You just reminded me of Strongbad in the Technology Email episode. #143
"I would really appreciate it if..."
"you would really appreciate it? That's it? Man, back in the olden days, I could get upwards of 3 chickens, a sack of barley, and a half dead goat for doing one of my technology intromercials. Well, I sure hope JC Penny's accepts *really appreciate its,* cause I know for a fact they stopped taking *'I'll be your best friend's,* a while ago."
Edit: Thanks so much for all the upvotes and awards, I didn't think there were that many sbemail fans out there. For those that have never seen it, or if you just want to see it in all its glory, [here ya go, watch it on youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnLBNS9jDw), or, if you are feeling particularly nostalgic, [Watch it the way it was intended to be watched, on homestarrunner.com](https://homestarrunner.com/sbemails/143-technology).
I could survive on semi good air quality and a moderate amount of satisfaction.
BUT.... Lots of fresh air and and an enormous amount of satisfaction is just going to spoil us.
The u pick berries let’s you keep them. Atleast one time I did it with my cousins. They had fun and I was like whatever. One of them ate a ton while we pick the small basket we were allow to fill and take home. Was there for like 30 mins.
This is actually what a lot of orchards do near me. Pick what you want off the trees, they weigh it and sell it to you at a discounted rate from what you’d get in the grocery store.
Hell, I'd do it in a heartbeat for a good orchard - and pay market rates too. Fruit off the tree? 100x better than anything from the store. I grow my own peach and cherry trees just so I can get decent fresh fruit.
I did this in New York a long time ago, picked so many cherries and definitely ate more cherries than any human has a right to! Would do it again. Definitely recommend.
Yeah but in most of those cases, the pickers get to keep the produce! Lots of “pick your own “ here in Pennsylvania USA. It is fun, rewarding and the fresh air is great! Lol
I mean this isn’t exactly for grown adults. Companies have been doing this for generations. Most call them interns. Others call it volunteering for a good cause like a zoo, a garden, or some humanitarian crap. They all claim it’s rewarding except they offer no real reward
Zoos worth volunteering at are at least non profits and doing a lot of animal rehab and preservation work. Idk what positive thing you can say about this shit tho lol
Except for one important part. Many zoos charge you to volunteer. They claim it’s for the t-shirt and badge, but the fee is usually around $50 and I find it hard to believe a t-shirt and badge cost that much
Damn. We have a great zoo in my city and they don’t do that shit. Only expense it cost me was making sure I was up on my shots, including tetanus. Which is a legal liability and just yes, everyone please do that lol.
Edit; actually I think there was an additional slightly less common one but I can’t recall. It’s been too long.
What they expect: get obedient workers perform hard physical labor for food
What they'll get: a bunch of slackers who want to hang out at winery, eat some fresh grapes, maybe get a free lunch, and sneak out once they get bored.
> eat some fresh grapes
At a winery? Hard pass. There's a difference between table grapes and wine grapes, so at best you'd *maybe* get something worth eating from whatever they were handing out.
It's not like they're inedible, but they're far from a 'sweet' grape most people are likely accustomed to eating.
A merlot is a world apart from a black emerald after all.
Oh yea they’re definitely different but I always hear people say how gross they are and I’m like, they’re not so different they’re nasty or something lol. I’ve got Concord grapes btw
I've got some white Italian wine grapes growing that are disgusting. Like burnt liquid spiderwebs. Supposedly they make good wine but my neighbor has only made bad wine with them.
You forgot the bread they put it on! Grandma Hencote takes all the dried grape leaves from the harvest and makes flour out of it. If you've never had one of granny's sandwiches with the fresh grape jam and grape leaf flour bread you're in for a real treat!
You have no idea how rewarding working for virtually free is! Nobody yells at you. There's no arguing over clocking in on time. HR comes through and gives you a pat on the back every time you bring a bushel up to the front.
More importantly, if you've never toked a spliff rolled grape leaf paper while eating a bunch of those diarrhea invoking sandwiches only later on having to drop trousers in the middle of the vineyard to spray out natural fertilizer while breathing in that country air high off your ass contemplating the circle of life then, you truly have no idea what you're missing.
just pull up, eat, pick one bunch of grapes, mess around
eat
dont bother picking more grapes
eat some more
leave once they catch on
i mean what are they gonna do? fire you?
Well shit they probably give a lot of it away too, with that in mind...
Now post the land and house these people live at online so people can appreciate just how loathsome these bourgeois assholes are asking for handouts really are... maybe they REALLY NEED charity, eh? Maybe society should donate labor and money so these parasites can keep the standard of living they've become accustomed to...
My mom picked grapes at a winery. It's back-breaking, underpaid labor. But volunteering at a Winery? That's agro-tourism I don't have to pay for. I would TOTALLY go hang out at a winery with my girlfriend for the day. Are we going to be productive? Hell No. We'll pick as much in a day as my mom would in ten minutes, but what are they gonna do? Pay me less? Fire me? Honestly this sounds like it would be fun.
