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…