Daffodil Picking: One of Those Things People Do

So I’m working as a daffodil picker. Before signing up I googled it, and found a rich list of folks who include daffodil picking in their lists of jobs they have had. For example:

Patricia Prime has been a kitchen hand, cook, nurse aide, daffodil picker, juggler, teacher aide, musician, labourer, guitar teacher, fruit-picker, busker, worked with the intellectually handicapped, etc.

Ed Heaver of Wrexham, Wales wants us to know that picking was very similar to chicken catching but smelt nicer.

giveasyouget has worked as a daffodil picker, pasty crimper, cleaner at student halls of residence, galley slave, staff canteen at a geriatric hospital (plenty of smiles there), packing for mail order, frozen prawn packing, sandwich factory and dinnerlady. Gallery slave?

The winner, Stephen J. Lyonshas been employed in nine different states as a tree planter, daffodil picker, dude ranch cook, ice cream vendor, magazine editor, phone solicitor, newspaper reporter, professional tofu maker, grain truck driver, assistant dairy herdsman, and agricultural extension editor. It goes on from there.

I take it people end up picking daffodils sometimes. I take it that’s life. There’s this whole world of work and you go out and do it and sometimes its the work you want to do and sometimes its the work that pays bills. Sometimes it has some recognizable romance, sometimes some filthy glory, and sometimes its daffodil picking. You know what? It sounds like life.

One morning last week it looked like this:

2 comments:

hello hugh
thanks for all the info on the daffodil farm. I’m interested in working at Vantreight this spring. Can you tell me the best guaranteed way to get a job there? Thanks for any info you supply to me.
john

Well, if there is still a harvest this year (I imagine there will be, but the medium term future is looking more doubtful) then one of the great things about daffodil picking is how easy it is to get the work. Call them up, or just go their website, and leave your phone number and/or email. You’ll get a call saying where the bus will be to pick you up from town. That’s it.

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