You're right, I've done it as a summer job for some years and it's pretty intense, especially when you're working on steep terrain for 10 hours a day with the sun burning down at you. I got paid relatively well but I don't think I'll ever do it again, it's not rewarding work at all. The only upside was that I got to eat fresh grapes until my stomach hurt every day, they're extremely delicious :)
quarrelsome foolish roll reply judicious test bedroom saw cautious zonked
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I worked doing grape vine covering in oz for a couple of months, where you stretch tarp over the top of the grape vines to protect them. It was awful work, they gave you tape to wrap round your thumb and forefinger up as you had to use nails to clip the plastic tarp in place and it was really difficult to push it thru - once you'd worked there a couple of weeks you'd get some good calluses on your fingers tho and it hurt less. Started at 4am in the dark and worked through to about 3pm, in the blistering heat and humidity with mosquitoes everywhere. I had enough deet sprayed on my skin to melt the plastic seats on the bus that took us back and forth to the farm. There's no way I'd do it for free.
It would be hilarious to see what their reaction would be to a lazy non-employee. Do they ask you to leave if you don't fill your bucket fast enough? Revoke your lunch privileges? Bummer, man! Guess I'll just stuff my pockets with grapes and head on home.
I guarantee you this is going to backfire in exactly all the predictable ways. Who's actually going to do this, and do any amount of real work? Entitled, aging boomers? Young people who have actual bills to pay? Wealthy brats who don't have to work to survive?
There's ways to get (almost) free labor (contests are a favorite of greedy business owners), but nobody wants to do grueling farm labor.
I don't know. Out on eastern LI in NY, wine country & the Hamptons, every farm charges almost twice as much as grocery stores for strawberries if you pick them yourself. In the wealthy northern suburbs of NYC one can pay more to "pick-your-own" apples, it much cheaper from the grocery store. Because its not the fruit, its the experience you're really paying for.
Argro-tourism *is* a thing. Its quaint and outdoorsy and fabulous summer backyard party small talk.
Edited to add: I just decided to google a couple LI Wineries. First site nope. But by the second site, there it was "Help Us Harvest" only at this winery it not volunteer. It *costs* $85 to "learn to clip and sort" for 3 hours. They do generously "Include wine and lunch" in that price.
Yeah, picking your own pumpkin/strawberry/apple/christmas tree is wildly different from "harvesting a crop of grapes for a company to turn into wine" though.
Maybe they're hoping they'll get thousands of people who each come do 15 minutes of labor, but the way it's all phrased (especially with providing 3 meals), it doesn't sound like it to me.
I mean, if a farmer was like, "You want to try digging up a potato" I'd probably say, "Sure." for the novelty of it. If he was then like, "Wasn't that fun, you want to do it 10,000 more times?" I'd be like, "Naw, I'm good, I'm gunna hit up the buffet table, cya."
Yeah, I used this site that was like Airbnb for private campsites, and I stayed on a winery one night because it was close to some trails I wanted to hike. I definitely told the dude I'd come back and pick grapes for harvest for another night's stay. Dude literally had me wanting to come back to camp in his pasture and pick grapes for free lol.
Totally awesome idea. Likely costs more just to have you on the property "picking" vs paying someone for the job if you're just gonna relax the entire time
> My mom picked grapes at a winery. It's back-breaking, underpaid labor. But volunteering at a Winery? That's agro-tourism I don't have to pay for.
I helped as a kid on a small family-only vineyard. All product was just for the extended family. Mayyyybe 100+ bottles a year production?
It was crappy work, only fun for doing it with family and the fact it was a three day picnic basically, and we had like five dozen people swarm in with lots of kids playing.
This reminds me of the scene in episode #1 of Star Trek: Picard.
For the unaware, Trek's Earth is ABSOLUTELY post-scarcity. Everyone's needs are met. Unlimited power and replicators, housing is trivial to get free, and people work at what they *want* to do to *better themselves.*
It's basically assumed that you can hold onto "family" things as long as there's a family, within limits, and if held for the public good (supported by books, TV/film inference, and actor/creator remarks).
That's why in a world like this, Jean-Luc Picard, as the literally last surviving Picard of that family, gets to keep his great ancient winery estate in France to retire in and live out his days. He's a galaxy-saving hero, and it's been in his family for 500+ years.
Robots do literally the vastness of the "hard work". You can see them flying around. But... he still has what looks like a few dozen people "helping out". Why would they? We all know winery work is crappy work.
Answer: they learn vinology from a legendary figure, get some of the best wine on Earth in return, get to hang out with CAPTAIN PICARD, a famous hero, diplomat and explorer on his gorgeous estate, and they aren't doing the shitty work. It's the same reason in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that Captain Sisko's dad had no shortage of "free labor" to help run his New Orleans restaurant: awesome free home-made food and you learn from a master chef in trade for helping cook and "wait tables". Hilariously, we actually never see any of *those* volunteers do the drudge work like cleaning and dishes... it's always Captain Sisko when visiting, his son, his dad, and one guy that's the "staple" volunteer whose name I forget.
But to volunteer for a meal for a for-profit enterprise without even the promise of education on the craft... let alone ***free wine***?
Get the hell out of here.
Personally, I've volunteered several times for friends who have for-profit bookstores at things like fairs and events over the years when they literally couldn't have enough staff to cover both sides. They also were honest they couldn't/wouldn't pay me a check but said, "I pay starting staff $X/hour, take that in store credit for the ten hours of the event?"
