Drying fruit at rotten hour

[TylerM4]

I have a lot of experience farming cherries. My grandparents owned a 10+ acre cherry orchard for most of my childhood and the family still sells a few thousand pounds a year (hobby farm). During the summer holiday I used to setup my tent under the cherry trees for a month during picking season.

Here's what I can tell you:
- Cherries MUST be sprayed. I'm all for organic farming, but I'd never attempt it with cherries. Nobody likes worms in their cherries and you WILL get worms without spraying pesticides. A backyard tree can be done organically so long as you pick a very early cherry (generally not the best tasting) AND you pick the fruit early (often before it reaches full ripeness). Commercial orchardists don't have this luxury. They must plant the varieties that are in demand (large sized) and they cannot pick the fruit early or the packing house will refuse them. You'd be amazed at how long they have to wait - you'd eat a cherry from the tree and you'd think "These are fully ripe" meanwhile the field man says "2 more weeks". Commercial cherry farms will spray pesticide every 2 weeks from the time the cherry starts getting color until it's picked. Often they do this strategically as they pick (spraying different sections at different times).
- Nobody hates the noise makers more than the farmer. You think it's loud in your yard? Try being in the orchard. Try spending a day picking with a "Bird Banger" going constantly only 50' away. It sucks and they only use them when they absolutely require them.
- Rain/weather is heartbreaking. This is the reason I'll never be a commercial farmer myself despite being raised on commercial farms. A whole year's worth of hard work being ruined right at fruition. Calling in the helicopter costs crazy money but it's your only option if you want to salvage the crop. I've spent many hours driving the tractor around the orchard frantically trying to dry cherries, getting up at 5am, etc - only to have it start raining again before I've even finished the 1st loop. Talk about stressful, frustrating, and depressing! Too many times I've seen entire crops destroyed and experienced that feeling of a complete failure after a entire year's worth of work.

[keano]

The garbage truck woke me up last week, worthy of a new thread or what

[Tack]

The garbage truck woke me up last week, worthy of a new thread or what

Castanet needs a poll for this one too, when should the garbage truck go past my window?

[ScorpioQueen]

While I sympathize with anyone being awakened from a sound sleep, if you choose to live in the country, you need to be tolerant of those who actually make their livelihood from their land. To those who don't farm their land and are complaining, farms, ranches, dairies, etc., are noisy, smelly places. Most likely, everyone you are complaining about has been there longer than you and has been working the land for generations. Not all people are cut out to live out in the country, just like not all people are cut out to live in big cities.

Since cherry season is so short, I'm guessing this is usually a non-issue. Unreasonably complaining about people trying to save their entire crop, exhibits a level of self-absorption and selfishness that will hopefully be a "wake-up" call to Jennifer White. I wonder if she realizes that the price per pound/kg includes the damaged fruit that ends up being packaged as well?

[Bsuds]

Since cherry season is so short, I'm guessing this is usually a non-issue.

With all the different varieties there will be cherries right thru August. So it can happen up till then.
Hopefully for the Orchardists sake they won't need to use the Helicopters too much.
As to waking people up...too bad, the crop is more important than your sleep and if you can't handle it then one option is unfortunately to move into town where the sirens at all hours of the night and day can wake you instead.

[looking4one]

Since cherry season is so short, I'm guessing this is usually a non-issue.

With all the different varieties there will be cherries right thru August. So it can happen up till then.
Hopefully for the Orchardists sake they won't need to use the Helicopters too much.
As to waking people up...too bad, the crop is more important than your sleep and if you can't handle it then one option is unfortunately to move into town where the sirens at all hours of the night and day can wake you instead.

Or maybe go to bed earlier.......nothing important happens after 8:00 PM anyways.

[Bpeep]

Matlock comes on at 8.

[looking4one]

Matlock comes on at 8.

Use your PVR.

[Barney Google]

In the Big City the buses and trucks go by and can make an awful lot of noise... ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles can create a lot of racket too when their sirens are on. If you live in some BIG Cities you can hear gang fights and guns going off...maybe even the occasional bomb. In one Big City they 'say' "it never sleeps" and the noise and light is a constant no matter the time of day or night.
In some places the oceans and lakes and rivers and streams make a lot of noise CONSTANTLY...and some places have birds and coyotes and other irritating wild life that can wake a person up with their carrying-ons.
For some, life is a BIG bowl of beautiful fat sweet cherries...for others life is a female dog.
It's all what you make it!

[lightspeed]

Complainers can either adjust and adapt, or move back to the big city life.

I just sat on my deck watching 3 helicopters drying 40 acres, at eye level. NBD.