Friday, March 27, 2015

Berrr* (for Berry, Berries, etc.)






Just this week, the most charming book appeared on my office shelf for series questions.  Jacob Biggle’s The Biggle Berry Book: Small Fruit Facts from Bud to Box Conserved into Understandable Form constitutes part of the Biggle Farm Library, and it’s jam-packed (terrible pun intended) with vintage photographs and color plates, as well as a plenitude of advice about berry cultivation.  The book was first published in 1894, and this tiny excerpt demonstrates just how passionate Mr. Biggle was about his fruits:

The only just and true way for an honorable and manly man is to grow them, and let everybody about the place have all he can eat. For the berry comes from the garden to the table in tempting and presentable shape, fit to grace the table of a king.

That’s pretty much how I feel about raspberries.  As a mostly unsuccessful grower, I was inspired to order this book for my personal collection and am planning to give it another try this year.  However, don’t even get me started about rhubarb!

Perhaps you detest rotten Berrr*-ies and will feel inspired to weed them out of your catalog.  Today’s typo appears 3 times in OhioLINK and 104 in WorldCat.

(Raspberries, by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos, from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak

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