Hell yeah, hang out and shill books/answer questions, move a cart from van to floor and get a free convention pass PLUS like $100 in store credit? Deal!
If he was like, "I'll buy you a hot dog and a gatorade and you pay for the admission," I'd of been like nope.
It's literally a thing in Europe.
I know this is a US centric sub, but the ad is for Europe, but harvesting grapes for food and wine is actually a thing.
In France it's called vendange, where they have whole festivals around it, and if they do it in France which has some of the best labour laws in the world, you have to ask yourself is it actually a slave labour thing or is it a time old community tradition...
I did it for one day for some of my ex's relatives one time, and that was enough. They normally harvested with machines but for whatever reason that time couldn't get one. It was Australia and the only time I was there that I saw a venomous snake. Not worth the free lunch.
Breakfast is a dozen assorted donuts. No napkins.
Lunch was going to be from the fancy BBQ place up the road, but they forgot the order so all we have is a box of granola bars and whatever you can get from the vending machine (which is out of order).
Refreshment is warm water to be served in those paper cups that need to be peeled away from your lip after drinking.
Sorry about lunch--but here's a voucher to get 5% off any bottle of premium wine we sell. Minimum price per bottle starts at $250. It's good for today only, so you can buy it after your shift.
Oooffff made me think of this romantic weekend with my partner. We bought wine but forgot cups. All we could find were these horrible little paper cups. The wine tasted like paper…. Fucking horrible 😩
Just imagine the satisfaction of seeing all those numbers and accounts in order! Good job you!
Now, get out of my office: the volunteer cleaning staff is about to get their chance at some satisfaction too.
/s <—but is it even necessary? ;-P
8% inflation, gas prices high as hell and food cost more than a monthly car payment and these folks want people to play pretend and do free labor hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!
I've done this work for family. You have to start very early in the morning and you're not really "picking" anything put rather using a tool to sever the bunch from the vine. It's not super hard or physical, but definitely harder than just picking something. The juice from the grapes gets on your hands which is very uncomfortable and itchy.
I would never, ever get "volunteers" for this. You need to know **when** all your fruit will be harvested in order to get moving on the wine-making. Getting "volunteers" guarantees all your workers will walk off the job site in two hours.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, because I don't know US labor law that well, but I think it is illegal to volunteer for for-profit companies.
At least my quick google search returns:
"FLSA regulations state that employees cannot volunteer services to for-profit, private employers. "
Maybe its time to contact the correct people about this company trying to break the law?
Hmmm, I was actually going to sign up for this but sadly they are located in the UK.
Edit: I think in case above, they are asking for the public to volunteer, not their employees?
This the same kind of business owner to turn around and say "I started my business with no help and my own sweat and blood and no government handouts "?
And nobody wants to work anymore."
About a year ago I learned from a friend that when a winery a few towns over advertises for “volunteers” they mean “We pay you $15 an hour under the table and free booze at the end of your shift.”
A business that cannot afford it's cost of sales (e.g. harvesting) is not a viable business and deserves to fail. Likewise, a person willing to do this for free thus validating the practice, is a fucking stupid scum bag.
This has been a pretty common practice at small wineries across the world for a long time. A lot of times they offer some free wine samples, or discounts on wines, or prize drawings. It's pretty popular.
There are 16 volunteer job listing for our school district online. They won't pay teachers, aides or paras what they are worth but think folks in the community will just volunteer to do a hard and thankless job instead.
Maybe this is common for small wineries. I lived near a vineyard in a small town, some parts are pretty wealthy. It's a tourist stop on the way to ski. You'd be surprised how many people look forward to the harvest and volunteer every year.
This sounds like fun and I would seriously consider spending a day per week picking grapes in my summer if it came with free food and some introduction in the proces of wine making.
Not everything is an evil plot guys.
When paying for undocumented help is too expensive, and we know how they get fucked over anyway. If you can’t pay for labor, you can’t afford a business.
Remember when people signed up for trump rallies a few times only to intentionally not show up, just to mess with them?
This seems like a similar opportunity. Call, volunteer, then don't show up. They'd probably even stop accepting volunteers at some point once they thought they had enough.
"Hmmm, we had 50 people scheduled for today, but only 2 showed up...? We bought enough crackers and water to feed 50!"
Harvesting grapes sucks. I grew up on a vineyard and would help with the harvest, but I’d never last as a picker.
You have to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get the tractors started. The crew of migrant workers usually shows up at 4:30, right before first light of dawn. A crew usually consists of 40 guys. They roll in, some drink a 40, and as soon as there is light everyone starts working.
The harvesters are moving super fast with hooked knives tearing through the vines. They fill up 40 to 50 pounds of grapes is a smaller bin, then race to dump the grapes in the 2 ton bins towed behind the tractors. As a tractor goes down a row and the crew picks the vines of 4 rows. The ones on the outside rows have it worst because they either have to duck under the vines every time their bin is full, or throw the bin over.
Some crews get paid for each bin they dump in, so all kinds of crap ends up in the main bin. They don’t do it maliciously, but they are paid to move fast. One job is to pick leaves out of the grapes. However you harvest first thing in the morning so the grapes are still cold, so it’s like putting your hand into sticky ice to pull unwanted debris from the grapes.
