View Full Version : Seasonal work in Maine
ridgewalker777
09-05-2007, 11:47
If any thru-hikers are looking for work, apple-picking is starting soon. There is quite a range of orchards to work at, big and small, you will likely be competing with Jamaicans and others with work permits. Wage rate this year is $9.50 an hour, housing and cooking facilities are generally provided. Maine Job service is the place to start for finding an orchard, also Vermont and New Hampshire have openings. Last fall I worked at an orchard in western Maine, pay was good, but the discouragement factor is a problem to be overcome. I just finished blueberry raking and factory work in Eastern Maine working every day I was there in August. It's still going on and will be until frost--$100 plus a day is quite doable. It would just be a matter of having a vehicle and looking for "rakers wanted" signs in the Cherryfield to Machias area...:sun
TinAbbey
09-05-2007, 17:57
what is the discouragement factor?
ridgewalker777
09-06-2007, 13:32
Thanks for the question. The discouragement factor has to do with competing with people who do farm work year round, are therefore in shape for it when they show up, and are united in their work. So you may be working with several dozen foreign workers who the labor managers prefer over you because they are more efficient in the work, etc. This is the reality of labor in this country--the foreign-born workers are better. In the blueberry harvest work the Mexicans routinely harvested 100 or so 25 pound boxes a day, while hardly any "anglo" could touch that. When they start hiking the Appalachian Trail, it will be interesting to see how they do.
Sounds like more of an issue of experience than nationality.
Toolshed
09-06-2007, 23:43
Growing up on farms, we had a lot of migrant workers on the area truck farms. I played with them for 10 years as there were no other kids around our area. When I was 10 or so I started working. We were paid $5 for every apple box we filled (apple boxes were about 4 feet square and 5 feet deep. they were huge. We would use ladders to climb the trees and fill our bags and then dump them in our boxes. The migrant families all work together to fill their boxes.
Same with cherry picking and tomato picking. All are jobs I would never want to do again, unless I had no choice.
I agree Migrants have very good work ethics and are singularly focused at the taks at hand. Payday they would be drunk on Mad Dog or Champale and I wasn't allowed on the farms on fridays.
mweinstone
09-07-2007, 00:37
i hate all foringers. if i see a martian or a moon man or a saturn person, ill shoot first and ask questions later. earthfolk is nice, but them ailens suck. agreed?
mweinstone
09-07-2007, 00:38
anyone wanna start a hate thread? i hate .
i hate all foringers. if i see a martian or a moon man or a saturn person, ill shoot first and ask questions later. earthfolk is nice, but them ailens suck. agreed?
Pointlessly off topic.
Blueberry farming is a big thing here in Maine, the farms are huge, you are bound to find work if you need it.
Kirby