Picking Butternut Pumpkins
Location: Nyah (25 mins Swan Hill, 5 mins Nyah West backpackers)
Pay Rate: $12-$15
Employer likes backpackers
Hours: 1-4 days every now & then
Pickers: 2+
Employer provides:
- secatares (like scissors)
- my employer provided a space-like suit (chemical suit) to stop us getting love-grass and other weeds all over us, but that's because his farm was completely infested with weeds taller than my head
Bring:
- THICK garden gloves (just in case you get the 'weed farm')
- Normal gloves are easier to use if you get a clean farm and can be purchased for less than $2 at local shops
- rubber boots
Outdoors work:
- Work even when hot or rainy
- The weeds are the only bad thing about this outdoors work
What to expect:
It's one of the easiest jobs around believe it or not. All you do is find the ripe (non-green) butternuts which are all above ground, and using the secatares provided, you cut the stems off each of them (leaving approx an inch of stem on the pumpkin) and place them in small piles up the row. (well the farm I worked at did this, expect each farm may differ!).
After you have cut off all the pumpkins and made the piles, the farmer got his mini-tractor with just one box on the back and drove up the rows to each pile, then got out and helped us pack them into the box.
We left the really big ones as they are too big to sell, but took a couple of them home to the backpackers hostel to share with everyone.
The hardest part of the job is throwing & catching the pumpkins, but as they are butternuts, they aren't nearly as heavy as jap pumpkins (those halloween beasts!), so it doesn't kill you that much. I had sore legs the next day and bruised breasts from my fellow male pickers' hard throws, but I would definitely do this job again, and definitely recommend it as a job for backpackers.
Tips:
(1) Wear long-sleeves in case of weeds
(2) Invest in gloves, the guys were too 'manly' to wear them at the start, but ended up giving in to protect themselves from weeds and dirt, and the stems when catching.
Accommodation:
- Grand Hotel Nyah West(cheapest option - $100pw inc transport)
- Nyah West Backpackers (right next door to Grand Hotel)
- Nyah Village Caravan Park
Pay Rate: $12-$15
Employer likes backpackers
Hours: 1-4 days every now & then
Pickers: 2+
Employer provides:
- secatares (like scissors)
- my employer provided a space-like suit (chemical suit) to stop us getting love-grass and other weeds all over us, but that's because his farm was completely infested with weeds taller than my head
Bring:
- THICK garden gloves (just in case you get the 'weed farm')
- Normal gloves are easier to use if you get a clean farm and can be purchased for less than $2 at local shops
- rubber boots
Outdoors work:
- Work even when hot or rainy
- The weeds are the only bad thing about this outdoors work
What to expect:
It's one of the easiest jobs around believe it or not. All you do is find the ripe (non-green) butternuts which are all above ground, and using the secatares provided, you cut the stems off each of them (leaving approx an inch of stem on the pumpkin) and place them in small piles up the row. (well the farm I worked at did this, expect each farm may differ!).
After you have cut off all the pumpkins and made the piles, the farmer got his mini-tractor with just one box on the back and drove up the rows to each pile, then got out and helped us pack them into the box.
We left the really big ones as they are too big to sell, but took a couple of them home to the backpackers hostel to share with everyone.
The hardest part of the job is throwing & catching the pumpkins, but as they are butternuts, they aren't nearly as heavy as jap pumpkins (those halloween beasts!), so it doesn't kill you that much. I had sore legs the next day and bruised breasts from my fellow male pickers' hard throws, but I would definitely do this job again, and definitely recommend it as a job for backpackers.
Tips:
(1) Wear long-sleeves in case of weeds
(2) Invest in gloves, the guys were too 'manly' to wear them at the start, but ended up giving in to protect themselves from weeds and dirt, and the stems when catching.
Accommodation:
- Grand Hotel Nyah West(cheapest option - $100pw inc transport)
- Nyah West Backpackers (right next door to Grand Hotel)
- Nyah Village Caravan Park