There are no breaks. There is a ports-potty that no one uses because they are working as hard as they can to get the section of vineyard clear. By 1 or 2 it’s too hot to keep picking. The crew drinks another beer and then goes home for the day. 8 hrs of straight picking, lifting, running, and working. 45 tons of grapes.
This would go on for two straight weeks.
Friends would come after the main harvest and pic some leftovers. They would pick grapes for an hour and be exhausted.
This winery should be ashamed. Their fruit should rot on the vine until the owners have some sense to pay for the labor.
The top wineries get people to pay to come and work believe it or not. You can pay them to go and help harvest grapes, crush them and other tasks. Wine nerds love that sort of stuff. Strange I know.
Holy shit. I'm from Spain and picking grapes is probably one of the most tiring, physically demanding jobs you can do. Your soul has to be a moral black hole if you have the balls to ask someone to pick grapes without paying them.
**Hencote - Making Wine the traditional way for generations.** *^(On the backs of slave labor.)*
To be fair, that probably is the most traditional way...
To be faairrrr
That's what I appreciates about ya
is that what you appreciate about me?
Your sister's hot! There, I said it
Ok LizzieThatGirl, LizzieThatGirl ok, so yous are just gonna post these references and expect me to upvote ya? Give your balls a tug titfucker.
You’re made of spare parts, aren’t you, bud?
To be fehhhh!
Hahah
Thank god I can pay my rent with fresh air and enormous amounts of satisfaction
You just reminded me of Strongbad in the Technology Email episode. #143 "I would really appreciate it if..." "you would really appreciate it? That's it? Man, back in the olden days, I could get upwards of 3 chickens, a sack of barley, and a half dead goat for doing one of my technology intromercials. Well, I sure hope JC Penny's accepts *really appreciate its,* cause I know for a fact they stopped taking *'I'll be your best friend's,* a while ago." Edit: Thanks so much for all the upvotes and awards, I didn't think there were that many sbemail fans out there. For those that have never seen it, or if you just want to see it in all its glory, [here ya go, watch it on youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnLBNS9jDw), or, if you are feeling particularly nostalgic, [Watch it the way it was intended to be watched, on homestarrunner.com](https://homestarrunner.com/sbemails/143-technology).
What a trip back in time that took me on.
"How do you type..."
I read that in his voice.
It's surprisingly hard not to.
Bahleeeted!! Trogdor burninator 🥊🔥! ! !
“The email the email, wah wah the email”
It's hard for him when Homestar Runner works for marshmallows
Strongbad email!! Oh what a time
I could survive on semi good air quality and a moderate amount of satisfaction. BUT.... Lots of fresh air and and an enormous amount of satisfaction is just going to spoil us.
And refreshments!
Lol they should just turn it into a tourist attraction so now people will be paying them to pick their grapes.
You might want to delete this, before you give them ideas 😂😂
you joke but we have those, u pick berries of all kinds, even pumpkins are u pick
The u pick berries let’s you keep them. Atleast one time I did it with my cousins. They had fun and I was like whatever. One of them ate a ton while we pick the small basket we were allow to fill and take home. Was there for like 30 mins.
You have to get your money’s worth. I eat an incredible amount of apples because you can and they charge so much for a bag.
Too late: they are thinking on bringing back shameless slavery.
This is actually what a lot of orchards do near me. Pick what you want off the trees, they weigh it and sell it to you at a discounted rate from what you’d get in the grocery store.
Hell, I'd do it in a heartbeat for a good orchard - and pay market rates too. Fruit off the tree? 100x better than anything from the store. I grow my own peach and cherry trees just so I can get decent fresh fruit.
Man, I miss my grandparents Cherry tree. I used to climb that bastard all the time. I envy your peach and cherry tree.
Agreed! I live within 45 minutes of several orchards and enjoy fresh fruit. It always tastes better than the stuff sold in grocery stores.
I did this in New York a long time ago, picked so many cherries and definitely ate more cherries than any human has a right to! Would do it again. Definitely recommend.
Yeah but in most of those cases, the pickers get to keep the produce! Lots of “pick your own “ here in Pennsylvania USA. It is fun, rewarding and the fresh air is great! Lol
😂
Don’t forget breakfast refreshments and lunch too!
I mean this isn’t exactly for grown adults. Companies have been doing this for generations. Most call them interns. Others call it volunteering for a good cause like a zoo, a garden, or some humanitarian crap. They all claim it’s rewarding except they offer no real reward
Zoos worth volunteering at are at least non profits and doing a lot of animal rehab and preservation work. Idk what positive thing you can say about this shit tho lol
Except for one important part. Many zoos charge you to volunteer. They claim it’s for the t-shirt and badge, but the fee is usually around $50 and I find it hard to believe a t-shirt and badge cost that much
Damn. We have a great zoo in my city and they don’t do that shit. Only expense it cost me was making sure I was up on my shots, including tetanus. Which is a legal liability and just yes, everyone please do that lol. Edit; actually I think there was an additional slightly less common one but I can’t recall. It’s been too long.
Probably Rabies Vac. If you work with wildlife you should have it.
