{"id":9711,"date":"2018-01-31T06:06:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T05:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/a-blueberry-season\/"},"modified":"2020-07-05T17:38:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-05T15:38:32","slug":"a-blueberry-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/en\/a-blueberry-season\/","title":{"rendered":"A blueberry season"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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I spent six weeks in the blueberry fields. Time has passed without me realizing it. From early December, here I am at the end of January. A new year has started and the season has ended.<\/p>

For the first time since I left France, I worked in fruit-picking. It is one of the sectors in the world that hires the most seasonal workers and it is therefore one of the most accessible jobs for travelers on working holiday visa like me. Blueberries, raspberries, apples, pears, kiwi, bananas, avocado, carrot, cauliflower, potato, leek, etc. All kinds of vegetables and fruits are picked up each year by thousands of little hands from all over the world. For my first experience in this sector, I chose blueberry. This little blue fruit filled with good things for health. This little fruit that I have always been attracted to.<\/p>

My first week of work in Tumbarumba, I spent it as an assistant-supervisor. I was helping Carol, an elderly lady who has been harvesting blueberries as a supervisor for thirty years. Our team was mainly black. Most of the pickers were from African countries but living in Australia for a long time. Louise, Ezechiel, Kashindi, Olabire, Benard, Alice, etc., all were very friendly. I liked them from the first moment.<\/p>

Working in blueberries in December-January means working in the heat and under a blazing sun. Winter in Australia is the hot season. When I signed up as a picker a few weeks earlier, I told myself that my goal per day was to reach a harvest of 50kg. In fruit-picking, the pickers are paid by weight. So the faster the picker, the more fruit he will collect and the more he will be paid. Conversely, the slower the picker, the less he will be paid. 50kg corresponds to a person harvesting at a normal pace. For someone who has never harvested before, reaching 50kg a day may be a daunting task. And even more under a blazing sun. I realized this from my first day as an assistant-supervisor. All the beginners on the team were advancing very slowly. Only a third of the team was able to reach this level. And those who were able were those who had experience and participated in the harvest every year! Under the sun every day, I do not think I would have survived. Clearly I did not have my eyes in the right place the day I said that I would be able to pick up 50kg without problem from my first day. I could never thank Angeline (one of the farm managers) enough for offering me the position of assistant supervisor who is paid by the hour.<\/p>

At the end of the first week, Nicu and Bruce, the managers of the farm came to see me to propose me the job of supervisor. They were setting up two more teams and therefore needed supervisors. Of course I accepted. My new team this time consisted exclusively of Asians. Mostly Taiwanese, some Koreans, a Hongkong, a Chinese, a Malaysian, an Indonesian. We were located in Rosewood. The Costa company, which owns the blueberries, has two farms in the Tumbarumba region: Taradale where packing shed is located and Rosewood. The fields at Rosewood are in the middle of a logging operation. It is a small island of tranquility.<\/p>

My first week as a supervisor was a little less fun than the previous week. Unlike the very warm Africans, Asians are a little more distant. But luckily I had Benjamin with me, my very friendly Taiwanese assistant, to discuss about everything and nothing during the day. And then the days went by and the atmosphere improved greatly. Our routine at Ben and me consisted of weighing the crates filled with blueberries picked up by the pickers, recording the number of kilos, checking the quality of the fruits, ensuring that everyone picked up in the right places, checking that the shrubs were well cleaned and ensuring good team understanding.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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