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Published: February 17th 2008
Well, we are now wrapping up our five weeks at Denny's Orchard before moving on from our Alex and Clyde homes. To share more about what we actually do there, we took the camera in for a closer look at how cherries and pears are processed. Below you can see the process a cherry goes through in the packing plant - from being sorted (graded, stems separated) then down the cleansing 'waterslides' before coming to us on a conveyor for inspection and boxing (by Christina), and for weighing and stacking on a pallet in the "chilly bin" (by Kirby).
We celebrated the end of the cherries with a staff barbeque, which we all enjoyed. The crew dropped from over 20 down to 5 with most of the pickers moving on to other parts of the country for a change; a new staff will arrive for nectarine, peach, and pear season. It has been interesting meeting people from around the world, mostly from Czech, France, Chile and Taiwan. It has also been interesting to learn later that among the backpackers we have worked with were a doctor and a lawyer among others.
After the staff barbeque we had time off
Cherry Overview
Sorters at the top, then cherries come down the "waterslides" and come closer to us at the bottomand took a trip to Dunedin where we picked up some things we had ordered in, got groceries, and managed to fit in a skate... on ice! We were the only ones in the rink and enjoyed feeling cold air through our hair and doing laps to the music. Christina got to perform, just like the "Diva" she is (notice the sweater). Cheers out to the Divas Hockey team who are being missed greatly! Christina is training in her off season to join you again soon... hopefully with better skates back home!
Our last day of work gave us a new challenge - pears. We were excited about the change ("anything but cherries!"), and got to return to the machines where it all began with apricots and peaches. Larger fruit is processed from a crate, sorted for grade and quality (this time by Sandrine), and carried along the rails until cupped individually and rolled down different aisles by weight to be boxed (by Christina), then weighed and stacked on pallets for shipping (by Kirby).
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Robzo
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Beauty
Lil C you are an inspiration! Ice Capades should be calling very very soon. As Sade would say I miss you like the desert misses the rain.