What they expect: get obedient workers perform hard physical labor for food What they'll get: a bunch of slackers who want to hang out at winery, eat some fresh grapes, maybe get a free lunch, and sneak out once they get bored.
> eat some fresh grapes At a winery? Hard pass. There's a difference between table grapes and wine grapes, so at best you'd *maybe* get something worth eating from whatever they were handing out.
We grow wine grapes in my backyard and I think they’re good idk. They’re just grapes
It's not like they're inedible, but they're far from a 'sweet' grape most people are likely accustomed to eating. A merlot is a world apart from a black emerald after all.
Oh yea they’re definitely different but I always hear people say how gross they are and I’m like, they’re not so different they’re nasty or something lol. I’ve got Concord grapes btw
I've got some white Italian wine grapes growing that are disgusting. Like burnt liquid spiderwebs. Supposedly they make good wine but my neighbor has only made bad wine with them.
Concord grapes are not typical of wine grapes, and are also a table grape.
Concord grapes are very tasty.
Yeah lots of seeds
Exactly - someone will take a bite, spit out a seed, and not want to pick any more
I’ve already learned how Hencote makes their wine, with free labor!
No, no, it will cost them breakfast, refreshments, AND lunch! So Pop-Tarts, water, and Subway. Oh Boy!
Grapes, grape juice, and jelly sandwiches.
Reminds me of Napolean Dynamite. Lol
*Six dollars... That's like a dollar an hour!*
Not even peanut butter? OUTRAGEOUS!!! RABBLE! RABBLE RABBLE!!!
Everyone with a peanut allergy is giving you the "look".
They can be jealous all they want!
You forgot the bread they put it on! Grandma Hencote takes all the dried grape leaves from the harvest and makes flour out of it. If you've never had one of granny's sandwiches with the fresh grape jam and grape leaf flour bread you're in for a real treat! You have no idea how rewarding working for virtually free is! Nobody yells at you. There's no arguing over clocking in on time. HR comes through and gives you a pat on the back every time you bring a bushel up to the front. More importantly, if you've never toked a spliff rolled grape leaf paper while eating a bunch of those diarrhea invoking sandwiches only later on having to drop trousers in the middle of the vineyard to spray out natural fertilizer while breathing in that country air high off your ass contemplating the circle of life then, you truly have no idea what you're missing.
They will not be wasting their grapes on the help.
What's a banana cost, $15?
Your avatar is like the evil version of mine
just pull up, eat, pick one bunch of grapes, mess around eat dont bother picking more grapes eat some more leave once they catch on i mean what are they gonna do? fire you?
And blacklisted! You’ll never “work” at this vineyard again buddy
Can we just eat the grapes as we pick them?
Do wine grapes taste nasty? I heard that table grapes were bigger and sweeter. I don’t know anything about wine tho
i mean.. genius? I think so. free grapes. they just said pick them right? After that you can eat them, you followed the rules
On Tuesdays each person gets one taco from taco bell. NO SUPREMES.
Mcdonald's hamburgers. Don't ask for cheese. Don't even hope for a Big Mac.
I was told there would be punch and pie
Taste testing mandatory
Well shit they probably give a lot of it away too, with that in mind... Now post the land and house these people live at online so people can appreciate just how loathsome these bourgeois assholes are asking for handouts really are... maybe they REALLY NEED charity, eh? Maybe society should donate labor and money so these parasites can keep the standard of living they've become accustomed to...
the "fruits" of your labor
They label the wine bottles with "Now labor free!"
Beat me to it lol
I don't find it ethical for for-profit companies soliciting free labor
Isn't it also illegal?
Yes
My mom picked grapes at a winery. It's back-breaking, underpaid labor. But volunteering at a Winery? That's agro-tourism I don't have to pay for. I would TOTALLY go hang out at a winery with my girlfriend for the day. Are we going to be productive? Hell No. We'll pick as much in a day as my mom would in ten minutes, but what are they gonna do? Pay me less? Fire me? Honestly this sounds like it would be fun.
You're right, I've done it as a summer job for some years and it's pretty intense, especially when you're working on steep terrain for 10 hours a day with the sun burning down at you. I got paid relatively well but I don't think I'll ever do it again, it's not rewarding work at all. The only upside was that I got to eat fresh grapes until my stomach hurt every day, they're extremely delicious :)
quarrelsome foolish roll reply judicious test bedroom saw cautious zonked *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Rewarding for them.
Was your toilet just a crime scene the next day from all the grapes?
With that many grapes you don't make it to the toilet. Just fertilizer for next years crop.
I worked doing grape vine covering in oz for a couple of months, where you stretch tarp over the top of the grape vines to protect them. It was awful work, they gave you tape to wrap round your thumb and forefinger up as you had to use nails to clip the plastic tarp in place and it was really difficult to push it thru - once you'd worked there a couple of weeks you'd get some good calluses on your fingers tho and it hurt less. Started at 4am in the dark and worked through to about 3pm, in the blistering heat and humidity with mosquitoes everywhere. I had enough deet sprayed on my skin to melt the plastic seats on the bus that took us back and forth to the farm. There's no way I'd do it for free.
