Yesterday is still sweet with stories from the palm garden: The day of the first harvest 🌴🍃

Hello, dear friends.

Yesterday was a special holiday for my husband and I. It was a special day for us, as we embarked on an activity we'd been waiting for for years: harvesting the oil palms we planted three years ago. Excitement was sky high, as this was our first harvest! In the late afternoon, around 2:00 PM, we began our mission. After preparing our trusty palm spiking tools, it was time to set off on our trusted tricycle, our trusted vehicle in our orchard. This first harvest was filled with mixed emotions: excitement at the expected yield, and concern about the viability of our small crop. Initially, each bunch of oil palms weighed only about 1-2 kilograms, a small bunch that wouldn't have caught the eye of a retailer. Unsure about the weight and size, my husband and I split the responsibilities. My husband cut the bunches, and I loaded them onto the tricycle. This first harvest was quite a struggle. ✌️💞

Collecting and breaking palm fruit bunches requires extra caution because the palms have needle-like thorns. Of course, I didn't survive. My hands and fingers were injured several times by the sharp thorns. Besides the excitement and the difficulty, we also encountered some small obstacles in the garden. Some palm trees were infested with termites, causing damage. Some palm fruit bunches were overripe and starting to rot, making them unmarketable.

Unfortunately, we had never known that such small palms could be sold. Luckily, a neighbor told us about this, which made us decide to harvest them this time.

The two of us spent the afternoon cutting palm trees until evening. Since it was our first time doing something like this, it was quite slow, but it was a very worthwhile experience. Seeing the fruits of our years of nurturing come to fruition is a feeling of pride that is hard to describe.

After cutting the palm trees until the cart was full, it was time for us to prove whether our palm trees could really be sold. Because we were not familiar with the route, we had to turn on the GPS to navigate to a buying center recommended by a neighbor, which was far away from our village. Our hearts were beating fast the whole way.

We finally arrived at the palm grove. The first thing to do was to drive the tricycle up to the scale. As we drove up, a bell rang, signaling us to drive down from the scale and into the grove to unload the palms from the cart. The atmosphere was both suspenseful and exciting.

Then came the moment of joy. The staff announced that our palms were sold, and the final weight came to 100 kilograms. We also had three unripe palm bunches that we had cut incorrectly, which the palm yard let us take back. It was no problem, though, as the young fish in our ponds love to eat palm fruit. We then went back to weigh the empty truck again, subtracting the weight and calculating the exact weight of the palm oil. Finally, we had the final payment. Today, the palm oil purchase price was 7.4 baht and 7 baht per kilogram. Calculating the exact 100 kilograms sold, we earned 700 baht. Just thinking about it made me happy. This was the income from our own hard work and effort from our own orchard. New knowledge gained, and a second mission that was even better than before

Besides selling palms, another impressive thing is that the palm grove staff gave very useful advice. They advised that we should only cut ripe yellow palms, which we can easily check by looking at the color of the palm fruit. They must be yellow or dark orange before they can be cut. Then we received a free bottle of water with a receipt as a bonus. It was a small gesture that made us feel very good. After that, we went back to the orchard to cut palms for the second round. This time, my husband and I were much more confident. We knew which types to choose and what to be especially careful about. The second harvest was much smoother than the first. This time, we also collected fallen palms from the palm trees that fell under the trees, which fetched a slightly better price than the palm bunches. In the end, the second round of palm selling yielded even more satisfying results! When we totaled 1,600 baht in sales, we were extremely happy with the yield from our orchard. Most importantly, the palm grove staff also recommended that we come back to cut again in the next 15 days, making us feel that this time, our oil palm plantation was worthwhile and truly rewarding. This is the story of my husband and I's first oil palm harvest. It was an experience that taught us that effort... And how much more rewarding is the patience spent caring for trees for over three years? If any of you are interested in gardening or want to try growing something of your own, don't hesitate to start, because the results you receive will be truly something to be proud of. 🥰❤️💞

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