1st day off - reflections on the process

 Today is my first off day. I quite needed it given the beating my body has taken over the past 3 days. We rest for 2 days (Tue and Wed) and then start work again on Thursday. Hopefully I get the coming Sunday off. Would like to visit the Canningvale market to stock up on fresh produce for the week.

Given that it's my rest day, I thought I'd reflect on what I have done and learnt so far. It's not been long, but there is so much that is new to me and it's truly been a real eye-opening experience.

I usually arrive at the farm at 7.25am. 5 minutes before my start time. I've picked this up from the other 'casuals' (the term we are called, since we can usually come and go as we like and we are paid by the hour) at the farm. Why be there any earlier or any later if you are not getting paid. There is usually not much conversation as we arrive, each driving our own car. At the very most, a customarily nod of heads towards each other as we acknowledge the other's pressence. Most, if not all, are here for the $25/h pay, not to make friends - and even if we did, there could be new faces next week or next season.
We will then go to our car boot the change into work attire, depending on the weather and temperature at that point. For me, if it looks as if there is even a slight chance for rain, I'd be in boots - otherwise, my old Nike sneakers. I'd then strap on knee pads in case I had to pick for long hours. I'd also have 2 pairs of gloves, a thinner latex glove for picking, and another thicker industrial glove for the grunt work.

First order of business is to open up the 'curtains' or tarps that shielded the strawberry plants overnight from the elements. They also ensure that ripe strawberries don't rot too quickly.

Plastic tarps covering the rows and rows of strawberry plants

Opening the curtains is one of my main job, given that I'm the only young man working there. Most of the casuals are ladies. Mainly Vietnamese, but also a few Malaysians. It's actually a pretty smart mechanism where you tug at 2 ropes at each end of the line to lift up a side of the tarp and then tie them at the top of the iron picket at the ends of the line.. This is why I need the industrial gloves cos if I'm not careful, I could get severe rope burn or worse case scenario, fracture my fingers. Honestly, while this task of opening and closing tarps is super draining to energy levels (given that I'm literally playing tug-of-war with the plastic sheets and the dew/rain water that has settled on the tarps overnight), I still rather do this than picking.

Difference between tarps opened and tarps closed

Once the tarps are opened, we will each grab a collection trolley and go down the line picking ripe to almost ripe strawberries. Usually on our knees for the entire length of the line. Each line usually produces 5-8 full trays of strawberries. At the end of the line, there will be a larger collection cart where we will slot our trays full of strawberries into it before moving on to another line. This larger collection cart will then be moved by the tractor (driven by the boss) back into the packing shed.

strawberry cart

This will last till lunch at around 11-ish. By then, each of us would have picked about 4-6 lines depending on how fast we are. As a completely inexperienced picker, I would probably have done only 3 lines - still picking a significant number of strawberries.

After lunch (which we have to pack from home), it'll usually be another hour of picking before heading into the packing shed for sorting, packing and then distributing.

My role in the packing shed is again, more labour intensive. The ladies at Sorting aka Quality Control will be sorting out the strawberries, throwing away strawberries that do not look nice enough or have rotted. Next stage will be packing where another group will be packing the strawberries into the plastic boxes. Depending on the day, it could be 250g or 500g boxes. It'll then come down the line to me where I'll be boxing them up into cartons and then onto the padlets for distributing to retailers or export. Another interesting fact about this whole process is that residents from the nearby area knows roughly what time we are done, and they will be driving by the farm to buy these freshly picked and packed strawberries direct from the farm. More interestingly, they are actually paying a premium ($6) compared to what they'll get at the supermarkets ($4.50, but this is a day or 2 later). The day will usually end by 3pm + - where we will then go to another shed to clock out on literally a notebook and then like the morning, everyone quickly gets into their cars and drive home.

So the Math person in me had to go calculate how many boxes we have picked and packed. So here's the PRWC for primary school students. Each carton can fit 15 boxes. Each padlet is stacked with 2x3x15 cartons and then cling wrapped before being transported away. On a regular day, we pack slightly more than 4 padlets worth of strawberries.

(a) How many boxes of strawberries do we pick a day?

(b) If each box retails for $6, what is the revenue of the farm each day?

Anyway, while shopping for groceries last evening, I came across the strawberries that I packed. And so we have come a full cycle. At least from point of strawberry leaving the plant, to landing on your kitchen tables.