It’s Time to Pick and Pack!

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Don’t be shy, put the eye to the sky!  That’s how I like to pick fresh apples at the orchard!

We are so lucky to have family in Australia who own fruit orchards.  When we arrived at the Damchev orchard we got straight to picking.

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The Damchev orchard

Instead of taking a car to the trees, we did it in a more fun way…  Uncle Chris drove us to the orchard in a big bin on a forklift!  It was so much more amusing than a car!

We started picking.  Do you know about the eye to the sky method?

Well if not, the eye of the apple is at the bottom of the fruit.

So now that you know where the eye is, and you know that the sky is up you can understand that you turn the apple upside down and it will come off easily.  That’s what I learned when I went to an apple orchard in Canada, but in Australia, we were taught a different way…  Palm the apple.  Since apples are very delicate, if you just pull using your fingers, it will probably bruise, but if you use your fingers and palm, it will not.

Picking the apples
Picking the apples

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to pick 2 bins of Pink Lady apples.  We were pretty good at it for beginners!  We used special apple picking bags where you fill up your bag as much as possible, then you lean over the bin and un-hook the loops and gently lower the apples into the bin then re-hook the bag.

Our full bin
Our full bin

The four of us had it all figured out…  I picked the ones on the bottom, my mom and Mikhaila did the ones in the middle and my dad did the ones on the tops of the trees!  Uncle Foti was a great help and helped us pick many of them.

Uncle Foti and I
Uncle Foti and I

Here are some before and after photos:

We were very happy because on our two boxes, Uncle Foti wrote Canada for the picker’s name.  Our apples were then put into the large cool rooms by Uncle Stan.

Go Canada!!!
Go Canada!!!
We are standing on Uncle Stan's forklift
We are standing on Uncle Stan’s forklift

Next, we went to the packing shed to learn about the process of packing the pears.  Once the pears are picked, they are brought to the packing shed and washed.

Part of the washing process
Part of the washing process

Then they are placed in little cups on a conveyor belt and are weighed by a machine that will drop the pears in the right bin with the same sized pears.  I chose the medium sized pears and Teta Margret explained how to sort them.

The pears are sorted into three categories:

  • The Firsts

The firsts are pears that are almost perfect.  These would go to a supermarket like Loblaws in Canada.

  • The Seconds

The seconds are the ones that have lines and a lot of big spots.  These ones would go to a store like Freshco in Canada.

  • Juice

The pears that go for juice either have holes, sunburns or are deformed.   We did not put the pears that go to juice in a bin, instead we put them on a conveyor belt.  This part was my favourite because I enjoyed watching the pears travel down the line.

I am putting the pears onto the conveyor belt
I am putting the pears onto the conveyor belt

After the juice fruit is collected, it is put onto big trucks and sent to the SPC Canning factory.  Once canned, the fruit and juice is sent to the grocery store.

Goodness me, it's SPC
Goodness me, it’s SPC

Our time at the orchard sadly came to an end…  But we did not leave empty handed!  Teta Margret and Uncle Foti gave us 2 big boxes of fruit!  One was full of pears and the other was full of pink lady apples.  They were delicious and we ate them everyday!

Now I have a better understanding of how much labour goes into the fruit that we buy at the grocery store.  This process is a lot of work and we will no longer take it for granted.

Our time at the Damchev orchard reminded me of going to apple orchards in Canada with our school before Thanksgiving.  This time was even better because we were with our family.  I also found out that I can eat at least 4 apples in less than an hour!

 


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Comments

9 responses to “It’s Time to Pick and Pack!”

  1. What an interesting experience for you to see the fruit from start to finish. Three questions. What happens to the apples on the ground? Why do you now know that you can eat four apples in less than an hour? What did do do with two big boxes of fruit?

    1. Hi!

      Sadly all of those apples on the ground stay there. I know that I can four apples in less than an hour because we had a big box full of them and we had to try and eat all of them before we left. So when we flew out, we had to just leave the rest of the pears and apples that we didn’t eat there. Yummy! 🙂

  2. Love the Zoe reports ! Thank you Zoe, stories and pics are terrific, Damchev orchard looks like fun work.
    Hello to everyone. (my cousins have an orchard in Shepparton, beautiful land, an amazing experience). from Mary K, Toronto

    1. Hi!

      We all had a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work! 🙂

  3. Helen M. Avatar
    Helen M.

    Hi Zoe,
    The fruit you picked looks perfect and so appetizing. I’m surprised that you only ate four apples in an hour.
    🙂
    I can’t ever recall seeing fruit from Australia in Toronto supermarkets, but I suppose it is too far to transport fresh fruit here all the way from Australia. It probably gets shipped to British Columbia. I’ll be visiting friends in B.C. this summer, so I must remember to ask them if they get fruit from Australia in the winter time.
    Thanks for all your wonderful reports!

    Lots of love,
    Teta Helen

    1. Hi!

      We will go to B.C. in about a week so I can ask and just in case I forget you can ask too! 🙂

  4. Hi Zoe,
    I loved seeing all the beautiful pictures of Chris, Stan, Margaret, Foti and yourselves! This certainly was a wonderful experience, and you are so right that a lot of labour goes into the process! How many acres of fruit orchards are on their farm? The picture of the before you picked, looked stunningly beautiful! You sure did a great job of picking! I liked your explanation of the apple bags and the procedures to be followed! The smiles from everyone are beautiful! Love, Baba

  5. Terry Avatar

    We get lots of southern hemisphere fruit from South America (shorter flight), but thank heavens that Ozzie grapes get turned into wine — we get that 🙂

  6. Hi, Zoe and fellow fruit pickers, Opa and I enjoyed this posting especially. We were surprised by the abundance of fruit and the size of the operation. Your step by step description and the matching photos gave a good idea of the process. We could have used some of the apples for Opa to make his apple sauce 🙂 Nice to see all the smiling faces, and the before and after photo is amazing. Gazillion XOXOXO’s