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Writer's pictureCarrie Lange

Oranges, Plums, and Pears oh my

Updated: Aug 9, 2021

(And more apples, but there are really too many mentions of apples on these posts already.)


August 7, 2021


Today was the third consecutive day of picking, and we ended up with three different houses! We got a really huge variety of fruit this time; oranges, plums, pears, and you guessed it; apples. Jessie wasn't available today, but a family friend joined me because his surf camp ended yesterday! We spent a lot of time sharing Netflix shows and various other random conversations.


Our first house was our first in San Rafael! They had a tree that was absolutely loaded with oranges. At first glance, it didn't look like much, but when you ducked under the branches you could close your eyes, grab in some random direction, and jam your finger on an orange. Also, if anyone is curious, oranges are a lot more difficult to pick than any other fruit I've picked so far. They were a little infuriating, but the fact that we got eight plus bags of oranges from there (not even including a bag gifted to the owner of the tree) more than makes up for it. The good thing about oranges is that they're easy to find, which meant we were able to clear the tree in just an hour.



Our second house was in Sausalito, and their backyard was just gorgeous. They had so many different types of trees as well; plums, nectarines, figs, pears, apples, and one more that I don't remember. The apples and the nectarines weren't completely ripe, but we got the offer to return after two weeks or so, which is amazing! They had this stunning fish pond and the most adorable little black dog who hung out with us for a little. They had two plum trees, but only one of them was ripe so far, but we got five bags from that alone. You could literally wave the picker in any direction and you'd be showering in plums. We also got two bags of pears as well. There's got to be at least seventy pounds from that alone. Josh and I (my

family friend) somehow got into the topic of the strange things we did as babies–our mom's jumping in an embarrassing amount–and apparently, I came out of the womb with the ability to be overly cheeky, which I am a little too proud of, Josh could somehow work a screwdriver well enough to unscrew an entire vent, and Phil, his older brother, memorized a hundred digits of pie by the time he was four. Then again, Phil also threw a remote at the TV when he was three and broke it, so there's that. We had fun, if you couldn't tell.



We then headed to Mill Valley for apples and we will definitely be returning in the next week or two, maybe same time we go back for the nectarines/remaining plums in Sausalito, because we literally couldn't fit any more bags into the car. And we have a BM X5, with the truck completely stuffed and bags placed at our feet and on the seats. I spent a lot of time in the tree again, I think it's become a bit of a habit. It was very... twiggy this time, which really shouldn't come as a surprise anymore. I got poked at least a hundred times. I was also wearing a sweatshirt this time, so I was able to fill my pockets while picking up in the tree and the whole picker turned tranfer contraption teamwork thing went a lot faster that way.



And now comes the fun part. After we finished picking we went to eat at a Thai place–I got this spicy seafood mix that was so good–and went home. And now comes the fun part.

Remember when I said the distribution center doesn't open on the weekends? And that means we can't drop off the fruit that I picked yesterday or today. So that's two days worth of fruit that has literally stuffed the car full (on a random side note, I don't think that car is ever going to stop smelling like apples at this point) in my garage. That's probably like... twenty bags of apples, seven bags and a small cardboard box of oranges, five bags of plums, and two bags of pears. It's going to be a double trip on Monday, and I have the first day of a dance camp then as well, so that means another early morning wakeup! Should I try and guess the pounds of both of these hauls? It's gotta at least be like, four hundred pounds. Maybe five hundred. I would not be surprised if it was five hundred. Jesus christ that's insane to think about. Let's

say, five hundred forty-nine. It's actually

probably more now that I'm thinking about it. But I'm going to stick to that estimate.


Either way, I'd say this was a successful weekend! I've gotten more offers too, and there's houses that have offered to allow us to return to finish off their trees. I can't say this enough, it's literally insane. I don't know how else to describe it.


Edit: We got 520 lbs today. FIVE HUNDRED. OH MY GOD.

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