Takes me back, when we moved to Aldridge from Kingshurst the only way you could earn money in the summer was to go fruit picking, for whatever was in season. The local farmer would come and pick everybody up in a horse box and take you to a small village called Stonnall, you would sit on a straw bales in the back of the truck, along with feral women (as someone else had mentioned) they used to play us young lads up terrible.
As for picking probably the toughest was spuds, it was back breaking work, but all the women had shopping bags and used to go home every night with a bag full of potatoes, sure the farmer knew but never said anything, to be honest some of those women were rough diamonds and if he had said anything they would have probably flattened him.
As for other fruit blackcurrants was a tough job, you were given a bucket and told to fill it and you would be paid 2/6, it would take nearly all day to fill a bucket, and you couldnt fiddle it as they emptied the buckets out into trays before you got paid.
Another tough one was gooseberries, you had to wear gloves as there were thorns/spikes and you got cut to ribbons by them, arms and hands bleeding at the end of the day.
And lastly and probably our favourite was strawberries before the advent of pick your own, i am sure we used to eat more than we picked and they tasted divine, all the kids had bright red about an inch wide around their mouth, and couldnt face another strawberry, hard work but happy days great memories.