Noon at Palisade, Colorado. The golden sun has already climbed to the top of the trees, which stand out against a poster-blue sky. You've been in the Clark family orchards since seven that morning, up and down the ladders. The dudes in Denver's health clubs (pumping iron indoors) would probably envy you out there in the fresh country air. You've gulped big amounts of it, breathing deeply. No pollution. Your nostrils take in the Elberta peach bouquet.
You reach rhythmically for the warm, ripe fruit that you place gently into a sack hanging from your shoulders. When it's full, it weighs forty to fifty pounds, enough for the waiting baskets.
Your arms must stretch, your trunk must rotate and you keep bending. Your legs withstand the extra load; you actually rejoice in climbing from and descending to terra firma. In fact, you've gotten your second wind. Despite the increasing heat, you accelerate before lunch time. Your bushels add up. The mood in the orchards is relaxed.
The pleasures of working a peach harvest shouldn't be underestimated.
First of all, while other people must slave in office cubicles in polluted cities, you're out there, in the sweet-smelling orchards, getting paid for being in touch with trees and leaves and fruit, for doing your calisthenics. This is a pretty world for summer sport, with the colors lingering behind your eyelids for a long time. Even the peach varieties sound good. Depending on the part of the country, you are harvesting a Dawn or a Sun-haven or a Crest-haven variety. At Palisade, Colorado, you're into Elbertas. A collegian from Colorado Springs, who has come to Palisade ever since he was a high-schooler, is nostalgic about it: "Peach time reminds me of homemade ice cream or a secret treasure in the lunch box, a tantalizing centerpiece, or even a long drive back from the orchards amid bushels of tree-ripened Elbertas, munching on the way and saving the pits to plant."
Peach Harvests: Where, When, How to Get On
From the job seeker's viewpoint, the best part of the peach industry is its spread throughout North America. You may not have far to go; wherever you live-in the eastern United States, the South, the northern half of the Middle West, or the West itself, there will be peach orchards. (See detailed list with addresses at the end of this section.) The time span for harvesting is great, too, which allows you to choose the most suitable period.
The harvest seasons for peaches vary with the geographical location. The earliest fruit is usually picked in Florida around mid-May, the last peaches in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Colorado during late August or early September. Some areas have long harvest seasons because growers have planted varieties that ripen in succession. In other regions most of the fruit is harvested and shipped in two weeks to a month. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures, California leads other states with about 1,800,000 pounds taken each year. In fact, California produces most of the nation's dried fruits and nearly all of our canned cling peaches, besides canning virtually all of the fruit cocktail.
Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Michigan all figure prominently for their peach crops. Nevertheless, there are almost no jobs-except for a few regulars-until harvest time. During the winter dormant period, November through February, some growers strap on a pair of stilts and go climbing into the orchards to prune their trees, which assures more room for top-quality fruit. Come spring, there is cultivation, spraying, thinning, and irrigating, and it continues all through the summer.
Suddenly it's late August, and the 320 growers in Palisade, Colorado (which is 238 miles west of Denver), must round up some 4,000 harvesters to empty some 500,000 trees. The need is so great at this juncture that the orchardists enlist the help of relatives, transients, hobos (who arrive on freight trains), high school kids (nearby schools close for the occasion), wetbacks from Mexico, traveling hips from other states (who bring their girl friends and stake tents), as well as yearly regulars headed by crew chiefs. A lot of university students-male and female-hitchhike to western Colorado for those two weeks.
Bear in mind that none of this labor is unionized. Unions operate mainly in California. And while the Palisade harvest time may come as late as the first week of September, many jobs go begging for lack of applicants.
Labor is also sorely needed in many other parts of the United States. Why should this be so? Remember that the employment is of a seasonal nature. Most potential workers can't get time off their regular jobs. Many attend college or summer school. Many travel. Some migrants from Mexico encounter red tape and other obstacles, so they can't make it. A few workers get drunk and stay for only two days. A lot of otherwise adventurous Americans lust after Big Money and would never turn up in the orchards. Besides, steady day-long peach picking is hard work; in some western areas, the hundred-degree temperatures increase the discomfort. Many people actually quit after a day or two.
Also, because almost all the harvesting is still done by hand, an army of people has to pluck the goodies from North America's trees. In Colorado alone the bounty amounts to some 250,000 bushels. The fruit must not only be harvested; it also has to be sorted and crated. All this creates many jobs, including some in the packing shed (women are favored in that department). Fortunately, mechanization still has a long way to go when it comes to harvesting most types of peaches.
