Raking Berries (not a euphemism)

[MelissaBaby]

Spinoff from an earlier discussion about blueberries...

I spent a season raking blueberries.

Most commercially grown blueberries are "high bush", the big fat ones. In Maine, we grow the wild low bush type. They are much smaller, but much more flavorful. "Wild" blueberries grow in large areas called barrens. And low really means low, they grow very close to the ground. Most Maine berries go into making jam and other blueberry flavored products.

This what a Maine blueberry barren looks like:

http://me.reel-scout.com/up_images/3/2040243.jpg

Late in the fall, they set the barrens on fire and burn off the plants.

These are the rakes you use:

https://bdn-data.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/08/migrant080715_4-600x900.jpg


From My Fall and Rise:Chapter 7 "Iced Coffee and Blueberries"

Raking blueberries is backbreaking work. The berries grow close to the ground, usually on rocky hillsides where the only way to harvest them is to bend down and scoop them up with a short two handled rake. By the end of the first day I could barely straighten my back. Most of the other rakers were migrant workers, Mexicans or Haitians. I realized that all my life, these people had been coming into the area every year to work, and I had never noticed them. Some stayed in motels, but many slept in their cars or set up camp in the woods. I would spend the night in my comfortable bed.

Some of the young men could fill two hundred boxes of berries a day, twenty pound to a box. The pay rate was $2.50 per box. I was pressed to fill fifty boxes, but at least I was bringing in some money. And, while the work was exhausting, I enjoyed being out in the sun and fresh air. Some of the barrens we raked were on high hilltops, where the view stretched all the way to the ocean.

 

[MelissaBaby]

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f8/73/70/f87370cd458072f22c8dbd68b12a2515--wild-blueberries-zen-garden.jpg
https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-get2/I0000dg2PqwJ6Kh0/fit=1000x750/Peters-ME-blueberries-DSC7886-copy.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c2/c1/63/c2c163872da36b3f625113ce4a207e06--blueberry-maine.jpg

 

[adrina]

Gorgeous scenery.

I still want some damn blueberry muffins though.

 

[Rotadom]

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f8/73/70/f87370cd458072f22c8dbd68b12a2515--wild-blueberries-zen-garden.jpg

Cool shot, right there. Kinda looks like a little creek or babbling brook.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Gorgeous scenery.

I still want some damn blueberry muffins though.

The barrens are beautiful, but damn it's hard work. By the end of the day my back would be screaming.

 

[adrina]

The barrens are beautiful, but damn it's hard work. By the end of the day my back would be screaming.

I don't doubt it. The rake doesn't look light weight and after a while even the lightest weight one will feel heavy. Especially as it gets full of berries.

 

[Radiohead]

I saw a show where people were doing that, actually, might have been Dirty Jobs.

I dont like blueberries anyway, fuck that

 

[MelissaBaby]

I don't doubt it. The rake doesn't look light weight and after a while even the lightest weight one will feel heavy. Especially as it gets full of berries.

They are aluminum, so they aren't too heavy. Short people do better, as they don't have to do as much bending. Some of the Mexican workers were only about five feet tall, and they buzzed through like power mowers

 

[thør]

http://www.hike-anchorage-alaska.com/portals/7/blueberries/blueberry1.jpg

 

[RunningJib]

How long is the season?

They are aluminum, so they aren't too heavy. Short people do better, as they don't have to do as much bending. Some of the Mexican workers were only about five feet tall, and they buzzed through like power mowers

How many days / weeks is the season? I got to think your arms looked buff after the season ended

 

[Dr. Groove]

Cool shots and informative story.

Ever see the movie McFarland?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjMwNjY2Mjk5OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODM2NTA0MzE@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg

Not a huge fan of Disney overall, and it wasn't blueberries - but the movie did show the contrast of the pickers' lives; how hard they worked and how much they could power through compared to a rookie.

Sorry to stray a little off topic, but it was a good tale with rural, immigrant agricultural workers as protagonists.

