Going to Work At S&J Mandarin Grove

This winter, I got to up to Newcastle to work at my grandparents orchard every Saturday to help sort, sell, and bag mandarins. While I was working at S&J Mandarin Grove, it was fun getting to experience real work and experience the amazing feeling of getting paid. BUT IT WAS HARD WORK! They have 5 acres of mandarin trees including all different types such as satsuma, tangos, clementines, and a whole bunch more. 350 trees out of their grand total are the Owari Satsuma mandarin trees.

As my grandpa (the “S” for Steve) picked and brought back mandarins, I worked hard along with my grandma (the “J” for June) to sort out the bad ones from the good ones and bag them up for people to buy. Although the work we did was hard, it was actually really cool to get some work exposure. They have a scale so we can weigh the bags. There are 2, 4, 7, 11, and 15 pound bags and we had to back a ton of each. You get orange under your nails from bagging, sorting out the bad ones, and having a snack. That’s one of the benefits to the job… FREE SNACKS.

During the season I made stretchy bracelets to sell to customers who came by the house. The first time I got a profit, I spent 100% of it on beads to make these awesome bracelets. They totally sold and I made tons of money off of them. Everyone thought they were super cute and I was happy that they liked them so much. Next year, I’m going to make some mandarin Christmas ornaments!

Every Saturday when I would go up, I was ready and exited to work. I always was full of energy and ready to work. After my grandparents saw how awesome I was as a worker, they let me go to the Farmer’s Market with them. The Farmer’s Market is crazy! You have to know how to count money and give change fast, interact with customers, bag quickly, and be prepared for the mob. At some points during the market, there would be so many people coming to the booth at once that both my grandparents and I were selling, but we would run out of fruit. We had to bag as fast as we could possibly move during these times of insanity. But, the rest of the time I got to deal with all the customers by myself and I did super good. I can’t wait for next season!