Fruit Picking

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mtoolan
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Fruit Picking

Post by mtoolan » 27 Apr 2009 20:13

So I was talking to a guy who I work with and he told me he goes to europe every summer to pick fruit. I thought this sounded like an awesome idea so I checked it out and I found some places that have summer picking jobs for students. Room and board is included and you are paid by how much you pick. I don't know much else about it but I was thinking if I did this I could just take like a week off sometime and go to worlds in berlin.

I'm really just posting this to get some feedback on the idea. I know I've read a few posts here and there over the years about berry pickers and I think somebody said Lon Smith does it. So if anybody knows anything about this or has any solid info please post it here.
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Post by Jeremy » 27 Apr 2009 20:48

Dylan Fry travelled around Australia doing fruit picking. It's a good way to see the country without much money - often you can stay at the farms for free or for very little too - not that you would expect to pay much anyway. I joined him for a couple of months. It was hard work but also lots of fun - hanging out with other fruit pickers (almost all of which are foreign backpackers). I didn't make much money, but mainly because I didn't work very hard. It was good for footbag too - Dylan and I played pretty much every day for a month and it was fairly obvious at Australian nationals that year how well prepared we were (I think between the two of us we won every event).

I don't have a lot of solid info, especially about Europe, but I'd recommend it anyway.

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Post by ted » 01 May 2009 12:19

I know several people who have had excellent experiences wwoofing:

http://www.wwoof.org/
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Post by BainbridgeShred » 03 May 2009 10:13

If you want to do something 10x less lame, get s-190 s-130 certified and fight forrest fires this summer. Training usually only runs about 100 bucks and I guarantee you will have the time of your life.

Plus you don't have to go to Europe. You can go to Australia though during their fire season.
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Post by Jeremy » 03 May 2009 15:39

I've never heard of anybody coming to Australia to fight fires who wasn't a professional fire fighter, and I'm not sure you'd get paid at all for that, but it would certainly be exciting :P

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Post by mtoolan » 03 May 2009 15:48

...but i want to go to europe...
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Post by BainbridgeShred » 03 May 2009 15:50

A lot of Americans go to Australia during your fire season because it is our winter and there are no fires left to fight. Structural and wild land fire fighting are two different things and a lot of the jobs are seasonal obviously, but there are professional forrest fire fighters who work all year round and go to Canada and Mexico as well. I did it my first summer out of high school and worked in Eastern Washington and Oregon. There's a much more tactical/strategic aspect to it compared to fighting a structure fire.
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Post by BainbridgeShred » 03 May 2009 15:52

And I dunno what you mean by "I don't know how you'd get paid for that". In America there are private contractors and also government agency's who employ a ton of people during the summer. The field kitchens are mainly run by prison crews and we were lucky enough when I was out there to have two chef's on duty. It was bomb.
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Post by Jeremy » 03 May 2009 19:45

You've misread me. I said that I didn't think you'd get paid if you came to Australia to fight fires, not that I didn't understand how. In Australia our fires are primarily fought by a combination of full time professionals and a very strong contingent of volunteers. The volunteer fire fighter community is Australia is massive - every rural town has a team of volunteer fire fighters and when there are massive fire fighters most of them get sent to the event. They don't get paid, although they do get plenty of support and gifts from the community.

While we have a fire season like the US, Australia is a lot drier than the US and as you head North there is less and less difference between winter and summer temperatures. This means we still have the threat of bushfire all year round and there are pretty much always fires burning somewhere in the country.

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Post by RawSko » 10 May 2009 21:48

I worked on a Farm in Ardeche, France, for almost 4 months last fall. It changed my life and made me want to become a farmer. I was payed for the Chestnut Harvest. The money was great, but it was a fun experience. If it's a good harvest, you can make good money. I plan on doing it in Ireland next summer. If you start with WWOOF, you can get in touch with all sorts of farms that will pay you for certain harvests. If you can get it, Switzerland would be really well paid. I know that there's a big Apricot harvest near Sion, Switzerland (french part). I highly reccomend fruit picking... and just go travelling, trusting that you will find work somewhere or other, and chances are: you will. Go with the flow!

