Audio Slideshow of Workers Picking Strawberries
Andrew Norton
The Lansing State Journal has an audio slideshow of workers picking strawberries at Felzke's Strawberry Farm. You can watch the slideshow here. If you want to know how your strawberries get from the field to your local produce stand or farmers' market you should check this out. It is just under a minute long and does not take long for the page to load. I found it interesting to learn that the workers get paid $2.75 for every eight-quart flat of strawberries they pick. Once the berries are cleaned and sorted they are then sold at the strawberry farm and area farmers' markets for $2.75 per quart.
I have picked strawberries and it is an excellent recipe for aching knees and a sore back. I don't remember how long it took my wife and I to pick eight quarts, but I am sure it was at least half an hour. At that pace (with both of us picking) we would have each earned $2.75 an hour. Obviously these workers work much faster than we did because they have to in order to make a living.
All-in-all, it is a very nice tribute to the hard work that brings Michigan produce to our tables. It reminds me of the saying that goes something like this, "you can't talk bad about a farmer with a mouth full of food."