*Guest post from Will*
After spending NYE in Sydney, Erin had to leave to go back
to HNL for work as the students certainly weren't going to teach themselves. I stayed in Australia for additional work, the ultimate
goal of which was to collect seeds from each of a series of
trees from which TerViva propagates its proprietary pongamia orchards.
From Sydney, I flew to Brisbane in Queensland. From the 2nd
through the 5th, I visited pongamia trees throughout the greater
Brisbane area. At each tree, an assessment was made to determine the
phenological maturity of the tree, and the maturity-level of the pods and/or
flowers that were present on the tree. Then, if there were mature pods
available, I would collect up to ~500 to take back to my hotel, where I would
dry them out in the sun. In total, I collected pods from 20 trees in the region.
I had budgeted Jan 2 – 9 for this work, but due to the fact
that most of the trees I was visiting did not have many mature pods on them, I
finished my work in the Brisbane area a couple days early, and even had time to
see Star Wars Rogue One, and have a look at some of the “old” buildings in
Brizzy.
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| Pongamia tree primed for harvest |
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| The trusty harvesting hook I fashioned from materials I bought at Bunnings, the Aussie Home Depot. Used this to shake branches until the pongamia pods flew off |
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| Pongamia pods on balcony drying out before shelling |
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| After Pods dried out on balcony, they were ported to the processing center, pictured above, where personnel dedicated many hours to ensure pods were promptly shelled to obtain seeds |
Following processing, personnel were permitted a brief recess to observe regional architecture before resuming labor |
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Australians are substantially more relaxed than we are in America
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