Baskets, baskets everywhere.

Baskets, baskets everywhere.    Central Ohio is basket country.  The Longaberger company, headquartered in Newark, Ohio, has a basket presence throughout Newark, Dresden and surrounding areas.  If your not a basket lover, it's just to bad, they are everywhere, every color and every size. 

 

This afternoon  we did the tourist thing and visited  the Longaberger Homestead.  Just as we arrived, along came the tour bus to take us to tour the factory.  We were able to see baskets being made from start to finish and had opportunities to talk with workers.  The employees are a contented bunch, the turnover rate is only 1%, no union needed says one women saying they give us everything we want.  How many people can  say that!     The company is being run by two sisters, daughters of  Dave Longaberger, now deceased.  We came away with the feeling that the employees took pride in their work.  It is my humble opinion that we don't always see that much anymore.

 

Along with the chance to make your own basket, there are many shops to visit, along with a tea house and restaurants.

 

The baskets were beautiful, but I have no room.  Boo hoo.

 

I consoul myself seeing the world's largest apple basket, boasting a bumper crop  of fourteen 4 foot apples.  It is over 29 feet tall and was woven from hardwood maple in 1999.

 

Another cool thing we saw was the Longaberger corporate offices, 17 miles down the road from homestead.  The building is a picnic basket, only 160 times larger.   The seven-story building is an exact replica of a medium-sized Longaberger picnic basket. Synethetic plaster was used to create the curved basket weave exterior. The handles are heated to prevent ice from forming and falling onto the roof.   Two Longaberger tags are attached to the sides of the building. The gold leaf painted tags are 725 lbs each and measure 25' long x 7' tall x 3" thick.

 

Pretty neat!