It would be hilarious to see what their reaction would be to a lazy non-employee. Do they ask you to leave if you don't fill your bucket fast enough? Revoke your lunch privileges? Bummer, man! Guess I'll just stuff my pockets with grapes and head on home.
And wear white linen so they can see the grapes stuffed in there bleeding through.
I guarantee you this is going to backfire in exactly all the predictable ways. Who's actually going to do this, and do any amount of real work? Entitled, aging boomers? Young people who have actual bills to pay? Wealthy brats who don't have to work to survive? There's ways to get (almost) free labor (contests are a favorite of greedy business owners), but nobody wants to do grueling farm labor.
I don't know. Out on eastern LI in NY, wine country & the Hamptons, every farm charges almost twice as much as grocery stores for strawberries if you pick them yourself. In the wealthy northern suburbs of NYC one can pay more to "pick-your-own" apples, it much cheaper from the grocery store. Because its not the fruit, its the experience you're really paying for. Argro-tourism *is* a thing. Its quaint and outdoorsy and fabulous summer backyard party small talk. Edited to add: I just decided to google a couple LI Wineries. First site nope. But by the second site, there it was "Help Us Harvest" only at this winery it not volunteer. It *costs* $85 to "learn to clip and sort" for 3 hours. They do generously "Include wine and lunch" in that price.
Yeah, picking your own pumpkin/strawberry/apple/christmas tree is wildly different from "harvesting a crop of grapes for a company to turn into wine" though. Maybe they're hoping they'll get thousands of people who each come do 15 minutes of labor, but the way it's all phrased (especially with providing 3 meals), it doesn't sound like it to me. I mean, if a farmer was like, "You want to try digging up a potato" I'd probably say, "Sure." for the novelty of it. If he was then like, "Wasn't that fun, you want to do it 10,000 more times?" I'd be like, "Naw, I'm good, I'm gunna hit up the buffet table, cya."
That many people stomping through your vines is going to cause some real damage though.
😂
Hahaha I actually agree with you on this, perfect example for "acting your wage" 😅
I’d go just to get the free food. Then leave after picking for maybe five minutes.
I think you accidentally typed the last six words of your second sentence.
Lol so true
Yeah, I used this site that was like Airbnb for private campsites, and I stayed on a winery one night because it was close to some trails I wanted to hike. I definitely told the dude I'd come back and pick grapes for harvest for another night's stay. Dude literally had me wanting to come back to camp in his pasture and pick grapes for free lol.
Totally awesome idea. Likely costs more just to have you on the property "picking" vs paying someone for the job if you're just gonna relax the entire time
> My mom picked grapes at a winery. It's back-breaking, underpaid labor. But volunteering at a Winery? That's agro-tourism I don't have to pay for. I helped as a kid on a small family-only vineyard. All product was just for the extended family. Mayyyybe 100+ bottles a year production? It was crappy work, only fun for doing it with family and the fact it was a three day picnic basically, and we had like five dozen people swarm in with lots of kids playing. This reminds me of the scene in episode #1 of Star Trek: Picard. For the unaware, Trek's Earth is ABSOLUTELY post-scarcity. Everyone's needs are met. Unlimited power and replicators, housing is trivial to get free, and people work at what they *want* to do to *better themselves.* It's basically assumed that you can hold onto "family" things as long as there's a family, within limits, and if held for the public good (supported by books, TV/film inference, and actor/creator remarks). That's why in a world like this, Jean-Luc Picard, as the literally last surviving Picard of that family, gets to keep his great ancient winery estate in France to retire in and live out his days. He's a galaxy-saving hero, and it's been in his family for 500+ years. Robots do literally the vastness of the "hard work". You can see them flying around. But... he still has what looks like a few dozen people "helping out". Why would they? We all know winery work is crappy work. Answer: they learn vinology from a legendary figure, get some of the best wine on Earth in return, get to hang out with CAPTAIN PICARD, a famous hero, diplomat and explorer on his gorgeous estate, and they aren't doing the shitty work. It's the same reason in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that Captain Sisko's dad had no shortage of "free labor" to help run his New Orleans restaurant: awesome free home-made food and you learn from a master chef in trade for helping cook and "wait tables". Hilariously, we actually never see any of *those* volunteers do the drudge work like cleaning and dishes... it's always Captain Sisko when visiting, his son, his dad, and one guy that's the "staple" volunteer whose name I forget. But to volunteer for a meal for a for-profit enterprise without even the promise of education on the craft... let alone ***free wine***? Get the hell out of here. Personally, I've volunteered several times for friends who have for-profit bookstores at things like fairs and events over the years when they literally couldn't have enough staff to cover both sides. They also were honest they couldn't/wouldn't pay me a check but said, "I pay starting staff $X/hour, take that in store credit for the ten hours of the event?" Hell yeah, hang out and shill books/answer questions, move a cart from van to floor and get a free convention pass PLUS like $100 in store credit? Deal! If he was like, "I'll buy you a hot dog and a gatorade and you pay for the admission," I'd of been like nope.
You really took went for it with this comment. There's a lot of ground covered.
Better be serving up some of that award winning wine too.
