WELCOME TO THE 2024/25 FRUIT SEASON

About the farm

Our farm has been growing fruit for the local community for almost 150 years. We see ourselves as custodians of a vital community asset and want to build a community of people who feel a sense of ownership for the orchard and the fruit we grow together.

It’s part of the model of farming we’re creating at the Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op (HOFC).  You can read more about the history of the orchard and how it fits into HOFC here.  

The farm is a workplace for many people, not just the orchard. We take biosecurity seriously and ask that when visiting the farm, please note the following:

  • Do not bring dogs (not even on a lead, or kept in your car).
  • If you have visited other farms (particularly other farms with livestock), please be sure to clean your shoes thoroughly or, better yet, use different shoes. We want to protect Tess’s dairy herd from Foot and Mouth Disease as this can have devastating consequences (like potentially having to cull the herd)!
  • The risk of Queensland Fruit Fly is real. Please do not bring uncut fruit or vegetables onto the property as it could pose an infection risk.

Our volunteer program is called Fruit Crew. Joining Fruit Crew gives you a chance to learn fruit-growing skills, connect with your local organic farm, and have fun outdoors with a team of like-minded people.

Volunteering with the Fruit Crew

Fruit Crew is essentially a practical, hands-on, summer course in fruit growing. Rather than charging course fees, we offer a simple exchange of our skills, knowledge, and fruit for your labour, enthusiasm, and participation.

You’ll learn about fruit growing, do productive work with other cool people helping to grow food, and enjoy being outside in nature.

You’ll also be participating in a revolutionary farming model that aims to change our broken food system! Chats, eating together, and being part of the Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op community are side benefits.

Volunteer sessions may involve being around equipment like tractors, whipper-snippers, or secateurs, so it’s not appropriate for children under about 14 to attend.

Please read this page carefully —  it has all the details you need before you apply to join Fruit Crew (sorry it’s so long!) If you agree with the MOU at the bottom, CLICK HERE TO APPLY FOR FRUIT CREW.

How does it work?

Volunteering days for the 2024/25 season are Wednesdays and Thursdays. We are an LGBTIQ+ friendly team, as is the rest of the HOFC crew. We also welcome folks of all abilities and neurotypes, so please let us know if there are any accommodations we can make for you.

Participants need to be available for at least 1 half-day per week. We understand you may be sick or away from time-to-time, however, the fruit season doesn’t stop for holidays! To make the experience worthwhile for both you and us, please don’t sign up unless you can commit to at least 20 half-day shifts across the whole fruit season (from mid-October to April).

In the 2023/24 season, Fruit Crew continued beyond the end of the fruit season (just with morning shifts) for those who wanted to maintain the rhythm of coming to the farm, and we’ll probably do the same thing this season. 

Fruit Crew members need a reasonable level of fitness to work a half-day shift and carry up to 8kg (when picking fruit).  You’ll also need enough mobility to easily walk up to 500m.

Fruit Crew starts on Wednesday, 23 October, 2024. Places are limited, so please register your interest as soon as possible. We’ll get back to you and let you know if you have a place. (You can also apply to join after that date as places may open up throughout the season.)

If you want to volunteer but can’t manage Fruit Crew times please fill out this form and answer the question at the end about casual volunteering, and we’ll discuss options.

A typical Fruit Crew day:

Morning shift
  • 8.15 am Arrive and get ready for the day
  • 8.30 am – 10 am Working together
  • 10 am – 10.30 am Morning tea (provided)
  • 10.30 am – 12.30 pm Working together
  • 12.30 pm – 1 pm Skills + theory session (see the program outline below)
Lunch
  • 1 pm – 1.45 pm BYO shared lunch for both morning and afternoon crew [OPTIONAL]
Afternoon shift
  • 1.45 pm – 3.30 pm Working together
  • 3.30 pm – 3.50 pm Afternoon tea (provided)
  • 3.50 pm – 5 pm Working together

Each shift will be led by one of our awesome team of Fruit Crew Leaders, who are all Fruit Crew alumni (with occasional shifts led by Katie or Hugh).