Good luck!
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Post by BainbridgeShred » 13 May 2009 10:50

Thinking about it now, it must be really easy to fight fire in Australia. Not like there are any steeps for it the run up.
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Post by Jeremy » 13 May 2009 14:34

I'm not sure if you're joking or actually think that. Although this looks like becoming a nationalist argument about who has the hardest fires to fight, which would be hilarious.

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Post by BainbridgeShred » 13 May 2009 16:17

Uh I think that's only you.

Your highest mountain is 7000 ft according to google. I look out my window every morning at a mountain twice as high.
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Post by Jeremy » 13 May 2009 18:29

How often do you get fires on that mountain above 7000 feet?

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Post by BainbridgeShred » 13 May 2009 19:29

Even the Himalay's burn
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Post by Blue_turnip » 13 May 2009 21:19

BainbridgeShred wrote:Thinking about it now, it must be really easy to fight fire in Australia. Not like there are any steeps for it the run up.
lol.
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Post by Jeremy » 13 May 2009 21:27

Sure. I don't know about the USA, or indeed the Himalayas, but in Australia the worst bushfires are caused by very hot, dry and windy conditions. It's fairly uncommon for it to reach over 45 degrees C (113 degrees F) at the top of our short mountains, while when it reaches these kinds of temperatures in dry Eucalyptus forests it's of much greater concern, regardless of the terrain.

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Post by bdams19 » 13 May 2009 22:43

OUR MOUNTAINS ARE THE HIGHEST WOOOO OBAMA!
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Post by calemccoy » 14 May 2009 00:07

can we get some more non-fire-related info about this? my interest is peeked.
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Post by Jeremy » 14 May 2009 05:12

Interestingly a particular awesome footbagger was asking me about this just the other day on facebook. This was what I had to say (obviously in answer to some questions but it should be clear what they were.
Fruit picking in Australia!

Dylan Fry is definitely the guy to talk to about this. He spent almost his whole time in Australia doing it - pretty much from the north most point in Australia to the south most. I've only done it for a few months, plus I used to similar stuff over summer when I was in high school, so I'll give you my impressions and experiences but you might want to check out the details a little from a more reliable source.

1. I'm fairly sure you can do it all year round if you don't mind travelling around the country, which I'm sure you wouldn't. There are all kinds of different fruit to pick - mangoes, bananas, pears, apples, cherries, plums etc. There's also lots of similar jobs doing things like planting broccoli and pretty much anything else. These jobs are all very easy to get as there is a bit of a shortage of people willing to them.

2. The pay is typically based on how much you pick. If you're focused and hard working you can make really good money doing this. If you're like me and lazy, dislike mornings and more interested in getting drunk and partying every night then you won't do so well, but definitely still save some money.

3. I worked at three different farms with Dylan. 2 of which had caravans for pickers that you had to pay a small amount of rent to stay in (like $50 a week) or you could camp for free. The other place had some huts that we stayed in for free.

4. The range of farms probably means you could find some allowing you to travel in to the city every weekend. That definitely would have been possible at the farms Dylan and I worked at although we didn't do that very often. We mainly spent the weekends on the farms or in the small nearby towns.

5. I got the first job with Dylan just by turning up to the farm he was already working at. The second farm we also just turned up and asked for work at the farm. The last one we went through the phone book and called up farms and asked if they were looking for anybody - I think we found somebody almost on our first call though. I say, there's a shortage so it's easy to get jobs doing this kind of work.

6. If you did come down to Australia to do fruit picking then in my breaks between university I'd come up and work with you and play footbag every afternoon.

7. I had a great time fruit picking, as well as getting to see parts of the country I hadn't seen before. It is hard work and you typically have to get up very early - like sunrise - but you're with other backpackers and because you're mainly just staying on a farm you don't have a lot of expense and can save a lot of money.

I hope these answered your questions, and if you have any more hit me up and I'll try my best - although Dylan is a good person to ask too. Also consider that the weather here is fairly nice all year round, and our summer is your winter :)

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