Auksė and Žilvinas Jankūnai farm, which grows strawberries, vegetables and strawberry plants, is located in Pumpėnai, in Kovo 11-osios Street, or rather at the „Via Baltica“ highway.

In the greenhouse at the farm, which has about two hectares of land, Žilvinas has already picked his first cucumbers for himself and friends. 

Auksė sells the last of her cucumber and tomato seedlings at the market in Panevėžys, calling well before lunchtime to say that they are sold out and still need to be brought in. 

So it's business time at Jankūnai Strawberry and Vegetable Farm. 

When and why did he end up in Pumpėnai? 

– This town is my mother's homeland. Although I grew up in Panevėžys and was in the city until I was eighteen, my mother was a teacher, we had three collective gardens in Puodžiūnai, – Žilvinas recalls that he was used to the land from childhood, and then worked a half a dozen hectares.

He had to work abroad too, and in Panevėžys, especially in winter, when he was free from gardening, he used to sit behind the wheel of a taxi. 

– About eight years ago, a friend of his mother's offered to buy this homestead and about two hectares of land in Pumpėnai, and Žilvinas reveals that they were looking for a homestead, and it was also connected to the town's communications. 

As Žilvinas, a former townsman, is always close to the land, he also started planting strawberries and strawberry plants at the Jankūnai farm in Pumpėnai six years ago. 

– We plant a thousand seedlings, the greenhouse still needs heating. Then another couple of thousand – to sell. When the product is good, the customers come back, – Žilvinas tells us how the farm has grown and he now has a regular clientele, with his wife and mother helping him to sell. 

In the past, for example, he used to take cabbages to Vilnius, to the Halė market. 

But in the wholesale trade, you need a large quantity, then you would have to grow a small number of crops. 

O Jankūnai grows a wide range of vegetables on his farm, from potatoes, cabbage and carrots to broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, aubergines, garlic, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes…

Smiling, Žilvinas recalled that at the market he had had to prove that the vegetables were grown in his own garden. 

– Shoppers who come to the house also sometimes first ask if there is a gas station. But my housekeeper is from the city, – Žilvinas admits that our people might prefer a woman to take care of the plants rather than a man. I like to work for myself, to decide where, when and what to do.

Zilvinas shows me where to plant, what is already growing and flowering: 

– Let's plant cabbages. Three people plant a thousand seedlings in an hour. We bought a planter, but it is possible to plant by hand… We grow strawberries naturally outside in the ground, then it tastes completely different. In two or three weeks we will have strawberries. We sell in Panevėžys and at home. We advertise, we do our own work, and people come and buy some of them themselves.

In Pumpėnai, near his homestead, he also sells vegetables, especially in the Panevėžys market, and here, on a busy highway, life doesn't stop. 

– When it's hot, for example, there are no buyers at the market, but the harvest grows and ripens quickly, – Žilvinas observes. Then we sell cucumbers and tomatoes at the farmhouse, on the main road. Very interesting and varied buyers stop by, with campers. Even the Poles, from whom the vegetables come, eat our tomatoes with relish, because everything is naturally grown, as if it were their own, we don't have separate beds. Plus, we sell cheaper from home.