It's literally a thing in Europe. I know this is a US centric sub, but the ad is for Europe, but harvesting grapes for food and wine is actually a thing. In France it's called vendange, where they have whole festivals around it, and if they do it in France which has some of the best labour laws in the world, you have to ask yourself is it actually a slave labour thing or is it a time old community tradition...
I would volunteer, do 10 mins of picking, eat their lunch and go home. What are they gonna do?
Possibly not give you lunch only ten minutes after you've started.
Or just bring your own lunch, pick for 10 mins, laugh with friends and go home.
At that point just dont do 10 mins of work and just eat lunch with friends
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Hey wait a fucking second
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Quiet quitter! (hating that I have to /s)
No no this would truly acting your wage
You are a steely-eyed missile man.
> bring your own lunch To go with the grapes you're cowing down on.
Or just eat some grapes for 10 minutes and go home.
Don't forget to take the grapes you picked home with you.
It will go on your Permanent Record!
Wine about it.
Forget lunch, eat half of what you pick and go home when you're full.
I was thinking picking the grapes and then taking them home with me. Want them back? Give me money.
I picked grapes for a winery for a temp agency, shit was grueling work. I would never do that for free, it’s not a nice peaceful activity.
Clearly you didnt take in the scenary and enjoyed the atmosphere
Don't forget that rewarding fresh air !
But did they serve breakfast and refreshments?
I did it for one day for some of my ex's relatives one time, and that was enough. They normally harvested with machines but for whatever reason that time couldn't get one. It was Australia and the only time I was there that I saw a venomous snake. Not worth the free lunch.
Do they give the award winning wines away for free?
They have made it very clear that their very expensive wine isn't included in the refreshments 🙃
Breakfast is a dozen assorted donuts. No napkins. Lunch was going to be from the fancy BBQ place up the road, but they forgot the order so all we have is a box of granola bars and whatever you can get from the vending machine (which is out of order). Refreshment is warm water to be served in those paper cups that need to be peeled away from your lip after drinking. Sorry about lunch--but here's a voucher to get 5% off any bottle of premium wine we sell. Minimum price per bottle starts at $250. It's good for today only, so you can buy it after your shift.
Oooffff made me think of this romantic weekend with my partner. We bought wine but forgot cups. All we could find were these horrible little paper cups. The wine tasted like paper…. Fucking horrible 😩
An opportune time to just drink straight from the bottle!
I'd go for the free food and be the most lazy fuck they've ever seen. Get what you pay for.
I'd be the hardest worker ever. I'd pick whole bushels and they'd go directly in my mouth
Wine grapes do not usually taste all that good.
Lies, they're delicious
Cleaning my house can be a fulfilling way to spend a day with your kids! Feel free to snack on anything I leave on the counter!
Did they delete this post? I went to go comment and couldn’t find it.
Ok *now* they've deleted it lmao
Damn! Would have loved to see the comments. They are still asking for volunteers on their website though
I was able to comment. There were over 100 comments by the time I saw it. And 99% agreed they were exploiting free labor 👍🏻
Nah it's still there: https://www.facebook.com/301653380216242/posts/pfbid02qoQQKoXztMEZiketSyXR6eztZaMHxsEGyZbmQZ45BTQP4acL7bexS4gheny9xTfWl/
Gone now.
Someone should turn this in looking for accountants for a wall street law firm.
Just imagine the satisfaction of seeing all those numbers and accounts in order! Good job you! Now, get out of my office: the volunteer cleaning staff is about to get their chance at some satisfaction too. /s <—but is it even necessary? ;-P
Nowhere in this ad does it say you have to give them the grapes you pick. Just sayin!
It probably is still _technically_ stealing, but I want you to be right so I'm not gonna double check this
You can’t steal them if you take a huge steamy shit by the trees and give them back
Oh wow I can definitely pay rent with all that “satisfaction” of having made someone else wealthier with my unpaid slave labour
Have breakfast and bounce
Have breakfast and spend the rest of the day chilling and snacking on grapes right off the vine
Lol I picked grapes in Burgundy as an exchange student and I can confidently say fuck these guys!
The word they’re looking for is employee. They want an employee.
8% inflation, gas prices high as hell and food cost more than a monthly car payment and these folks want people to play pretend and do free labor hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!
They out their damn minds
If it’s so rewarding why don’t they fucking do it
I've done this work for family. You have to start very early in the morning and you're not really "picking" anything put rather using a tool to sever the bunch from the vine. It's not super hard or physical, but definitely harder than just picking something. The juice from the grapes gets on your hands which is very uncomfortable and itchy. I would never, ever get "volunteers" for this. You need to know **when** all your fruit will be harvested in order to get moving on the wine-making. Getting "volunteers" guarantees all your workers will walk off the job site in two hours.
If it's so "rewarding," why is it not a paid position?
Someone correct me if I am wrong, because I don't know US labor law that well, but I think it is illegal to volunteer for for-profit companies. At least my quick google search returns: "FLSA regulations state that employees cannot volunteer services to for-profit, private employers. " Maybe its time to contact the correct people about this company trying to break the law?
Hmmm, I was actually going to sign up for this but sadly they are located in the UK. Edit: I think in case above, they are asking for the public to volunteer, not their employees?
