The WORK IN THE FRUIT ORCHARDS AND SORTING FRUITS

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Work with fruits goes on all year around, from pruning trees in the late winter / early spring, then take away dead and damaged trees and plant new trees when the weather becomes a bit warmer. Then general maintenance during the summer such as keeping the weeds under control, giving the fruits all the nutrition they need and keep the pests under control. And a lot of other work to keep the orchards in good shape.

 

In July the fruits need to be thinned, taking away fruits so there is an amount that the tree can handle. Then all fruits will have good size. We also take away second class fruits so the overall quality gets better. This is done by hand to get the best result.

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Then comes the picking and packing that lasts from middle of August until March-April. We have between 5-30 employees depending on the time of the year. If you are interested in work you can fill in an application on the side “apply for work”.

The fruits are picked in specially designed bags that are gently emptied in the big boxes on a trailer that has room for 4 boxes per trailer. In the busiest late picking season, we pick between 20-40 tons per day. And the earlier varieties considerably less because we in most cases pick them in 2 or more rounds, taking the ripe / red first and then wait until more apples are ripen before we pick the next round so we get an even and good quality.

 

For the employees ergonomics we rarely use ladders to reach the apples that are high up in the trees, and those that pick from the ground should not have to reach up to far. Instead we use platforms that are adjustable in height and can carry 4 boxes each (1.2 tons). The full boxes are then loaded directly onto a truck at the orchards and are replaced with empty boxes from the truck. This is to avoid getting dirt from the ground and to increase effectivity, that makes the picking from platforms so effective that they pick almost twice the amount of fruit per person from the higher part of the trees. The platforms are also used when we prune the trees, putting up pheromone strips, thinning etc.