 

[thør]

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/webintra/wildlifenews/images/article_images/6803.jpg

 

[MelissaBaby]

How many days / weeks is the season? I got to think your arms looked buff after the season ended

The season is basically from the beginning of August until about the middle of September. But it's not like picking tomatoes or something like that, where you pick ripe ones every day. When you go through a barren, you pretty much strip it, so the actual season in any one place is just a couple of weeks, then the migrant workers move on further north where the season runs a little later. I didn't follow the crop. When it was done in my area, I managed to find a regular job.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Cool shots and informative story.

Ever see the movie McFarland?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjMwNjY2Mjk5OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODM2NTA0MzE@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg

Not a huge fan of Disney overall, and it wasn't blueberries - but the movie did show the contrast of the pickers' lives; how hard they worked and how much they could power through compared to a rookie.

Sorry to stray a little off topic, but it was a good tale with rural, immigrant agricultural workers as protagonists.

I have not seen it, thanks for the recommendation.

I really liked the migrant workers. They were very friendly. They were very amused to have a white senorita working with them.

Of course, there was one in particular....

 

[Dr. Groove]

Gorgeous scenery.

I still want some damn blueberry muffins though.

Cobbler is my jam.

http://food.fnr.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/food/fullset/2014/6/11/2/FNM_070114-Over-the-Coals-Bourbon-Blueberry-and-Peach-Cobbler-Recipe_s4x3.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.616.462.suffix/1402695598430.jpeg

(not my cobbler pictured)

 

[Wrong Element]

Ah, the ancestral homelands of the Elements. My forebears made their living at sea, though.

I have not seen it, thanks for the recommendation.

I really liked the migrant workers. They were very friendly. They were very amused to have a white senorita working with them.

Of course, there was one in particular....

Seeing the little shacks where the migrant workers spend the night left an impression on me. These are, of course, the jobs that the dirty foreigners are stealing from Real Americans.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Seeing the little shacks where the migrant workers spend the night left an impression on me. These are, of course, the jobs that the dirty foreigners are stealing from Real Americans.

Other than myself, the only Americans I saw raking were a couple of older men, who were retired and trying to make some money to supplement their income. I doubt if they were making more than about fifty dollars a day.

 

[adrina]

Cobbler is my jam.

http://food.fnr.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/food/fullset/2014/6/11/2/FNM_070114-Over-the-Coals-Bourbon-Blueberry-and-Peach-Cobbler-Recipe_s4x3.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.616.462.suffix/1402695598430.jpeg

(not my cobbler pictured)

I could deal with that as well.

Cobbler is one of my favorite desserts... easier than pie and with biscuits.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I could deal with that as well.

Cobbler is one of my favorite desserts... easier than pie and with biscuits.

We always made blueberry crisp. We just mixed blueberries and sugar and made a crumble of oatmeal, butter, flour and cinnamon to put on top.

Quick, easy and yummy dessert. Especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

 

[adrina]

We always made blueberry crisp. We just mixed blueberries and sugar and made a crumble of oatmeal, butter, flour and cinnamon to put on top.

Quick, easy and yummy dessert. Especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

I haven't eaten breakfast yet you sadist.

I like to do that with apples.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I haven't eaten breakfast yet you sadist.

I like to do that with apples.

I'm not a sadist. If I was a sadist I would point out that I eat like that all the time, I'm 5'8" and I weight 120 pounds.

 

[adrina]

I'm not a sadist. If I was a sadist I would point out that I eat like that all the time, I'm 5'8" and I weight 120 pounds.

Hahaha... fine you got me there.

I do not have that kind of metabolism. Never have.

 

[RunningJib]

Bent over a lot?

The season is basically from the beginning of August until about the middle of September. But it's not like picking tomatoes or something like that, where you pick ripe ones every day. When you go through a barren, you pretty much strip it, so the actual season in any one place is just a couple of weeks, then the migrant workers move on further north where the season runs a little later. I didn't follow the crop. When it was done in my area, I managed to find a regular job.

Catch anyone looking down your blouse when you were bent over?

 

[MelissaBaby]

Catch anyone looking down your blouse when you were bent over?

Not much, but I did learn that "buen culo" means "nice butt" in Spanish.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Hahaha... fine you got me there.

I do not have that kind of metabolism. Never have.

I've always been thin, but I think certain...chemical experiments...permanently jacked up my metabolism.