Tips for the Strawberry Picker, my full experience

So, you're looking into some strawberry picking work?  Your experiences will be different depending on which farm you choose: so choose wisely! At some farms you’ll make bank, but others will make your bank tank. And of course, it all depends on your physical fitness level which affects your speed; the amount you pick; and the money you'll end up making.

The opportunity to work on the farm fell on my lap – through connections, and a little divine intervention.  I find that making friends has been the best way to get work.  Also by being bold and going to the farm itself and speaking in person with the offices; even if it means you have to drive a little ways, and try out several farms. 

BEFORE YOU COME, THINGS YOU’LL NEED:

A fit body – workout before you come, strengthen your back especially because you’ll be bending over a lot!

Disposable gloves – Make sure they're thin, not the thick rubber cleaning gloves, as those aren't generally accepted. Gloves aren't required, but I highly recommend them to protect your hands from moldy fruit, and bugs.

Rubber boots – because sometimes it’s muddy.

Rain jacket – because rain or shine, freezing cold or humid hot, thunder and lightning, you’ll still be picking! (And I most certainly did!)

Sunscreen – seriously, especially in Australia… Don’t fool around with the shiny ball in the sky!

Hat – see above…

Nail clippers – because you’ll break your nails, so keep them short.

Lunch/snacks – pack protein! You’ll be workin’ hard.

Hand sanitizer – sometimes the restrooms don’t have it…

HOW TO PICK A STRAWBERRY:

On my first day, I was met by the tough manager, and he personally showed me the proper way to pick a strawberry. It varies per farm, but on mine, they were very particular.  If you pick too green, you get a warning. If you pick without a stem on the strawberry, you get a warning. If you pick bruised fruit, you get a warning. If you get too many warnings, you lose money.  The perfect strawberry is completely red, unbruised or marked - it can be green up to the 2nd seed line - and one cm of stem is left. You pick from the stem, being carful not to touch the fruit - as they are easily damaged.  You carefully check around and under every single plant, under the leaves to be sure you don't miss anything.

RULES OF THE PICKING GAME:

In the morning, a weight station
drives past the trolleys parked in
the rows to scan ID cards to
begin picking for the day.

As a strawberry picker, you wake before the sun rises, head to the field, pick up your trolley from the lot (which people marked their names on), and push it as far as a couple kilometers, depending where your first patch is.  The earlier you get there, the earlier you start picking! But before you start, you have to be checked in for the day, such as is pictured on the right.

You'll sit your booty down on your trolley, and push with your feet down a row, picking only the perfect strawberries on either side of your row; as many as you can, as fast as you can. Once you finish one side of your row, you turn your trolley around and finish the other side. Each trolley has 3 wheels.  You have 10 green trays, 8 on one side, and 2 on the side right in front of you, that you will pick into. Once the top tray is full, you change it out for the tray below. Once the two trays are full, you put them under the 8 beside, and take 2 empty trays to put back infront of you and continue.  Your bungee chord holds the 8 trays steady in place so they don't fall off - its a disaster when they fall off, and all your hard work gets ruined on the ground! The managers are very unforgiving when this happens, and there goes hours of work and wages.  There is also a rubbish bucket which hangs above your two trays, in which you put old, bruised, damaged inedible fruit, which also counts towards your wages.  Once all of your 10 trays are full, you take your trolley and push it to the nearest weight station where a supervisor awaits to check your fruit; weigh your fruit and rubbish bucket, scan your ID card, empty your rubbish, get more empty green trays, and get back to work.  The more you pick, the more money you make. The faster you are than other pickers, the more rows you'll get, the more strawberries you'll get, and the more you'll make. A certain number of fields are planned to be picked every day by the field managers.  Supervisors walk up and down rows, checking to make sure each plant is fully picked. If they find a lot of good fruit missed in your row, they'll call you back and you have to start your row over again, which causes you to lose money. They'll also yell at you if they see you picking improperly (throwing fruit in the tray, not being gentle enough, picking someones fruit in the row next to you, etc).  Pickers are highly competitive, and score sheets are printed weekly displaying the kilos of strawberries every picker picked per day, and it ranks the top pickers, to the bottom.

These are trolleys, all parked in rows next to each other.

