Fruit-growing courses are surprisingly hard to find, especially hands-on courses that give you practical experience in a real-life, working orchard.
That’s what Fruit Crew is.
It’s our skills exchange program, where volunteers help us with the work of running the orchard in exchange for a hands-on fruit-growing course that goes for 25(ish) weeks.
We sweeten the deal by offering a 5 kg organic fruit allowance for every shift worked. Plus, we provide delicious, home-made cake for every morning tea!
What’s covered in the course?
This is not a course where you just sit in a room taking notes (though there’s also a bit of that in the daily lessons).
A lot of the learning happens on the job, but over the season, you also get a full fruit-growing curriculum.
The lessons change each week, but the same lesson is delivered on both Monday and Wednesday so everyone gets access to the same content, regardless of which day they attend.
Learning with the seasons
As you’d expect, the theory and practical skills follow what’s happening in the orchard. For example, one of the first things you’ll learn about is fruit thinning, with plenty of opportunity to put that knowledge into practice.
As the season progresses, you’ll learn the many little jobs needed to protect the fruit from myriad pests and diseases, which is invaluable experience for home gardens.
Along the way, there’s fruit to be picked and packed, markets to be organised, and the trees need to be fed and watered.
And of course there’s plenty of summer pruning, which inevitably involves long conversations about when to use particular types of cuts.
Gaining confidence with fruit trees
One of the things we love most is watching people slowly but surely become confident with fruit trees.
Last season, we saw volunteers go from being very nervous about pruning to feeling confident enough to help prune their neighbours’ trees, or assist novice pruners at a farm workshop.
And one of the most satisfying things is when someone starts making the same decisions we would make.
There are no course fees!
Fruit Crew is an exchange, so there are no fees to participate. When we started the program, we decided not to charge for the course because we felt like we were getting the better end of the deal!
After running Fruit Crew for 3 years, we’ve had lots of great feedback from people that the exchange feels like really good value for them.
They end the season with a whole bunch of practical skills and knowledge they can use in their home orchards and share with their communities.
But the biggest surprise (and something we get consistent feedback about) is that a lot of the value comes from being part of a community group.
People love the fact that Fruit Crew is very different to their normal life, they get to meet lots of new people, and they are part of something that feels worthwhile.
Applications for this year are open!
Fancy joining us for Fruit Crew 26/27? We’d love to have you!
Applications are now open to join this year’s Fruit Crew, and we still have a few spots available – head to the website to find out more.
