Melton 1

Hannah Melton
Mr. Conrad
ERWC, Period 3
21 August 2015

Imagine a 4-year-old blonde haired girl with unruly curls, standing in a bare field with
her 15 cousins. All she can think about is the day she turns 6 and will get to work alongside
them. This dirty-faced, wild-eyed child was me. Working on my grandparents apple farm is a
tradition passed down from my aunts and uncles, including my mom, to their own kids, but the
catch was we were in charge of pumpkins. The concept that when you work with your family,
you can get away with not doing as much work as the others, I can tell you from experience, is
not true.
El Dorado County used to rely on pears as a staple crop in the areas agriculture. When a
disease called pear blight killed all the trees, they had to come up with a solution. Being the
agricultural commissioner, my grandfather collaborated with other farmers in the area, they
realized apple trees could be planted and safe from the disease, so they created the Apple Hill
Growers Association. Since then, Apple Hill has grown into one of the many joys of the
California foothills. It is an annoying yet prideful sight to see cars lining bumper to bumper on
the freeway back down to Sacramento after their day of family fun every weekend of Fall.
Working on one of the original farms, although I think we do a great job of this, there is a
reputation to uphold and constant pressure to not only be great but get better.
The season starts mid-May with laying down foot after foot of irrigation drip lines in
multiple pumpkin patches. Next up would come planting. With around 75 rows in our main patch

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and well over 100 planting spots in each row, all done with one person hoeing up the dirt and one
throwing seeds in the hole, this was a very tedious task. As the plants grew, of course the weeds
followed. Each kid was assigned a certain number of rows and had to make sure each little
pumpkin or gourd plant had all the room they needed to grow big. Even after all this, the busiest
time was yet to come. Starting in late August and carrying through to early December, our farm
was open for business. Being part of an agritourism association with over 50 farms, it was
always very hectic. The farmers day started between 6:30 am and 7:30 am depending on how
nice the head farmer, my Uncle Chris, was feeling that morning. First stop was the fields, where
we would pick varieties of pumpkins and gourds to be sold a half of a mile down the road at our
sale site. We would then sit in little green booths for 8 to 5 hours a day, always with a partner. A
few months after the season was over, we would start our 4-H season and begin raising our pigs,
so the farming is never quite done.
Now Im not saying any of us did this without complaint. I can remember on multiple
mornings being woken up for work and just laying there thinking, why couldnt I be a normal kid
who gets to sleep in on the weekends and have fun with their friends? When my uncle would tell
us how much we had to pick for the day, there would be a mixture of groans and objections, even
if we didnt say anything, we at least gave an eye roll. What I am saying is, looking back on it
now, I can never truly sum up how grateful I am for my upbringing. I was taught you can have
all the skill in the world, but you wont get anywhere without a killer work ethic. I knew the
value of a dollar, and had to work for things I wanted even at a very young age. On top of all the
responsibility it has taught me, it gave me a bond with my family that will never be broken.
I have since been moved into the bake shop, also a very important part of our business.
Though I still love my job and it is a big commitment, nothing will ever compare to what I

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learned out on the farm. Its one thing to plant a seed and another to sell that plant, but being
there though the whole process is what is so unique about it. The planting, the weeding, the
picking, and finally the selling is very laborious, yet gratifying knowing I did it all . As a family
tradition, all the grandkids would get all their money for the season on Christmas morning. Of
course I enjoyed seeing how much I had been paid and telling everyone how much I was going
to save and what I wanted to buy and in my younger years, complaining that my older cousins
got more money than me and I did the all of the work. Although it is nice to have the money, I
would still enjoy it just as much if never saw a dime.
I think that the way I was raised will help me in anything I want to do in life. Success
does not come without grinding and fighting for what you want. We get a lot of physical things
out of the many acres of our property, but what it gave me as a person is much more
valuable.The way I was raised and the people I have to look up to have shaped me into the
individual writing this essay today. One of the most important lessons I have learned thus far, if
some horrible disease comes along and kills your trees, dont stop farming, but plant a new crop.