We got a couple breaks every day, one called "smoko" when the majority of pickers would have their smoke time and a snack, and another for lunch.
 Portable toilets were available on the farm - a tractor driver would take them to the tables during break times.  They were absolutely filthy, unsanitary, and rarely cleaned.  Most of the guys would just go on the edge of the field in plain sight, honestly.


Now lets talk about...

LIVING CONDITIONS

I lived in the farm's backpacker accomodation, called a "donga" which was $100 a week for an absolutely PACKED room with 12 girls, a bunk bed, and a tiny shared fridge.  There was a separate building with a shared kitchen, a hang out area with broken chairs and lunch tables, and an old TV.  When I first arrived, there was no janitor.  The soap, paper towls, and toilet paper would run out.  Sometimes the water pump would die, or the hot water, during which times we'd go without showers (after working 8-13 hours), toilets wouldn't flush, and no running water meant holding off washing cloths, dishes and food.
The trash piled up so much that was over flowing in every bin and flies swarmed the place.  The lack of care that the farm owners showed for the workers was utterly shocking to me. To make it worse, there were threats that if a worker was to move out of the accomodation and into their own place off the farm, that they would be fired - because the farmers were after the $$$ by packing out the housing.  As a backpacker myself who had a limited amount of time to fullfill all of my 88 days to extend my visa before my current one expired, I didn't have a lot of options. So I was trapped, and I image many of the other workers felt the same.  Especially since a lot of them didn't speak English well.  Our room was broken into several times, and laptops were stollen. I had to hide mine every day before going to work.
A van would take us to the shops a couple times a week for groceries, at which we'd have limited time to buy everything we needed.

Lets get down to... the business  

tiny orange insects

Massive strawberry patches were killed when the manager saw that they weren't going to produce enough money - even if they still had large amounts of fruit on them. Knowing the amount of people every day in the world who can't afford simple delicacies such as fruit - this sickened me to the stomach - that so much would go to waste, all for the sake of the $$$.
In South Australia, we put bugs on the strawberry plants to kill certain other bugs that were killing the strawberries - seems like a good idea, but really it was just so that they could put a greener label on their brand to sell more and look better as a company. I found out that these bugs which we infested the plants with, later in the season would start causing problems of their own, which means the farmers would have to spray the strawberries with harmful chemicals anyway to take care of the new issue.  So at the end of the day, WHY? Just for the sake of a lable and up-sell? The strawberries were sprayed with so many harmful chemicals and injected with hormones.  To be big, fat, and to make more money.  And in a lot of ways, I can't blame them.  How else are they going to make money - when their whole lives depend on these little berries, in which so much could go wrong so easily?  Oh the world we live in...

The highlights

Okay so I've made it all sound like hell. And most of it was, to be honest. But with a positive attitude, you can bring light into the dark places.  Sharing cultures was amazing. Experiencing Korean barbeques during some evenings in the dongas, where we'd talk about our home countries, and I'd help them practice English - these are experiences I won't forget.  There was some hidden tallent that blossomed as well - one of the top pickers was an award winning bottle juggler in Korea during his bartending days. Its a multi cultural place - majority Asian, but a few Europeans as well. (And that one and only crazy American girl) I won't forget going to the beach with new friends, none of whom were from my own country.  Recording a cover with my Ukulele of "Strawberry fields forever" and deciding to make a rediculous video - because lets be real, I probalby wasn't going to see anyone of these people again, so what did I have to lose with putting myself out there? The positive response I got of all the farm workers, and even the supervisors and owners was surprising!  The news of the video being taken, all with my simple Samsung SII phone, spread like wild fire across the farm.  Check it out...

The Rundown

So, if you're American, don't bother.  Because in Australia, you can't extend your work and holiday visa another year, unlike people from Asian and European countries, even Canada. But for some reason, not America. I learned that the hard way, so learn from my mistakes. There went 88 days of my existence to the crappiest job of my life.  But I learned some of the biggest lessons.

Well, after reading my experiences, what do you think, do you still want to go work on a strawberry farm?  Maybe I'm biased now, but save the earth, a farmers back, and grow your own strawberries. Or pick wild ones, they're way tastier.

Peace,

Your Songburd

Comment below and tell me about your experiences on a strawberry farm, if you ever have!