Seasonal Squash Farmworker

Seasonal Squash Farmworker at Adan Agriculture Services LLC in Winter Haven, FL.

Workers will perform row-by-row field harvesting, grading, packing, handling, and incidental farm maintenance for strawberries, blueberries, watermelons, tomatoes, and squash under direct supervision. For blueberry harvesting, workers will walk down berry field rows wearing a 1-gallon picking bucket with a shoulder strap for support, positioning themselves in front of berry bushes to carefully hand-remove ripe fruit into the bucket without breaking limbs, damaging plants, or knocking off unripe fruit. Once full, workers will transport buckets to the truck at the end of the row and transfer the fruit into shipping containers or small tubs. For strawberry harvesting, workers will move down assigned rows hand-picking all ripe berries while grading and sorting by size, shape, color, quality, and quantity. Workers must pick plants clean of all ripe fruit, pack acceptable berries into specified containers according to strict quality standards, and pack or dispose of damaged berries as directed by the supervisor. Workers will handle berries carefully to avoid bruising, move with the crew to maintain workflow efficiency, attach assigned numeric stickers to completed boxes, present boxes at the crate shed for grading credit, and receive new packaging materials. Overfilled, underfilled, or poor-quality containers will be returned for repacking, and failure to meet quality standards may result in disciplinary action. For blueberry and strawberry packing, workers will hand-pick in the field and sort, inspect, and grade berries in the packing house according to employer quality standards. Packing house tasks include removing debris, unripe, or damaged fruit, packing market-ready berries into clamshells or boxes, labeling, stacking, and preparing product for shipment. Packing house work is limited strictly to crops produced by the fixed-site grower, with no commercial processing performed for outside entities. For squash and tomato harvesting and other varieties of vegetables, workers will move down assigned rows plucking or cutting squash from vines using provided tools and hand-selecting tomatoes at required color and maturity stages to prevent plant or produce damage. Workers will place harvested vegetables into containers, carry full containers to field trucks or designated collection points, dump or transfer contents safely, and return to assigned rows. In the field or packing house, workers will sort, grade, inspect, and cull defective produce, clean vegetables as needed, assemble standard packing boxes or crates, pack according to quality standards, label containers, and stack packed boxes onto pallets for transport. For watermelon harvesting, workers will walk field rows, identify ripe watermelons, cut vines using a small knife, turn watermelons over, and bend, stoop, and lift watermelons weighing between 20 to 60 pounds from the ground. Workers will toss watermelons along a chain of co-workers to a worker inside a field bus or truck who will place them on the floor. When full, the bus will transport watermelons to the on-farm packing house where workers will unload produce onto a conveyor belt to be separated by size, labeled, packed, and prepared for shipment. All watermelon packing house work is performed on the farm, and over 50 percent of all processed produce is grown directly by the fixed-site employer.

Work begins December 15, 2026 and ends May 31, 2027.

Pay is $15 per hour.

Housing is provided.

Typical schedule: about 40 hours per week.