Jamaican workers ride the float from Carlson Orchards in the Fourth of July parade. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Frank Carlson and the Carlson Orchards farm crew in the Fourth of July parade last week were reminders of summer blueberries, cherries, and peaches—and the hard work it takes to produce them. To learn a bit more, the Press caught up with Carlson the next day at the orchard on Oak Hill Road.
After the parade, Carlson and his crew—all Jamaicans who leave behind friends and family for the seasonal work that allows them to send most of their paycheck home—drove to Verrill Farm in Concord to a gathering for many of the Jamaican farm workers that the local orchards and farms have relied on since the early 1970s.
The event was organized by the Jamaican liaison for the men, a source of support and help, and was sponsored by Western Union, the financial go-between for the workers and their families.
Seldom far from the orchard
Eustis Francis, one of the Carlson Orchards crew, was singled out for recognition. This is Francis’s 43rd year at the orchard. Another man was working his 28th season.
Carlson’s brought in eight men on the first of June, just when the peach trees needed pruning. Orchard work ramps up over the summer. By harvest time, there will be a crew of 14 to handle the many farm steps needed to bring fruit from tree to table. The Jamaicans will stay until November, a few longer. All of the men will return to their Caribbean homes for at least part of the year.
A Jamaican worker sets out to pick apples.
While in Harvard, the men live and cook together in housing at the orchard and save money to send back home. Other than a weekly shopping trip, transportation comes from donated bicycles or ones the men find at the transfer station and repair. They are seldom seen far from the orchard.
Like almost all farm work, the work is hard and pays little, which is why they are here and others aren’t. Local farms and Jamaican labor appear to have struck a mutually beneficial balance.
Earnings go directly to families
According to Carlson, the New England Apple Council, a coalition of orchards and farms, brings in about 1,200 workers from Jamaica each year through the H-2A agriculture program that allows temporary workers to stay up to 10 months. Most of the men return year after year.
“They’re very willing and able to work,” Carlson said. The men regularly send most of their paycheck home to families in Jamaica, one of the poorest countries in the Americas. “It allows them to live a cut above their neighbors. They’re very poor and they work very hard for what they get,” Carlson said. “It’s the best financial aid our country can give. It doesn’t get lost in the Jamaican government but goes directly to the families.”
“We just don’t have the available work force like other parts of the country,” Carlson said. The H-2A program requires that farmers advertise for American workers at significant cost and fill jobs with domestic workers first, but few American workers are willing to take the low-wage jobs available only part of the year. Those that do, often don’t stay or don’t return for another season.
Advertising regulations and visa processing delays can mean lack of labor at critical times. The Jamaican workers’ experience and reliability have become critical to the region’s agriculture.
But Carlson thinks the current H-2A program is broken and getting worse. It is becoming more expensive and less predictable.
Support for a new immigration bill
The Jamaican workers pay U.S. taxes and have Worker’s Compensation but cannot easily get Jamaican health insurance for themselves or their families. In the past, workers paid a voluntary $20 fee which had always been paid by the workers to the Jamaican Central Labor Organization (JCLO) to pay for health insurance. The JCLO also facilitated a free transfer of funds to workers’ families. Department of Labor regulation changes in 2010 stopped both of those services.
Carlson was expecting to write congressmen this week in support of the current immigration reform bill and a robust guest-worker program. The bill recently passed the Senate but is now bogged down in the House of Representatives.
“Nothing is perfect,” Carlson said about the bill. But, like other New England agriculturalists, he sees the fragility of many New England farms that are one planting or harvest season away from going under for lack of workers.
Terrific harvest expected
Labor issues aside, Carlson is predicting a terrific harvest this year, just the opposite of last year, when early blossoming followed by a late freeze hit New England orchards hard. Shortages across the country caused apple prices to rise. This year, Carlson is hoping an expected nationwide abundance will not cause the price to collapse.
According to Carlson, last year’s growing season was about a month ahead of schedule, but milestones in the orchards this year have returned to the more normal dates last seen in 2011. Nothing is certain. “One storm can wipe out a whole crop,” he said.
An agriculture-friendly town
Carlson Orchards pays attention to all weather, not just storms. “We come in and check the weather several times a day,” said Carlson, who can read conditions from the orchard’s own weather station, which feeds data directly to a program at Cornell University. The program helps them recognize emerging pests and diseases and what to do about them. (rainwise.net/weather/frank01451)
“Every night we develop a game plan for the next day, but it can change 180 degrees,” he said.
The game plan for last Friday was to spray the apple trees, but the high temperatures pushed out the spraying operation.
“Fortunately, Harvard is agriculture friendly,” said Carlson, who is a member of the Harvard Agriculture Commission. “As a right-to-farm community, people know agriculture activity can happen any time of day,” he said. “Farming is full time.”
Carlson said New England is also lucky to have a strong local market that gives orchardists a niche against the larger orchards in the west. “The west coast farmers would love to be here,” he said.