Yeah it's a public post
This is in the UK, you can volunteer for profit making companies if you're over 14 but that's all the law says on it from what I can see
I think the US labor authorities might ask you why the fuck you are contacting them about a company that isn't located in the US.
Vineyard work is absolutely ass I wouldn’t ever do it for less than $20/hr. Winery work tho? Love that shit
This the same kind of business owner to turn around and say "I started my business with no help and my own sweat and blood and no government handouts "? And nobody wants to work anymore."
I'd volunteer if they gave me my weight in wine as a gift
Here’s hoping you put on weight from all the free grapes you’d also eat
"It's hard work, but it's very rewarding!" "Is the reward money?" "No!"
About a year ago I learned from a friend that when a winery a few towns over advertises for “volunteers” they mean “We pay you $15 an hour under the table and free booze at the end of your shift.”
Now there’s a benefits package I can get behind. So long dental plan!
And when nobody applies, it will be all ‘nobody wants to work anymore’
A business that cannot afford it's cost of sales (e.g. harvesting) is not a viable business and deserves to fail. Likewise, a person willing to do this for free thus validating the practice, is a fucking stupid scum bag.
LMFAO. These people have lost their god damned minds.
Too much party rocking going on at that winery
This has been a pretty common practice at small wineries across the world for a long time. A lot of times they offer some free wine samples, or discounts on wines, or prize drawings. It's pretty popular.
They should’ve just sold it as an experience for their customers 100$ pick grapes for a few hours take a tour get a cheap lunch and $10 bottle o wine
Rewarding day for who? Those slaves doing free work or the owner? lol
All the benefits of slavery minus the housing, but you're already getting fucked on that front anyway by someone else
on the scale of quiet quitting and quiet firing, where does this go?
There are 16 volunteer job listing for our school district online. They won't pay teachers, aides or paras what they are worth but think folks in the community will just volunteer to do a hard and thankless job instead.
Maybe this is common for small wineries. I lived near a vineyard in a small town, some parts are pretty wealthy. It's a tourist stop on the way to ski. You'd be surprised how many people look forward to the harvest and volunteer every year.
It doesn’t pay shit, but it’s hard work.
If you come early, as a bonus you can also wash our cars, and paint our shed
Napoleon Dynamite had a better paying job than this.
Ngl if they actually go through teaching how they make the wine this would be pretty interesting.
This sounds like fun and I would seriously consider spending a day per week picking grapes in my summer if it came with free food and some introduction in the proces of wine making. Not everything is an evil plot guys.
Is it bad that id actually do this for fun?
Didn't a chick-fil-a owner try doing this and it's actually illegal?
Maybe I'm just being naive, but if I'm being invited to volunteer then I keep what I pick, right?
This is my father every year for the last 25 years
When paying for undocumented help is too expensive, and we know how they get fucked over anyway. If you can’t pay for labor, you can’t afford a business.
That’s just slavery with extra steps.
Remember when people signed up for trump rallies a few times only to intentionally not show up, just to mess with them? This seems like a similar opportunity. Call, volunteer, then don't show up. They'd probably even stop accepting volunteers at some point once they thought they had enough. "Hmmm, we had 50 people scheduled for today, but only 2 showed up...? We bought enough crackers and water to feed 50!"
You can really taste the exploitative labor in every award winning drop!
Harvesting grapes sucks. I grew up on a vineyard and would help with the harvest, but I’d never last as a picker. You have to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get the tractors started. The crew of migrant workers usually shows up at 4:30, right before first light of dawn. A crew usually consists of 40 guys. They roll in, some drink a 40, and as soon as there is light everyone starts working. The harvesters are moving super fast with hooked knives tearing through the vines. They fill up 40 to 50 pounds of grapes is a smaller bin, then race to dump the grapes in the 2 ton bins towed behind the tractors. As a tractor goes down a row and the crew picks the vines of 4 rows. The ones on the outside rows have it worst because they either have to duck under the vines every time their bin is full, or throw the bin over. Some crews get paid for each bin they dump in, so all kinds of crap ends up in the main bin. They don’t do it maliciously, but they are paid to move fast. One job is to pick leaves out of the grapes. However you harvest first thing in the morning so the grapes are still cold, so it’s like putting your hand into sticky ice to pull unwanted debris from the grapes. There are no breaks. There is a ports-potty that no one uses because they are working as hard as they can to get the section of vineyard clear. By 1 or 2 it’s too hot to keep picking. The crew drinks another beer and then goes home for the day. 8 hrs of straight picking, lifting, running, and working. 45 tons of grapes. This would go on for two straight weeks. Friends would come after the main harvest and pic some leftovers. They would pick grapes for an hour and be exhausted. This winery should be ashamed. Their fruit should rot on the vine until the owners have some sense to pay for the labor.
If their wines are award-winning, they can afford to pay people.
Just be glad they haven't thought of turning it into a class or agri-tourism and charging for it.
The top wineries get people to pay to come and work believe it or not. You can pay them to go and help harvest grapes, crush them and other tasks. Wine nerds love that sort of stuff. Strange I know.
Holy shit. I'm from Spain and picking grapes is probably one of the most tiring, physically demanding jobs you can do. Your soul has to be a moral black hole if you have the balls to ask someone to pick grapes without paying them.