Naturally, the actual job openings vary by the area. In some places down South there exists enough local labor most of the time. Many orchardists hire through crew leaders, some of whom return to the same spots year after year. A few orchards even import people from Puerto Rico. On the whole, however, the situation is promising enough. Robert Phillips, who directs the National Peach Council, puts it this way: "Willing harvest workers who can and will stay on the job would be welcomed by many orchardists." The director of the California Canning Peach Association adds: "Any young person eighteen years or older could expect to find employment during the harvest season. The field workers in cling peaches have not as yet become unionized."
The Negative Aspects
Orchard work gets you together with a lot of fascinating freaks. But it isn't glamorous. Unless you're in good physical shape, you'll find it hard to scale ladders all day, to stretch your limbs until they ache. The string of your filled harvest sack bites without mercy into your shoulders or neck. You keep lugging 48-pound bushels. The work is guaranteed to make almost anyone lose weight. But you can't compare it to a tennis game in a breeze. In fact, some orchards, especially in those sun-baked, parched, wrinkled Colorado plateaus and in California, get extremely hot.
The canopy of trees is pierced by the sun's rays. Count on sweating a lot. You're cool only at 7:00 a.m. when you start, and in some parts of the country at 6:00 p.m. when you finish. (The Palisade Chamber of Commerce crows about the "354 days of sunshine.")
Some comers also forget about the peach fuzz. You may not feel it for a few hours, but after a day, it stings. Some persons are allergic to the fuzz and break out in hives. Talcum can help the average harvester. But fuzz-and itchiness-remain problems.
A lot of workers wind up with diarrhea during their first few days because they eat too many peaches. And worse, there is always the chance of your ladder (or yourself) slipping, of branches breaking to hit you, of hernias, bee stings, and other health problems. Perhaps that's why county or state health mobile units stand by with free medical assistance.
Moreover, peach growing is iffy. Crops can be destroyed by cold spells. Orchardists worry about hailstorms. The drought kills tree roots and trunks.
Keep in mind that no one gets rich from harvesting peaches. Growers pay you in one of two ways. You may be paid by the bushel, especially if the trees are full and you can fill your sacks at high speed. The individual bushel rate hovers under the price of a pack of cigarettes. Or you may be paid by the hour. This method works best when orchard owners believe in high-quality standards, and so want you to pick ripe fruit only. The hourly farm wage is fixed in the United States. Many growers pay you less money than they should. Reason: a loophole in the law, which protects only those agricultural workers who exceed thirteen working weeks per year. Few temporary people can match that length of employment.
Across the country, some growers hand out pay checks only when the entire peach harvest is in. If you worked by the bushel or by the bin this can signify a bonus. The pay-later system makes sense for the orchardists; they hope you stay for the length of the harvest.
A few fringe benefits should be mentioned. In many places, you may be able to get free accommodations. They're primitive; you may have to sleep on wooden or metal bunks. But you usually find showers and cooking facilities in the shacks. The lack of expenses improves your financial take, of course. In addition, harvest workers can generally gather peaches from the ground. Some couples thus manage to sweeten away a year's supply by canning the fruit. These people bring their own jars, lids, and rubbers.
Benefits? You can easily make friends, find a love partner, learn about other harvests, get tips on where to split to next. In Palisade, the Orchard Cafe is full of beer drinkers at night, hatching plots for the balance of the year and the coming seasons. Peach harvesting is a trip that usually leads to another trip.
Some Leads for Employment
It would take a long book to list all the orchards in the United States. But an adequate assortment follows. The addresses will prove useful. Forget about writing letters. Fruit farmers seldom have the time to answer. Instead, try the state capital's state labor offices, often known as "Job Service" or "Employment Developments Department" or "Employment Security." Go a few weeks ahead of the harvest. Find out about the labor practices in the state's peach orchards. If they don't use Mexicans (or regular crews) exclusively, get in touch with the nearest agricultural extension service (or USDA office) and ask about the season's harvest dates. (In California, it's mid-July to September.) A few days before D-day thumb a ride or drive to the area and hightail it to the local State Job Service. Or report directly to some of the big growers on the list. The names cannot guarantee you a job. But they help you get started.
