08/31/06 Learning to pick

Learning to pick. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The Washington Growers League and Worksource have joined forces to help both farmers and people needing jobs. Farmers are extremely short handed as the harvest gets underway and face serious issues if pickers can't be found. Mike Gempler, Executive Director of the Washington Growers League is working with Worksource to help ready potential pickers for the fields. GEMPLER: We're doing a local labor outreach program to encourage local people to apply for apple picking jobs, people who have been thinking about doing it or curious. We hope that we can get a few hundred people out of it. Trying to get people in the local communities a little more connected to the farms so they feel comfortable applying for the jobs. The program has been traveling around to many local towns throughout the region. GEMPLER: We teach them some basic skills about how to pick fruit, the basics about what to wear, basic safety with the ladder, how to set the ladders, things to look for in an orchard so that you can be there safely. And then skills on how to pick without bruising the fruit and get the stem, how not to hurt the spur or the leaves. How to gently handle the fruit. If you are interested in learning more Gempler says to contact your local Worksource office. Tomorrow more with Mike Gempler on learning to pick fruit. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.