Why are bushel baskets like this?

Submitted by ClareBroommaker on Sun, 04/17/2022 - 02:59
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The Twelfth Circle: Critical Thinking and Mental Skills

Aren't there always little things that make you wonder "why"? Why is it typically done this way? Made this way? Arranged this way? Even colored this way, decorated this way, textured this way...and so on?

Well here I am at 3:00 in the morning wondering why split wood bushel baskets are shaped this way, especially since they would seem prone to tipping over due to top heavy imbalance. I figure that since it has "always" been so, there might be a reason. I guess they are easier than parallel-sided baskets to stack and store in less space, but does that override balance in the orchard when full of apples?

What do you think?

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ClareBroommaker

Sun, 04/17/2022 - 03:05

Oh, and I don't know what the engineers thought, but the architects evidently thought bushel basket stacks are good for boxes of people as well. This is a newish apartment building near me. I have to turn my head whenever it is in view. To me it is ugly; really ugly.

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Teresa from Hershey

Sun, 04/17/2022 - 13:14

Good heavens.
I can't imagine how a building with cantilevered sheets of glass like that is going to hold up over time.
If the caulk and sealants fail, it will leak like crazy and fail.
If the wind is too much, those windows will get torn free.

I don't see how they're going to do the maintenance needed to keep a building going through winter after winter after winter.

gkb

Sun, 04/17/2022 - 13:38

I've never seen a bushel of that shape. The ones I know about are squat and wide, not tapered and tall. I found an image on the 'net of a display rack of bushels of the shape you show. Three rows by three baskets to a row. Maybe that is the market stall shape?

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ClareBroommaker

Sun, 04/17/2022 - 18:29

I've seen them both ways. Growing up, my family had a few of the wide, squat ones and they were useful. Can't remember whether we had any tall ones. To transport to market or to storage that way, it seems like you'd have to work up a system to support them.

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ClareBroommaker

Wed, 04/20/2022 - 14:55

Still thinking about these tippy baskets. Am considering how gravity of the fruit affects the basket. Does the construction help hold the basket together against the load it carries? Seems unlikely to me.

Is it just easier to make the basket like this? I've never made one, so I don't know.

Other containers are conically shaped. In the case of a cup, I can see that the shape helps wedge it into one's hand. I think a conical cup is less likely to fall through one's fingers than a straight sided cup....Does a conical bushel basket help provide a place where you can wrap your arms around it and hold it to your body securely in order to move it elsewhere?

Does the conical shape provide empty space where you can move your legs to walk while carrying the basket?

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ClareBroommaker

Wed, 04/20/2022 - 14:45

Amphorae containers have bothered my brain, too. They are conical and really tippy, despite them often having the purpose of storing liquids. Just seems like tippiness is a big disadvantage, so does that disadvantage also provide some advantage that I'm not seeing?

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gkb

Thu, 04/21/2022 - 09:25

Amphorae were shipped in sand to protect them from movement and shocks at sea--the conical shape allowed them to be surrounded, supported, and separated by sand instead of knocking against one another in a storm at sea.

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ClareBroommaker

Wed, 04/20/2022 - 14:48

There's always this use of the basket, and the forces it must withstand are different then the filled basket.

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ClareBroommaker

Wed, 04/20/2022 - 14:54

I doubt if these baskets are used so much these days in the US where I live, but once they were surely common.

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David Trammel

Wed, 04/20/2022 - 19:11

Off the top of my head, I would guess that it has to do with getting flat wood for the sides that would come in at various widths. Remember, up until modern table saws, slats of wood for shingles or for baskets would be handmade and probably came in a wide variation of size. Having a conical jig means that the basket will form no matter the width of the individual slates. You just grab some that are the same height, lay them into the jig until you get it filled, then run a few circular straps around the outside.

ADDED: Or maybe not, lol. Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcndFY1WtGc

LandLizard

Fri, 04/22/2022 - 21:55

I googled “tall bushel basket” and Agri Supply’s add says “ This bushel basket is tall and easy to carry when picking fruit or corn.” So, easy to carry?
Also from Clare’s photo, I’d say they display well.