California Labor Offices
The Apple Business
"Comfort me with apples," goes the Song of Solomon. And if one per day "keeps the doctor away" one thousand or more apples a day keep you in shape and in pocket money. The poets always praise those fruited groves; painters set the boughs and top-heavy limbs to canvas. When you reach up for those gleaming beauties, the sweet smell wafts into your nostrils.
In most parts of the United States the apple harvest follows on the heels of the peach harvest, and some of the same crews move on to the new bonanza. The Pacific Northwest is especially blessed with apple orchards; so are California, New England, and upper New York State. You'll also find some action between the two coasts. The figures seem as dazzling as the red, gold, or green-cheeked fruit: California's San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys plus the northern and central areas yield a yearly 472 million pounds of Rome Beauties, Golden Delicious, and other varieties; Washington's Yakima Valley meanwhile produces almost three times as many pounds, usually providing employment for some 30,000 pickers. Oregon, Michigan, and New York are all prospects for harvest jobs. Even Virginia has a thousand commercial growers, backed by some 15,000 seasonal workers, to bring in 10 million boxes of fruit each autumn.
Apple Picking in New England
The states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont comprise more than a million apple trees in almost seven hundred orchards. New England's harvest seasons and picking methods are fairly characteristic for the nation. Apple picking season usually lasts for about six weeks, from about the first week in September until around the third week in October, depending on the year's weather. The Northeast has a temperate climate, averaging seventy to eighty-five degrees during the summer and cooling rapidly before autumn. As a picker you are often subject to warm seventyish days under the clearest blue skies, with fifty-degree nights. By the end of the harvest, you may well experience freezing temperatures, or at least days in the forties and nights in the thirties. But New England's changing leaf colors in October are the picker's bonus and consolation for the hard work.
New England grows mostly "dessert apples." They're meant to be eaten as individual fruit instead of being canned or made into apple butter. The growers want quality fruit without bruises. This means no "tossing" of apples; nor are you encouraged to pick the unripe produce. "We like people who take some pride in the work," says one New Hampshire orchardist, who adds, "The apple is a fragile fruit." Interestingly, there has been a chronic shortage of pickers in some parts of the United States. Despite the health benefits, few people are willing to do the work. Vermont had so few volunteers one summer that the Department of Labor staged a costly recruitment campaign in New York City's Harlem, which then had the highest unemployment rate. The $10,000 campaign attracted just sixty persons, of whom only fifteen showed up in the Vermont fields. Result: abundance of opportunities both east and west.
Job Specifications
What kind of a person are the orchardists looking for? What does it take to get hired and stay hired? One large employer, the Moose Hill Orchards in New Hampshire, takes the time to alert you in writing about the needs. Moose Hill seeks young men or women who are physically capable, dependable, motivated to produce, and understanding of the employer's need to harvest high-quality bruise-free fruit.
Some details: It seems that many applicants just don't have the physique or the stamina for the work, or a few muscle aches make them flee after a mere day. This includes university students in their early twenties. And remarkably enough, most applicants never show up for work or else quit quickly. All this means that almost anyone who can work full time for a few weeks-and sticks on-is eagerly welcomed by the New England orchards. Some Moose Hill figures tell an eloquent story about their labor problems. One typical September, forty-four individuals sought part-time work and were rejected because of the necessity for full-time people. Fifty were scheduled for interview but did not show up; thirteen were rejected as physically unqualified; twenty-three were hired but did not show up for work; twenty-two could not be reached for hire after initial interview acceptance; five refused to work after initial acceptance; twenty-six took other work after initial acceptance and were not available for hire.
As a result, after all those many interviews, only fifty-seven persons were hired by the grower, who needed twice as many for his 75,000-bushel crop. Make no mistake: apple picking takes a day of training. You'll have to learn how to carry and place the 15- to 24-foot ladders (which can weigh up to 30 pounds). Your picking bucket shouldn't bump against the rungs. Of course, new hands must learn how to tell ripeness, and get used to "gentle" the fruit into the picking buckets. The buckets hold about 25 to 30 pounds, which go into bushel boxes or bushel bins, and later into boxes in the sorting sheds. All this takes devoted man-woman power. Unfortunately, the growers often insist on a ten-hour day, six days a week. What with the deadlines, apple orchards thus need pickers they can depend on.
Some of the hazards add to the people turnover. Some harvesters suffer heat exhaustion, give up because of poison ivy, or sprain an ankle in the grove. The steady rain isn't always pleasant. And some workers leave because of the freshly applied pesticides and insecticides. Another problem is the modest pay, considering these inflationary times. (See details later.)
