You may or may not of noticed I have been a little a-wall of late. The reason for this is since our return from Melbourne I have been working on a tomato farm. Crazy I know. All the glitz and glamour of Melbourne Fashion Week and then BAM covered in dirt, tomato and vine green smears.
So far I have worked 9 shifts and another 2 I think to go….. maybe a few more than 2 who knows. It is all kinds of hectic. There are heaps of other workers there including the owners and family, a few Aussies, 30 plus Indians, a few Samoans and of course some backpackers here and there.
My days begin around 5.30am-6am where I reluctantly roll out of bed and crawl to the coffee machine. I am not a morning person but since these early mornings I can pretty much guarantee I can wake up before my alarm goes off. I drive down Farm 23 and about 3.5 mins down the bitumen to arrive at the Tomato Hydroponic Farm. The buzzer goes off to start work and I head to whichever shed/fable we will be working in. We get two breaks one at 10am and one at 1pm – I live for those buzzers!
My days have been filled with all facets of Tomato Hydroponic Farming. I have:
- Pruned Vines
- Pulled down vines
- Picked Tomatoes
- Hosed down the Hot Houses
- Cleaned Wires with Chlorine
- Used a scissor lift & pallet jack
- Lifted slabs (bloody heavy)
To give you an idea on the size of the place there is a packing shed, a nursery and 3 Hydroponic “Hot Houses”. There is also all these other sheds I haven’t been in or seen. Each Hydroponic Hot House has roughly 2 x 46 rows and each row is 75 metres long. Each row contains 296 vines in each and just for the record it’s A LOT of tomato vines. A LOT to pull out and long rows to pressure hose. After my first two days I could walk I was in that much pain. It is definitely giving me work out and I am finding muscles I didn’t know I had.
Norris Around Australia 
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