Summer is drawing to a close here in the Columbia River Gorge, that means it’s time to harvest the fruit that grows throughout the Hood River Valley. The fruit trees are full of fruit, the nights are getting cool with hot days and the air is full of smoke from nearby forest fires. The orchards come to life with the tractors distributing the empty fruit bins throughout the rows of trees.
The golden Bartlett and red D’Anjou pears are ripe and ready to pick.
The sun was barely over the hills when the ladders were out and the workers started picking the pears.
From dawn until dusk, the workers went from tree to tree picking the fruit
Quickly, the pears came off the trees and into the waiting fruit bins
When the bins are full, a tractor comes by, picks them up and takes them to a collection point where they are loaded on trucks and taken to a sorting and processing facility.
In a day or two, the trees are bare and the bins are full and on the way to the produce sections of supermarkets around the world.
All quiet around the orchard now.