Along with running the winery (and orchard tours, and wine making, and jam making, and everything else...) we also have 217 avocado trees. Doesn't sound like too many, but its enough to warrant a little of our time every few weeks.
Around the middle of last year, we had them all pruned and tidied up. Since then we've been watering them regularly. Since fruit set, Josh has been diligently getting up at 5am to spray them, every two and a half weeks.
Two weeks ago, it was go time. We had the fruit maturity tested on a Tuesday, Wednesday morning we were given the all clear to pick, Wednesday afternoon we started. We guessed we'd get about 4 bins of avocados picked (about 250kg per bin). A few people told us that we would get heaps more than that...and they were right. We upped it to 8 bins. We ended up picking 10 bins!
For the start of Day 2, we hired two backpackers to give us a hand. With six people picking, we managed to smash out all of the easy to get to, low hanging fruit and quickly fill four bins. Day 3 we managed to finish the 'easy stuff' and fill another two bins with the harder to reach stuff, by standing on crates and ladders. Day 4, Josh and I were in Kingaroy (2 and a half hours away!) for a food and wine festival. Day 5 we were back and finished off our ten bins with the cherry picker. There is still a little bit of fruit hanging around up there, but we will end up picking them and either sell them from the winery, eat them for brekkie or use them when we have groups here for lunch.
Once picked, Josh drove our baby avos to a nearby packing shed to be washed, graded and packed into boxes. Surprisingly, we had about 70% of our fruit classed as 'Premium' and 'A-Grade', meaning they're all of a good size, haven't been stung by fruit spotting bugs and didn't have any blemishes. Another 20% of the fruit was second grade - maybe a bit deformed or it had a few bug stings. The remaining 10% was all shit. The upside, we still get money for them! (Albeit only around $1/kg). The little baby shitty ones all get turned into frozen guacamole - ironically, the exact same brand I purchase over winter, when fresh avo's aren't available! I'll be buying my baby avo's back!
We just found out that our avo's have made it down to Melbourne, where they are finishing ripening, and will be bought at market this later this week. Some have already been allocated to Woolworths, and the rest will be sold to the highest bidder. We should have an estimate of how much we will be paid in about two weeks, and then actually receive the money (minus the selling fee, the packing fee and a heap of freight) another two weeks after that.
It's been a loooooong process, and avocado picking for five days straight wasn't always peachy, but hopefully it will be a handy little side business to our winemaking!
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| The start of Day 1. We didn't know what we were in for. |
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| Breakfast on Day 2. Josh is eating a bacon and egg toastie, and wistfully dreaming of the lobster and caviar he'll be eating when we get paid for the avocados. |
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| Geoff up on the cherry picker we hired. Ultimately, it was too big and clunky to use effectively, but at least we know for next year. |
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