Harvest Farm Working in Alabama, Georgia, Florida!!

[crustythadd23]

Anyone can give me some ideas of different harvest that go on around these 3 states between the months of January, February, March & April. Info on sites, possibly contact numbers I can call to get on a crew, etc. I plan on headin south for winter so will be in those areas.

 

[wokofshame]

I believe citrus harvest should be going on in Florida and that may be by far your best bet, Most of alabama and georgia just don't roll midwinter (too cold).
I've been working on pear and apple harvest this fall in Washington state and heres what i can say:
(if citrus there is anything like apple here)
1) knowing spanish is great. the workforce is 80-90% mexican and 10% other latinamerican. At least say hola and que paso and shit like that.
2) surprisingly almost all orchards are on-the-books, u have to fill out an I-9 and W-4 and get deductions taken out of your check
3) despite the prior, it is super easy to get a job. just show up, i got hired with a beer in hand at 8 am on one job, and on another my buddy and i rolled up on little kid's bicycles
4) if u have absolutely no experience, it may not be a bad idea to lie on your 1st picking job. by the end of the week you'll have it down anyway.
5) the "worksource" (like unemployment) office here has been great for referrals, i'm not sure what fla has
6) fuck the internet, it has nothing on picking jobs. just roll down the road and ask people. or if you see mexicans with pick-bags, ask them where they are working, find them at the bum feeds etc

 

[crustythadd23]

thanks man
ya i am interested about the citrus down in florida i believe its like january thru march or some shit. deffintly will be checking that out when i head that way.

 

[wokofshame]

http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/Story/oj_story.html
Check this out i got interested and basically it explains the seasons which sounds perfect. The big thing with picking most fruit to be sold as-is is not bruising the fruit. Along with damaging the trees, this is why people don't like hiring new pickers.
Picking juice oranges sounds great as you don't need to worry about bruising, so you can really slam it out.
One more week or so of apple picking here in Central Washington, it has really run late this year due to late ripening and a picker shortage. Good for me!
I've been picking Golden Dellicious at 20$ a bin (~800 pounds), they are super easy to bruise, now its Red Deliciouses which are much harder to bruise at 15$/bin.
The orchard my buddy and I have been on lately is so big they have two school buses just to drive us out in the morning, to lunch and back.

 

[vegscout]

thanks for this info....i may see you down there

 

[joaquim33]

murt, how many baskets were you filling a day on average would you say?

 

[barefootinbabylon]

And how would I go about getting an apple-pickin' job next fall? I'm living in MI right now, and apparently we produce a helluva lot of apples as well, so I'm thinking about just emailing farms and such around these parts, but it seems a lot of it is done through ag. extension offices (employment offices). Definitely harbour no illusions about it being easy work, but I would like it a sight better than working for my father in his d*%$ law office. Wowwww...