“We make excellent cider at Giles Family Farm, real good cider, tops,” said Devon Wright.
Wright picks apples in the orchard at Giles Family Farm in Alfred.
Wright, 53, of the Parish of Manchester, Jamaica, has been picking apples in Alfred for 16 seasons. He is one of four migrant apple pickers from Jamaica who are working in Alfred this season.
The workers keep on the move, up and down ladders, while filling a picking bucket with apples. They average about 75 to 100 bushels a day.
“It pays good in comparison to my salary back home,” said Wright, his voice thick with the sound of his Jamaica home. Wright raises cattle in Jamaica when he’s not working in Maine.
“In three months you could earn $6,000 or $7,000,” he said of the job in Alfred.
That pay is one favorite part of the job, along with apple cider.
The hardest part of the job for him is working when the weather turns cold.
“In Jamaica it’s T-shirt weather all year long,” he said.
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