Orchard Glory Farm - 2 (by Yu Xi)

Do you know what happens in a farm?

At the Orchard Glory Farm, we went around the farm to do some fun activities. A farmer, Mr Keith, brought us around the farm. First, we fed two ponies and a horse. The two Shetland ponies were much smaller than the horse. We fed them chunks of carrots.

Next, we fed the Alpacas. At first, I thought they were Llamas! They ate the seeds of some plants and some oats. One or two of them even had the cheek to sneeze on one of our teachers and a classmate! It was quite unpleasant for them. After a few minutes, a truck pulled up next to us. There were three sheep and two dogs in the truck.. We got to witness the sheep shearing up close.

Then, Mr Keith brought us to a winery and explained to us the process of making wine. All of us even had the opportunity to complete the last stage – bottling the wine and labelling it. We filled the bottle up, put the cork in, placed the label on the bottle and took a group photo with the wine bottle. It was such a fun experience. Although we were not allowed to taste the wine, I really wished that we could each take a bottle of wine home!

Lastly, we went to a field full of orange trees. Mr Keith allowed us to pick two oranges each. Then, he brought us to a place where they waxed and sorted the oranges to prepare them for sale. The oranges were put into a long machine with a few conveyor belts. The oranges were cleaned and then waxed. A small sticker was then put on each orange and a conveyor belt would transport the oranges to the final destination. Each orange on the conveyor belt would be sorted based on its size. The smaller oranges would pass through the gap first and drop into the first few slots while the bigger oranges would travel further and pass through a larger gap.

Finally, Keith allowed us to pick mandarin oranges from another part of the farm and we could eat them on the spot. I really feel glad that I am on this trip and I hope to have more of such experiences in the near future.