix-ALL green bean picker isn’t the only new model Jim created for this year. He also built a Case 600 self-propelled combine with more than 500 pieces in it.

Besides learning about the green bean harvest, Steve Schultz from Monroe, Wis., recreated the cranberry harvester he made about two decades ago for the   Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center in Warrens. About 20 years ago, Steve said, “They called me to create toys for their museum. After the initial call, I set up a time to go up and see the equipment and learn about the cranberry harvest, so I could make pieces that were realistic of what the real ones were like.”

Steve created a series of models depicting the cranberry harvest. Wisconsin produces more cranberries than any other state in the United States, and the cranberry is Wisconsin’s official fruit. In fact, the cranberry is Wisconsin’s main fruit.

At the museum Steve said, “I got a feel for what they wanted. They wanted the toys to represent what they had. They took me out to an actual bog to see how cranberries were grown and explained the methods for farming. They then took me to the manufacturing facility to see the equipment.”

The website for the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Assoc. offers more details on the cranberry harvest. The harvest method varies according to how the fruit will be used. Fresh fruit are harvested with a picking machine. Such machines have tines that comb through the vines and catch the fruit, which are then lifted onto a conveyor and into a bin.

After harvest, fruit for fresh use is dried in boxes with slatted bottoms and stored in heavily insulated or mechanically refrigerated buildings. Later, fruit is sorted and packaged for retail sale.

Steve said his cranberry harvester at the Gateway show was based on the real one he saw during his visit in the late 1990s.

“It was roughly 10-foot wide with a center beater and two wings. The unit itself is all hydraulically-driven,” he said. “It is four-wheel hydrostatic. It took about 25 to 30 hours to build this, like it does most of my equipment.” Next, he built a cranberry fertilizer and a cranberry pruner.

Craving to see the real thing? Tours are available at the Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center, open May 1-Dec. 31 each year.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.