..........the buzz zone

To harvest sweet n juicy Pluots....it's a battle zone. I am not talking about dragging a 12 foot orchard ladder all over the place....nor am I talking about getting poked in the eye with a branch.......nor getting a face whip from a tree branch. It's the bees!

Here's what happens during the harvest......the birds will come in and peck out their lunch....leaving a good size crater on the top of the fruit. After the sun warms up this breached fruit...the natural sweetness is cooking up to a tasty syrup like.....for the bees. There are zillions of bees out there .....in the buzz zone.

Now...I said that the birds peck out the top of the fruit.......so we cannot see the top of most fruit while harvesting. It's all about sighting an fruit and grabbing it off the tree. More than a few times per tree.....we grab a fruit that has up to 15 bees in that crater..... that I was explaining about earlier.

Ever had 15 buzzing bees in your hand?

Amazingly Farmer Deno has ever been stung......yet. I believe that these bees are so much enjoying their tasty syrup feast...that they don't notice the intrusion......sort of like when Farmer Deno is feasting on his ice cream and not caring bout the world.