Landworkers’ Alliance | Vital Football

Landworkers’ Alliance

Pick for Britain

Loadsa jobs in Kent in and around Maidstone

Via agencies.

Worth a look if you are looking for work
 
On yer bikes... actually, I was looking at the price of cycles last night - blew me away ! Having a half decent cycle these days seems to be very expensive - £5K to 10K seems normal !!!
 
I work in a community orchard for fun. We adjoin a commercial orchard where they work for money. Both involve hard work but we do a few days a week when we want to and at our own pace. We finish when we have had enough. Work in the commercial orchard is fast paced and unrelenting every day, all day. One of our volunteers works on commercial farms temporarily and reports that he gets nowhere near the returns of the imported workers. He is the only Englishman on the farm.

Sign up by all means but if you are not used to outside work prepare to be disapponted and defeated. It takes time, motivation and downright hardiness to work in the field all day. If we were ever to need to pick all our own produce we would need a long period of training and acclimatisation. If workers go in expecting to do full days one after the other then the overwhelming majority will fall by the wayside.
 
It's a shame that we don't have some sort of European system where workers from the continent could freely move into the UK for the picking season.
 
It's a shame that we don't have some sort of European system where workers from the continent could freely move into the UK for the picking season.
Exactly like we used to.
My mate with cherry orchards had students from Czechoslovakia every season for years.
They picked, saw the U.K., made a few quid then returned to their studies.
It worked extremely well for all.
 
It's a shame that we don't have some sort of European system where workers from the continent could freely move into the UK for the picking season.
The problem is that the "shove loads of em into a caravan and pay them peanuts" mode of remuneration doesn't appeal to UK workers who already live here, and don't need "accomodation".

There is plenty of available workers, hopefully proper jobs can be found for UK nationals that are keen to work.
 
The problem is that the "shove loads of em into a caravan and pay them peanuts" mode of remuneration doesn't appeal to UK workers who already live here, and don't need "accomodation".

There is plenty of available workers, hopefully proper jobs can be found for UK nationals that are keen to work.
The farmers and agencies need to adapt to the change in their circumstances.
When I enquired weeks ago they were still expecting workers to pay for accommodation even if they didn’t want it.
I expect the reality has now set in.

Clock House farm at Linton need workers if you can get there.
 
The farmers and agencies need to adapt to the change in their circumstances.
When I enquired weeks ago they were still expecting workers to pay for accommodation even if they didn’t want it.
I expect the reality has now set in.

Clock House farm at Linton need workers if you can get there.
And we'll have to get used to paying a lot more for our fruit and veg. That said, I doubt that foreign workers were paid peanuts.
 
I work in a community orchard for fun. We adjoin a commercial orchard where they work for money. Both involve hard work but we do a few days a week when we want to and at our own pace. We finish when we have had enough. Work in the commercial orchard is fast paced and unrelenting every day, all day. One of our volunteers works on commercial farms temporarily and reports that he gets nowhere near the returns of the imported workers. He is the only Englishman on the farm.

Sign up by all means but if you are not used to outside work prepare to be disapponted and defeated. It takes time, motivation and downright hardiness to work in the field all day. If we were ever to need to pick all our own produce we would need a long period of training and acclimatisation. If workers go in expecting to do full days one after the other then the overwhelming majority will fall by the wayside.

I fear we diverge on our ideas of "fun" Jo. I expect you bike there and back too!
Picked strawberries for three weeks out of school. For jam, not bad since you just pull them off the stalk. For punnets much harder because you have to leave the stalks in. Either way, very hard on the back, knees and arse. I decided to switch to the much easier job of working in a warehouse for KCC. They said the vacancy was filled, but if I cared to work with kids, they had a position in an assessment centre. And so I became a social worker. See young 'uns, seize the moment, even fruit picking is a step on the ladder -at least it is until fruit pickers are replaced by pre-programmed Chinese killer robots.
 
We are just a few short years away from Ai and robots taking over the whole operation.
When you look at these Ai robot harvesters it’s incredible.
Some big producers are already using a lot of Ai indoors

When I picked grapes in France years ago it was all done by hand.
It’s now all done by machinery.
In a few years it will all be done by robotics

Even soft fruit is picked by robots now.
It’s fascinating.
 
I fear we diverge on our ideas of "fun" Jo. I expect you bike there and back too!
Picked strawberries for three weeks out of school. For jam, not bad since you just pull them off the stalk. For punnets much harder because you have to leave the stalks in. Either way, very hard on the back, knees and arse. I decided to switch to the much easier job of working in a warehouse for KCC. They said the vacancy was filled, but if I cared to work with kids, they had a position in an assessment centre. And so I became a social worker. See young 'uns, seize the moment, even fruit picking is a step on the ladder -at least it is until fruit pickers are replaced by pre-programmed Chinese killer robots.

Just over the road from my house, literally. We do work but a lot of nonsense gets talked, tea made, food eaten and projects launched, which is fun. I confess that I sometimes trot over on my own and carry on until I can't, you can't beat your temperament.
 
Gooseberries are the best.Thorns hurt like hell, but you can fill up a basket quick. Raspberries are the worst, as they are so soft - Strawberries next worst, as they are on the ground!