Working in a garden, how difficult could it be?

So how difficult is it to actually pick fruit?

It’s a topical question, with the horticultural sector clamoring for workers in light of its regular workforce being depleted.

Covid-19 has meant that the Recognized Seasonal Employer (CSR) scheme has been drastically reduced and backpackers are in short supply, prompting the sector to implore Kiwis for a chance to work in the field.

In a quest to get an idea of ​​how difficult this could be, I managed to spend a sweltering Wednesday last week in an orchard on the outskirts of Hastings.

READ MORE:
* Ask the inhabitants of Central Otago to work and provide beds to fill the labor gap
* CSR workers providing a lifeline to New Zealand horticulturists
* The ‘perfect storm’ is coming for Central Otago producers facing the Covid-19 labor crisis

There is a lot of debate right now about pay rates, earnings, and the hits and misses of the CSR scheme. That I leave to others. This is not a treatise on any of that.

The orchards are encouraging anyone to register and try.

Paunchy, pale-faced, soft-handed, partially 53 years old, and with little tolerance for boredom, he suspected that the gardeners had not thought things through. I doubt they imagined an army of burly desk horsemen like me showing up.

But, after a short safety induction, I am standing in front of my first row of trees.

These neat rows of trees appear distinctly short when you pass them in a car at 100 km / h. They don’t look like that when you’re among them. They seem to extend beyond the horizon.

It’s 29 degrees Celsius and it’s getting hotter and hotter, the cicadas are getting hotter, and every bit of exposed skin lets me know that I was right to apply sunscreen in the same way that ocean swimmers once applied goose grease .

Today I am “losing weight”. That means I’m pulling some small apples out of the trees so the ones left on the tree grow bigger and better. If I see three apples growing next to each other, I will take two away.

The apples are Pacific Queens. It is a sweet, red, early maturing variety that is apparently very popular in China. I envision baby apples spending the next few months growing, then crossing the Pacific before landing on a teacher’s desk in Guangzhou or Shenzhen.

I am one of the 60 people working in this 80 hectare orchard and one of the 20 workers who have started this week.

Warren Temperton gave me the induction for my site. He is 60 years old and has worked in orchards since he was 17. He has the build of a lumberjack and laughs as much as he talks. Usually a Freshco packhouse manager has been attached, due to his experience and willingness, to show newbies like me what to do.

As you can imagine, there are some dangers in a vegetable garden. Sunburn and dehydration are the main ones, followed by falls from stairs. Three-legged ladders are easy to use, but it’s easy to get complacent.

Working in the ranks next to me are Syris Moeroa, 19, from Hastings, and Temepara Haimoana-Young, 20, who moved to Hastings from Feilding with her partner.

We chat as we move through the ranks, though they soon tire of my questions and have a hard time again. They laugh frequently. I’m sure part of it is directed at the red-faced old man fumbling with the ladder.

Another young man spends the morning working with a sweatshirt on his head. He goes home before lunch. Turns out, he got badly sunburned on his first day, two days earlier, and it was too painful to continue.

Syris and Temepara told me that on Monday it was over 30 ° C, there was no wind at all and that everyone got sunburned to some degree.

Now on their third day, these two seem to be doing fine.

A common theme among everyone I talk to in the industry is that there really is no way of knowing how someone will take the job. Some leave before the morning smoko, never to return, and some who may have been canceled become skilled workers.

The other thing everyone says is: “The first week is the hardest. After that, it gets easier. “

I only do it for one day so I have no idea about that.

As we progress through the endless lines, Warren comes by from time to time to give us advice. “When you remove the apple, try to leave the stem on”, “do not drop the apples down the tree because they will hit and damage other apples”, and so on.

If he was going to spend more days in the orchard, he would definitely bring something to listen to. Music or podcasts … anything. The idea of ​​spending five days losing weight while listening to test cricket reviews is very appealing. I can see that as a very satisfying way to spend retirement.

In smoko I talk to Warren. He hasn’t done much with apples. He was a contractor with dozens of employees over many years. Fifteen years ago he worked with local fruit growers and Work and Income in an attempt to get the unemployed to work in the orchards.

He has seen it all. The booms and the falls.

“The industry has changed a lot,” says Warren. “Once they were smaller orchards, about 5 hectares, managed by family businesses. Now there are more than 70 hectares managed by companies. There are many more trees. Once, you would have the same families returning each season to choose from. Now you have the workers and backpackers of CSR.

“Everything is bigger. I liked how it used to be, but you can see how it happened; it’s a success story, really. “

The weight loss usually occurs from November to January. Harvesting, which is a more physical job, begins in early February. At the end of April, the harvest of the season is finished.

We don’t see many other workers in the orchard. The few we see stop and chat. There are several CSR workers from Vanuatu who have been here since before Covid.

Your experience shows. In comparison, I am a drunk juggler.

It’s not until you go through row after row of trees and then consider how long it takes to cut down a single tree that you realize the magnitude of the work required in the coming months.

In all his years in the orchards, Warren never saw a season when no fruit was picked.

“There were some in the nineties when it was not chosen until very late [meaning it’s of lesser quality and earns less]. But this year … I don’t know, ”he says.

Lunch takes place around a large table in a large shed. Some other workers join us. The consensus, again, is that it gets a lot easier after the first week. It is also observed that the key to earning more is to concentrate. Younger workers generally spend more time chattering and loafing, while older workers are more like the CSR team; they tend to move on.

“Maturity makes a big difference, but it’s mostly attitude,” says Warren. “If you have a good attitude, you will be right. You don’t mind persevering with someone with a good attitude

“There are some who appear and it is not what they thought. I think it is important for the industry to prepare people for what to expect. ”

After lunch, Warren takes me to a “platform.” Interestingly, it is a platform on wheels that goes up and down the rows, stopping every few meters to allow workers (up to four on this model) to thin the tops of the trees.

We spent the afternoon on the platform choosing the Breeze variety, another sweet and crunchy red apple popular in China.

It’s certainly easier to work from the platform, although I still rely on the emergency stop button, which triggers an alarm and shuts down the engine. It’s funny the first four times, but I think Warren and the others are happy when I get off the platform.

The best advice I get all day is: “Never look at the line you are in.”

It seems incredibly distant.

The end of the day felt equally distant. But it came.

Final score? He certainly knew that he had done physical work. I can best describe it as the kind of feeling you can get after a day of moderate hiking or mountain biking – I was tired, but not uncomfortable.

I asked Warren how he thought I’d fared, out of 10.

He gave me a nine, but said it needed some “adjustments”.