Picking Apples

More pictures to come..............

End of the Season

It appears things are slowly dying down here in Batlow. Half the backpackers have left over the last few days. We are thinking of leaving soon too. We had 6 days off and then only had one part day, of which I was sick so Francis picked alone, and then only two hours work today. We’ve now been told no more work until next Tuesday and today is Wednesday. Not what we were expecting at all. Its Easter holiday here so there will definitely not be any work at any orchard from Friday to Monday or else they have to pay us twice the bin rate for picking. We may look for work at other Orchards that may have some other varieties coming up as so many people have left there may be room for us somewhere. We’ll also try the packing houses to see if there is work coming up. They pay $18.50/hr and after 40hrs its double time.

We feel ready to move on but still would like to make a little bit more money. We don’t want to always be looking for work so when we are working we’d like to stay in one place and make as much as we can.

We went to the Batlow show last weekend. It was really cute. There were people with show horses, scarecrow making demonstrations, and a whole room of competing roosters that took turns with their big cock-a-doodle-doos. We ran into our supervisor there in the pavilion where all the prize winning thing are. There were apples, vegetables, baking, sewing, photos and all sorts of stuff to look at. They really have such a nice small community feeling here. There was also one carnival ride and a few prize booths.

We experienced something new at the local café. Everyone here puts chicken salt on their French fries. It’s almost like chicken flavoured Mr.Noodle spice. it’s actually quite good.

Well I suppose we have some decisions to make about what we’re going to do. We aren’t sure if we should try to go away somewhere close for the holiday and then come back or if we should just go. We’ll update you all once we know.

You don’t have to worry about us in this sleepy town. We are doing just fine. We’ve made friends, we know our way around and everyone here is super friendly.

Batlow Life

Things are as usual in Batlow. Quiet and dull. We’ve been pretty lucky with our work situation here. We’ve earned about $3000 since we’ve been here but we still hope to make more before traveling on. We started on March 3rd and since then we’ve worked steady for the same farm. Only a rain break of 5 days and a much needed day off after an 11 day stretch of apple picking. Now we are patiently awaiting the ripening of the Fugi apples so we can get back to work. We have a 5 day vacation as we wait. Hopefully we will be able to get back to work on Monday. After that we will see how long it takes for the next variety of apples before making our decision to move on.

Batlow is strangely comfortable. The town people are nice and welcoming. This weekend there is going to be a big celebration for the town. All the backpackers here at the caravan park have decided to go even though we’ve told its not much more than some balloons and goats with ribbons on them. We’ll see though. The people here are so hospitable I feel embarrassed to make jokes about it.

Francis and I took some pictures at the orchard just for your viewing pleasure. I will post them as soon as I get a fast enough connection to the internet.

Batlow Life

Things are as usual in Batlow. Quiet and dull. We’ve been pretty lucky with our work situation here. We’ve earned about $3000 since we’ve been here but we still hope to make more before traveling on. We started on March 3rd and since then we’ve worked steady for the same farm. Only a rain break of 5 days and a much needed day off after an 11 day stretch of apple picking. Now we are patiently awaiting the ripening of the Fugi apples so we can get back to work. We have a 5 day vacation as we wait. Hopefully we will be able to get back to work on Monday. After that we will see how long it takes for the next variety of apples before making our decision to move on.

Batlow is strangely comfortable. The town people are nice and welcoming. This weekend there is going to be a big celebration for the town. All the backpackers here at the caravan park have decided to go even though we’ve told its not much more than some balloons and goats with ribbons on them. We’ll see though. The people here are so hospitable I feel embarrassed to make jokes about it.

Francis and I took some pictures at the orchard just for your viewing pleasure. I will post them as soon as I get a fast enough connection to the internet.

Welcome to Batlow - Famous for Apples

So here we are in Batlow. Tucked away into our own little cosy spot at the caravan park with all the other apple picking backpackers. It’s cheap to stay here. $14 a night or $84 a week. Since we are working in town now its become our new home. Our first day here we called a list of farmers we got from the local one room library. Out of over 20 numbers we got nowhere so we hopped into the truck and started driving farm to farm asking if they were looking for help. We went to about 15 places and had luck at the very last farm where the owner said to call him tomorrow because he may have something. We started work there two days later which was on Wednesday. We only got two days in before the rain set in. Here we are at Monday and bored as heck because you can’t work on days that it rains.

We have a small little group of friends here that we spend our days and evenings with. Three from Scotland, one Aussi and we round out the group adding in some Canadian flair. It’s like a little family. We try to avoid the boredom of a tiny town together.

Batlow is so tiny its ridiculous. The locals talk about how when the apples start being imported in this town will shrivel up and die within the next 10-15 years. Its pretty obvious its already started by the number of closed up shops and the lack of services in town. Still, the people are friendly and helpful to the travelers so it’s an alright place to stay for now.

The farm we are working at now has told us there may be a few weeks of picking for us there. We get paid by the bin and hope to get faster once we can work again. The first day we were strip picking Gala apples where you get to pick everything off the tree no matter what its condition. That’s pretty easy besides the bugs and branches trying to get you. The second day we were doing a first pick which is a color pick for Bonza apples which are a variety started here in Batlow. That proved to be harder at first. You had to judge the apples as you picked them which meant we were paid a bit more as you are sorting on the tree. The pay is quite regular. You get paid every Friday and we’ve already had direct deposit for our first two days.

Now if only the rain would stop…