Katie and Hugh will be on hand each day to present the Skills & Theory sessions, join meals, and at times be part of the “working together” crew.

You are welcome to ask as many questions as you like and please let your Fruit Crew Leader, Katie, or Hugh know if there is something in particular you would like to learn about.

Skills and Theory Program outline

Day-to-day “working together” sessions may be repetitive (and, dare we say it, monotonous…). Thinning, picking, and sorting fruit are not jobs that you do once and move on to something else.

We’ll try to keep things interesting and diverse and to give everyone the chance to try different jobs, but be prepared for the fact that you might find yourself doing the same job for multiple shifts. One of the main benefits of a skills-based course like this is that it gives you a real-life farming experience. It also gives you a chance to practice new skills repeatedly.

The truth is, it can be quite mundane sometimes. But you might also find that some of the most interesting conversations happen when working side-by-side with people doing manual jobs. Farming can be very isolating when you’re doing it alone, but working with a team creates lovely opportunities for connection.

Over the season the skills sessions will cover all of the following topics.

Nutrition:
  • Compost-making and spreading
  • Making biochar
  • Worm farms and compost tea
  • Fertigation (applying liquid fertiliser through the irrigation system)
Irrigation:
  • Pump maintenance
  • Irrigation system set-up and maintenance
  • Monitoring
Pest and disease prevention and management:
  • Monitoring
  • Netting
  • Queensland Fruit Fly
  • Earwigs and weevils
  • Aphids
  • Codling moth prevention
Orchard maintenance:
  • Mowing
  • Whipper-snippering
  • Understorey management
  • Biodiversity
Production:
  • Pruning
  • Thinning
  • Picking
  • Organic certification
  • Record keeping
Sales:
  • Sorting and grading fruit
  • Marketing
  • Communications
Planning:
  • What trees to plant to get a long harvest
  • Keeping a fruit tree diary
  • Monitoring

Some topics may be repeated (it depends on what needs doing that week and who’s there). Sometimes the theory we cover in the “skills and theory” sessions will match what we’re doing in the “working together” sessions, but not always.

Put simply, the more you attend, the more you’ll learn!

Fruit Crew are eligible for free tickets to public workshops run by The Orchard Keepers or Grow Great Fruit. You’re also invited to participate in farm tours and events.

Fruit Exchange

Every half-day shift will entitle you to 5 kg of fruit (excluding cherries). You’re not obliged to take fruit, but if you do, our preference is for you to take a mix of the fruit that is available, rather than bulk amounts of individual fruit varieties.

One of the benefits of being a Fruit Crew member is free access to fresh, diverse, nutrient-dense, and delicious fruit that you helped to grow! It’s an important aspect of the community-based, circular-economy model we’re trialing.

There may be times during the season when the availability of specific fruits to Fruit Crew members may be limited by the need for The Orchard Keepers to have enough fruit for sale. Though the orchard is effectively running as a not-for-profit enterprise, it still needs to make enough money to cover its expenses.

Cherries are not included in the fruit exchange as they are grown in very small quantities and are high value, but Fruit Crew members can buy them at a discounted rate. We hope that cherry harvests increase in the future so they can be included.

Health and safety on the farm

Being a working farm, there are many risks and hazards, including snakes, heavy machinery, sun exposure, and uneven terrain. While on the farm, we all take individual and collective responsibility for each other’s safety.

Your responsibilities:
  • Installing Slack (team communications app) on your phone so you can participate in the farm’s risk management and communications system.
  • Wearing sturdy closed-toe footwear.
  • Wearing clothing that will protect you from the elements, i.e., long-sleeved shirts on hot days.
  • Managing your heat exposure risk with sunscreen, a hat, and a water bottle.
  • Keeping your mobile phone with you at all times. In case of an injury or snake bite you can stay where you are and call us or 000 if required.
  • Reporting any near misses or observed hazards. This includes sighting of any snakes on the property.
Our responsibilities:

Induction will include the following:

  • Property orientation (e.g., common areas, toilets & washing facilities, orchard areas).
  • Showing you where the First Aid kit is.
  • Going through the HOFC Fire Plan.
  • Providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) where required.
  • Explaining processes and procedures.
  • Making you aware of the risks involved with any activity, or with machinery and equipment you’ll be using or around.

