PEELING ONIONS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3750, 1 May 1936, Page 12

PEELING ONIONS

A FULL-TIME OCCUPATION Jemima Hulme is the speediest woman onion-peeler In the North of England. Jemima works at a piekle factory in Withington, Manchester. Her age, she says, is her own business, but she admits having peeled onions for 43 years. During that time she has never shed a tear over an onion, though she admits that she has been very near to "crying” at times when the onions have been stronger than usual. Early Training. The short time I stood watching her “topping and tailing” onions—and I reckoned she did at least 45 a minute—made my eyes water, but they did not trouble Jemima. She is such an expert that she can talk to you as she peels, and she never makes a mistake. Jemima started peeling onions when she was very young and during the whole of the 43 years she has only worked in two pickle factories in Manchester. w When business is brisk, as it is at the moment, she has been known to peel as many as 18cwt. of onions in a week. “So long as I get good onions like these to peel I can easily carry on at this speed,” she told me. "It’s when I get small onions that 1 work more slowly because with a small onion you have to be careful how you top and tail them, or else the middle comes out and the onion is no use. “I work on piece rate, and because of my speed I earn good money. Sometimes I have worked on Sundays, and before the war I used to leave home about six o’clock in the mornings to get to my work in time.” Jemima lives in Leigh-street, Higher Openshaw, and in between peeling onions she has managed to raise a family of five. During her 43 years as an onionpeeler Jemima is said to have “topped and tailed” just over 1,000 tons of onions—and she has never shed a tear. Some record!