A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1973 (Debrecen, 1975)

Néprajz - Varga Gyula: Market-Gardening at Derecske, the Growing of Onions and Vegetables

people to travel 100-150 kilometres with the onions and vegetables. Part of the onions were tied up into ropes (ciku), the vegetables into bunches. Onions without stems were sold by the bushel (véka), litre, later by the kilo. In the 1930s several farmers tried to trade in onions, but they were not able to set up an independent group of tradesmen and distributors. The growing of onions and vegetables was never independent of agriculture at Derecske, it has always been an integral part of it. No independent layer of market gardeners developed, this branch of work was practised by every family with a distribution of labour within the families. The preparation of the soil, sowing and partly the harvesting, hibertation and the sale was mainly the duty of the men, the time-consuming and tiring work of weeding was done almost entirely by the women. Farmers with larger estates leased out some of their land, they did no work, the work of sowing, weeding and harvesting was done by the poor, usually with large families, usually for half of the yield. There was no appreciable difference in agricultural methods among the various social classes. The difference however in preparing and eating dishes containing onions is considerable between the social layers. Dishes containing much onion and foodstuffs based mainly on onions were the much despised food of the poor people. Onions were also used in medical treatment and for cleaning shoes, furniture. The annual meeting of market gardeners was called torzsaié because, similarly to cattle holders, they finished the meeting with eating and drinking. The traditional form of market gardening at Derecske is showing a strong decline after the Liberation of 1945; it has been replaced by large-scale farming. 280