struggle in a small town

Chapter 312 Picking Apples Is Physical Work
Lin Zhiyuan listened to the training together.

Maybe Song Zhe had trained a lot in the past few years, he was well prepared, the content of his lectures was clear and easy to understand, and the regulations were clear.

Song Zhe stood in front of a fruit tree, holding a fruit basket in his hand: "Before picking, you must make preparations. Look at the basket in my hand, which has been padded with foam in advance, so that the apples can be placed in the basket. Avoid most bruises."

After finishing speaking, he put down the basket, held up the telescopic ladder on the ground, demonstrated how to raise it, and at the same time explained the precautions: "Check whether the ladder is firm, and the height should be able to reach the fruit on the top of the tree. A rope is tied to the handrail at the top of the ladder, and everyone will tie it around their waists, and adjust the length according to their height to avoid accidentally falling."

Hearing this, Lin Zhiyuan nodded, thinking that his cousin is still reliable, knowing that safety is the first priority.If he had had this awareness at the beginning, the worker would not have fallen off the scaffold.

Spending money is a trivial matter, but fortunately there were no major problems.

Song Zhe propped up the ladder, inserted the four corners of the ladder into the ground, and fixed it with large rivets. After confirming that it was stable enough, he picked up the basket and quickly climbed up.

First hang the basket on the branch with an S hook, then tie the rope around your waist and prepare for picking: "Everyone must remember that the apple skin is very thin, and it is easy to be bruised or stabbed if you are not careful, so you have to cut your nails." Short, to avoid the apple skin being scratched by the nail."

Song Zhe said with his palms up: "Everyone has heard the word "melon ripening and stems falling, right? Apples are the same. Ripe apples are easy to separate from the fruit stem and fruit branch. If you don't hold it properly, it is easy to fall and break."

"I'll teach you a formula. Holding fruit is like holding an egg. Press the handle up with your index finger, pick the fruit with your right hand and pick it with your left hand, and gently put it into the fruit picking basket." Song Zhe demonstrated while speaking: "Just like me, use Hold the apple in the palm of your hand, hold it gently with your fingers, press the handle with your index finger, and then lift it up until the handle breaks off, then gently remove the apple. Attention everyone, when the handle is not broken, do not pull hard to avoid Break off the branches along with the apples."

Song Zhe took off an apple, loosened the rope around his waist, climbed down and handed it to Lin Zhiyuan, asking him to pass it on to everyone for a look.

Lin Zhiyuan took the apple and looked at it carefully. The apple was bright red, without any scars on its body, and it could be sold for a good price just by looking at it.

After the apples turned around in everyone's hands and returned to Song Zhe's hands, he said, "When everyone picks, try not to touch the fallen leaves."

Lin Zhiyuan raised his head and looked at the densely packed leaves and the apples hiding among the leaves, his head was a bit big.

Unexpectedly, picking apples is so troublesome.

Song Zhe climbed up the ladder again, gently put the apples into the fruit basket, tied the rope again, and pointed to the two apples next to each other: "In this case, when picking, you should use both hands to hold the apples with one hand and pick them with the other." , otherwise it’s easy to knock down the other one, or drop them all.”

Song Zhe carefully picked two apples, gently put them into the fruit basket, and carried the fruit basket down the ladder.

"Look, everyone, apples must be handled with care. When picking apples, they should be picked from bottom to top and from outside to inside. Never knock or shake the fruit tree."

Song Zhe handed the fruit basket to Lin Zhiyuan: "You try."

Lin Zhiyuan followed his example and climbed up the ladder, hung the fruit basket on the branch, and then chose the apple closest to him to start.

It looks easy but it is very difficult to practice.

The climate on the Loess Plateau is dry and windy and sandy. Although it has rained before, it has been windy for the past two days, and many leaves are covered with dust.

When there is any movement during picking, the dust will be shaken off and float everywhere.

Dirt is a small problem, men, why are they afraid of being dirty.

Furthermore, there are branches everywhere, and if you are not careful, your hands will be cut by the branches. Lin Zhiyuan lowered his head and asked, "Brother, is it better to wear two gloves?"

"Gloves are easy to be caught by the branches. When the branches are shaken and broken, the fruit will fall to the ground."

Lin Zhiyuan had better listen to Song Zhe.

Like a thief, Lin Zhiyuan picked the fruit lightly for about half an hour, and finally filled the fruit basket.

He tried to lift it with one hand, good guy, it was quite heavy.

It is really not easy to pick up the fruit basket with both hands and lift it to the ground layer by layer.

Song Zhe mentioned the fruit basket: "It's about 25 catties when it's full, you can try to feel the weight."

The fruit basket was twirled in everyone's hands, and everyone said that this was definitely physical work, and they couldn't do it without a little physical strength.

Song Zhe turned to look at the tricycle: "Put all the full baskets into the tricycle, and when the tricycle is full, it will be pulled to the sorting place."

"When picking, pick them regardless of size, good or bad, and then sort them. Pick out the ones with scars and bad ones and put them together."

Song Zhe walked to the side of the tricycle, and took out a series of rings with handles from the bucket: "This is called a leaking board, which is used to screen the size of apples. We all know that the bigger the apple, the more valuable it is. Be careful, don't mix the small ones into the big ones, and don't mix the big ones into the small ones, and don't get hurt."

After the training, when we returned to the development center, two young men felt that it was too troublesome and didn't want to do it anymore.

Lin Zhiyuan didn't make things difficult for them either.

He picked a basket by himself, and found that picking apples was indeed a meticulous job, and it was quite laborious, especially the waist and arms.

Even though he has been exercising on weekdays, he still feels that his arms are a bit heavy and he can't lift them up.

Call Song Zhe and tell him that there are only five people left.

Song Zhe was depressed: "It's time for me to hire people. How about I raise the price again? How about two hundred a day?"

"Brother, it's not about money, those two can't bear it."

"Oh, the young people of today"

After hanging up the phone, Lin Zhiyuan went to Zhang Xuejiao and told about today's situation.

After hearing this, Zhang Xuejiao said with emotion: "I finally understand the texts I learned when I was a child. People who are covered in silkworms are not silkworm farmers. I want to eat apples, so I pay for them and go to the supermarket to buy them. It's easy. If you didn't experience it today, I would It is impossible to imagine that an apple has to go through so many procedures from the orchard to the supermarket."

"That's right." Lin Zhiyuan added: "My brother also said that when the apple grows to the size of a thumb, it needs to be wrapped in a bag."

Zhang Xuejiao nodded: "Oh yes, they are all bagged now."

Lin Zhiyuan said while gesticulating: "You have been to an orchard, and you also know that the apple trees are so tall, and there are branches in all directions, high and low. On the branches and among the leaves, there are apples everywhere. Put them in bags one by one. The workload makes my scalp tingle just thinking about it."

"It's not easy."

"I asked my brother the purchase price this year, and he said that it is more than 8 centimeters, ruddy in color, without scars, one yuan and seven per catty."

Zhang Xuejiao was shocked: "Such a low price? Didn't brother say the price is okay?"

"That's compared to before. My brother said that for a year, no one collected [-] cents a catty, so I had to drag it to the city and deal with it at a low price."

Zhang Xuejiao remembered that she had seen many small vendors selling apples on the side of the road, and a large bag of apples only cost ten yuan.

And the cheapest apples she bought from the supermarket during this time cost six yuan.

She feels more and more that selling apples live is a good way to help fruit farmers, at least there is no middleman to make the difference!

(End of this chapter)