It’s fall. Time to pick apples. For some of us, that’s casual recreation, a leisurely stroll through picturesque orchards.
For tens of thousands of people, though, it’s a paycheck. They drive hundreds of miles for the apple harvest in central Washington, western Michigan, the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York, and Adams County, Pa.
“The truth is, every apple that you see in the supermarket is picked by hand,” says Philip Baugher, who runs a fruit tree nursery in Adams County.
And a commercial apple harvest is no leisurely stroll. It’s more like a SWAT team assault.
Teams of men, and a few women, trot into the orchards with ladders in hand, then clamber up those ladders and lean into the trees. Their hands move as quickly as a boxer’s, grabbing apples and dropping them into bags strapped to their waists. Most work quietly, focused on the task. A few chatter in Spanish.
“The most important technique is, you have to learn how to use your hands,” says Jose Martinez, one of the workers. “You should be able to look at a group of apples and decide, OK, I can grab three of these per hand, or two of these. Never just one, though.”
Inside The Life Of An Apple Picker
tangentwithtanner
snowghoul
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
jacobvanloon
izzy806
