On the 12th March 2013 I decided to head to and work on a fruit picking farm in order to extend my work and holiday visa. In order to extend the visa, you were required to spend 88 days on a farm. I choose the farm next to the SpotX Surf Camp I used to live and work at. It was run by an incredibly nice, welcoming and supportive Indian family. We stayed with a few other girls in the staff accommodation next to the family house and helped them to run the farm for a few months.
We grew and picked tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and blueberries. I thought it was going to be a smooth run, but I had never worked on a farm before and underestimated how challenging it would be.
The family and my fellow pickers were really welcoming. They helped me to understand the tasks at hand really fast and made me feel like an important part of the team right from the start. Not only the work on the farm was fun, we also had great time after the work was finished. From pizza nights, chocolate mug cakes, little dance parties or simply crashing on the couch exhausted, I was glad the girls were around and made time go by way faster.
There is nothing better than digging your hands into the fresh soil and smelling the scent of sweat and dirt in your nose while working. But what nobody talks about
is the rash you get from picking cucumbers. That the stains will never ever come out of your jacked or that old and rotten tomatoes can explode in your face if they have been in the sun for too
long are facts that don't come with the job description. Have you ever ripped out old tomato plants? Not only does it smell, you also have to protect your face from all those white flies that
swarm your face. Also, sitting in a greenhouse in Australia all day while it gets hotter and hotter outside is like living in a big sauna.
And then there was the back pain. The amount of exercise, going up and down and bending over to trim the plants or set up the blueberry field, was the biggest
challenge of all and left me exhausted at the end of the day. There were also days when the work was incredibly boring and endurance was the word of the day. Detangling strings, climbing up the
ladder, pick cucumbers and climb the ladder back down, keep picking and do that all over again for 25 rows for a couple of tents. The strawberry planting was another whole adventure. We had to
put our hands into the pipes to pull out the old plants before cleaning them properly and then planing the new fresh plants. Not a big deal, right? Well, you would be right, but this is
Australia. So our biggest worry were the spider we would wake up. Thy were not happy being evicted from their homes.
Loving blueberries in your cereal for breakfast and on top of your ice cream is such a treat. I grew a lot of respect for everyone preparing the field, planting and harvesting them. Holy blueberrymoly this is actually more intense than picking cucumbers and that says a lot. We were really fortunate that the hills were already prepared and the plastic cover secured. We now had to cut wholes directly above the water pipe and get all the blueberry plants up the hill.
After doing another round around the field feeding every hole with minerals, it was time to plant the plants. We worked the entire day from 7am to 4pm while getting a nice tan. It took us 2 whole days to plant them all, just to realize there were another 1000 coming at a later point. Needless to say, I have gained a lot of respect for those tiny blue fruits.
The days came and went. Cucumbers were picked, baby cucumbers planted, plants pruned, clipped, retied and packaged. Tomatoes were picked, old plants ripped out, baby tomato plants planted, pruned, clipped and packaged. Water sprinklers and watering systems were maintained and replaced. Blueberry field had to be taken care off, weed pulled, plants fixed and big rocks removed. And then repeat and repeat and repeat for days and days and days. My journal entry always starts with the word "Cucumber". It took me a really good while after leaving the farm before I was able to eat cucumber again. I was burned out. Even the smell turned me off.
No matter how difficult it was at times, how repetitive, hot and hard on the body, I am forever grateful for this experience. Not only did I meet some incredible people, I also gained an understanding and respect on where my food comes from and how hard it is to grow it in such mass for society. Farmers should get a lot more respect and recognition for all the hard work they put in, day in, day out. The work never stops and really takes a toll on your body after some time. On the 08th June 2013 I finished my farm work with a whole lot of life lessons learned and a full heart. This family and my crew had grown really close to my heart and even though there were days when we all just wanted to cry, we pushed through as a family and got the job done.
Write a comment