Meet Your Peers
Whom will you work with? In New England, a lot of your companions will be intelligent and educated people. Some may be scientists studying pomology, or teachers, or grad students taking a year off to stretch their bodies and brains. At least one New Hampshire apple enclave gets a few PhD's from Yale who, as one put it, "Want to do something different before becoming middle class and middle aged." A few of your co-workers may be around because they want to become growers themselves. Many dudes just enjoy being outdoors. Although the age bracket ranges mostly from the twenties to the young thirties, you see a few teenagers and even folks in their forties and fifties.
According to Mary Kipling, a New England orchard watcher, "the past few years brought more people who believe in the alternative life style." Says Mary: "They love nature and communal living. And they're not too hung up on profit. Instead, many of them believe in Quaker principles of peace, love, hard work, support of each other, as well as devotion to the job. Many of them are vegetarians. They bring musical instruments, flutes, recorders, guitars and play and sing at night, do contra and square dancing for relaxation."
In New England, one of the best-known harvest communes-the Greenleaf Harvesters Guild-exemplifies a few of the mellow people. All the same, the group may not be everyone's cup of apple juice. In reply to inquiries, the New Hampshire-based Greenleaf Guild gives a clue to its own philosophies. "We don't want you on the crew if smoking grass is so much a part of your life style that you're unwilling to give it up for the season. We don't allow alcohol or drugs." The Guild is also known for its restrictions on sex. Fortunately, other alternative groups are more liberal.
Most of New England's pickers come from the nearest community or from the state, but you'll also work with Canadians, Mexicans, and Jamaicans. However, thanks to the U.S. Labor Department and the U.S. Immigration Department, plus the red tape of various other offices, growers cannot always hire many foreign visitors. Result: As an American, you have a better chance. In some parts of the country, orchardists don't like to buck the language difficulties with Mexican migrants, which improve your situation, too.
Naturally, there are some excellent Texas-based American-born Chicano crews; what's more, the standards go down when the demand becomes desperate. One mid-October day in Colorado, almost no one showed up for the apple harvest in the Grand Junction area. In despair, the Job Service Office called the high schools, asking the principals to ask students to skip classes; otherwise, the fruit would rot on the trees.
Pay and Benefits
Your pay is usually based on a piece-rate basis which varies from coast to coast. It is lowest in the South, including Virginia, highest in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and New England. Still, each bushel (or box) brings you no more than the average price of a 303-size can of applesauce. Some Canadian super-pickers in New England have learned to harvest so fast and efficiently that they take as much as $1,500 home to their families. And by working extra-long hours, some pickers make around $200 a week. If you're not on the piece rate-and many pickers are-you're paid only the minimum wage.
On occasion, particularly when the growers face severe labor shortages, you can earn better money if you belong to a "guild," or if you manage to form your own crew. (Naturally, the West Coast unions also obtain better pay for their members.) One typical guild of fruit pickers, the well-known Greenleaf Harvesters of New Hampshire (see address at end of section) has long fought for better deals. Greenleaf employs almost as many women as men. A Guild spokesperson explains their aims this way: "We demand the right to negotiate contracts with growers at higher rates than they pay to foreign pickers. Why should Americans, who have higher costs of living, be prevented from getting paid more than Jamaicans or Canadians?
"We also demand the right to keep slow workers on our crew who could never earn the legal minimum, because the apple industry is based on the piece rate system."
Every year, Guild members become more experienced in the entire harvest operation; the Guild actually contracts not only for picking but also for sorting, tractor driving, and other chores.
Fringe benefits of growers vary from state to state. But in many areas, the employer takes care of your social security, workmen's compensation, and liability insurance. In many parts of the country, growers furnish free housing (of sorts), a communal kitchen, some bedding; on occasion, especially in the friendly Pacific Northwest, there may even be recreational facilities such as volley ball courts and Ping-Pong tables. Pickers can eat all the apples they want but provide the rest of their food. You're also responsible for bringing sturdy work clothes, boots, and overshoes for wet grass.
Some Job Leads
Just before the harvest, you may want to contact the state labor and employment services, the Apple Commissioners, Job Service offices, or farm bureaus in the counties with the most apple orchards. Don't write or send resumes. Inquire by phone or in person. State by state, here are the most lively areas and counties (any librarian can give you the detailed addresses and phone).