How to get here

We are at 69 Dann’s Rd, Harcourt. There is a Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op property sign at our entrance, then a long driveway to the farm carpark. The speed limit on the driveway is 25km/hr, so please observe this so you don’t create dust or bother the cows.

You will come to a big green shed with a ‘Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op’ sign. Park in the car park and do not drive beyond this car park. The blue shed is Tess’s dairy – please don’t knock on the door, and leave plenty of space in front of her factory so she can drive her vehicle into her shed. Don’t park where your car is blocking the sliding shed door.

Other info

  • We are farming as part of a co-operative, and the orchard is only one of four enterprises on site. There are other farmers busy doing their work and cows can be found fenced off in areas by electric fencing. If you are volunteering with us, stay on the orchard part of the property or in the common areas (you’ll be shown these).
  • We have composting toilets on-site. There is a preference that these are used for solids only. If you are comfortable to squat or stand behind a tree for wee this is great but we totally understand if you are not comfortable with this.
  • We encourage you to share your experience on social media (please tag us) but please don’t share pics of the other farming enterprises without checking with those businesses first.

Memorandum of Understanding Agreement

As a participant in The Orchard Keepers (OKs) Fruit Crew program,

I agree to:

  1. Do my best to attend on the days I’ve indicated throughout the season.
  2. Join the Orchard Keepers Slack (online app) group.
  3. Fill out the weekly poll on Slack to let the Orchard Keepers know which session(s) I’ll be attending.
  4. Sign in and out on the Slack app each shift.
  5. Be added to the Orchard Keepers email database and receive Fruit Crew newsletters (and public Orchard Keepers newsletters).
  6. Take responsibility for the safety of myself and those around me at all times.

I understand that:

  • The tasks are most likely to include but are not limited to thinning, picking, sorting, pest control tasks, and pruning.
  • I have the right to ask the Orchard Keepers questions about farming methodologies and processes (we would love you to!).
  • As a regular Fruit Crew participant, I can receive fruit in exchange for my labour up to 5kg per shift.
  • I may not bring dogs or other pets onto the property.
  • There are risks associated with Queensland Fruit Fly and I will not bring any fruit or vegetables onto the farm, or will take away any items that could possibly be infected.
  • Farms are hazardous work places and care must be taken to avoid injury. Observed hazards and “near misses” must be reported to one of the Orchard Keepers team.
  • I need to keep my mobile phone with me at all times so that I am contactable or can contact someone if there is an emergency.

The Orchard Keepers in turn agree to:

  • Be understanding and flexible to agreed availability.
  • Provide a safe and inclusive work environment.
  • Communicate regularly with Fruit Crew members.
  • Commit to our role in the education of members about fruit growing and our farming ethos.
  • Minimise the carbon footprint of activities where possible (e.g., reduce packaging and transport).
  • Maintain organic certification.
  • Strive to grow the highest quality, most abundant, and most nutritious fruit possible.
  • Farm ethically, e.g., treat all parts of the ecosystem with respect.
  • Continue to educate ourselves and stay knowledgeable about best practices in organic farming.
  • Value the input of our volunteer and customer communities.
  • ‘Pay the Rent’ to local aboriginal mob.

What next?

If you agree with the Memorandum of Understanding conditions above, we’d love you to apply to join Fruit Crew!

We’ll get back to you by email and let you know if you have a place. You’ll then be sent an invitation to our induction day on Wednesday, 23 October, starting at 8.30 a.m. with instructions on how to get to the farm, and where to park.

The day will start with a get-to-know-you cuppa and chat, and you’ll meet your Fruit Crew Leader for the day. We’ll explain the following:

  • Bathrooms, staff room (“the lunchbox”).
  • Risk management, First Aid Kit.
  • Make sure everyone has the Slack app on their phone and is on the right channels.
  • How the program will work.
  • Fruit exchange.

Then, we’ll get started with our first working together session (thinning), and later in the morning the first Skills and Theory session (also thinning).

Can’t wait to meet you and get the 24/25 fruit season underway!