Trev's abandoned the building site and is instead, seen at regular intervals picking apples in the orchard across the road. I've helped him with two five hour days, but mostly he picks four bins of apples a day - and then knocks off and comes back home. It's hard work, I have bruises on my shoulders just from the weight of the bag straps, and the ladder work isn't much fun. But once you're in the rythym of grabbing two apples and lifting them sharply up while placing your thumb at the apex of the stalk and the stalk attachment and placing them in the bag that hangs around your neck and moving on to the next two it's almost meditative, it certainly helps you sleep well. The bag, once full, is unclipped and the apples slide gently out the bottom of it to ensure they're not bruised. A tractor races around the orchard picking up full bin and replacing them with empty.
It's a beautiful place to work, Nuju runs up and down the rows and kids run around eating apples and generally getting in the way, it's like a scene from a bygone era and it's all just 100 metres away.
This is Trev's second year picking. I'm not that keen on him doing it as his AF is triggered by strenuous work and he has it almost permanently at the moment. And he won't give himself an inch, and collapsed during one recently day - the 36 degree heat didn't help. The only way I could get him to stop was to take his place.
I've been picking up fallen apples and chopping them up for the animals who seems to be happy enough to chew through a motza of them. We're doing our best to keep up too.
4 comments:
Thought of making cider?
Some good links for getting the apples squished:
http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/press/apple_grinder.html
http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/press/making_cider.html
http://www.ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Homemade_Cider_Press
My husband has many apple trees in pots, waiting for when we move onto our 25-acre block of land. He's planning a huuuuge apple orchard, and making his own cider is part of the motivation :-)
Yes, and our neighbour the orchardist is very keen too - I'll send him your links. Thanks
Saw you on TV in the last few days - not sure when. When I saw thw interviewer bite into the apple picked fresh from the tree my mouth watered! I grew up in Franklin - now live in SE Qld on 1 ha with a chook tractor and some fruit trees and an overgrown vegie garde. Hopt to do better when my husband retires next year.I was in Hobart in February and noticed how very dry everything was. Hope you have had a bit of rain since and that the current winds aren't doing much damage.
I will come back and check on your progress sometime soon.
Those apples look amazing. When we lived in VT we made cider every fall.
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