Still Avocado Picking.

DH and I completed the picking from the ground after 2 days but the 2 guys in the hydraladas ( cherry pickers/ elevated platforms ) are still working. They may get finished today , but we'll see. Today is a kinder day for them .... a little cooler with some cloud cover. Sunday was our hottest day for ages; 29 degrees C in the shade; pretty hot whatever you were doing! Some of the time the guys can sort of hide in the shade inside the trees but not all the time so they need lots of sunblock! ( hats get knocked off easily and caught upon twigs )The 3 photos show the hydralada extended to reach up the trees and the next 2 show how the big bag in front of the operator that he fills with fruit is then lowered down over the bin, the bottom folds down on a chord and the fruit slide down into the bin. The chord is then hocked up again folding the bag bottom up and is ready to fill again. It takes 3 of these bags to fill a fruit bin. ( click on photos to see more clearly ) ( the men are getting paid NZ$40 an hour and the hire of the hydraladas is about the same. They are working 9.5 or 10 hour days...so it's a well paid job! )

Since we finished our ground picking we have gone back to working in the kiwifruit and DH goes across to the avo blocks with the tractor and bin fork about 4 times during the day and brings the filled bins back to the shed by the house where I smooth them out and pull out any rejects or top them up to completely full, from a bin of spares.

So far we have picked 36 bins and may get another 8 - 10 today so that will be our 2nd biggest crop ever. I wonder if we will actually make some money from them ( I will keep you informed on that ) ...it's a b...... crime if we don't!

The photo of 3 big ones is just a skite. The biggest one weighs 486 grams! ( Now you will laugh at this Meggie.....fruit that big are TOO BIG to go in a tray and so would not be exportable! ( someone at the packhouse would probably take it home for free to eat! So I keep any I see here!) Too Good! We only want fairly good!

I'm so glad we are having more converts to eating avocados suzi-k. I think good ones are just yummy. Not all varieties taste the same.....the only ones we grow and the only ones New Zealand exports are HASS variety. ( a not nice one is very off putting I realise, so I get cross when folk pick them immature and have them for sale ). Ones left on the tree after picking that really mature are the very best....but that is the same with any fruit. They become richer tasting and quite nutty.

Next post I must update on the sale ( or NOT ) of our property. Too busy to even care at the moment.NO SEWING TIME at all...hate that!