Strawberry season is underway: a farmer in Panevėžys district is already looking for pickers
This year's strawberries are about to be harvested en masse. The first harvest is already ripe in the greenhouses. Farmer Paulius Gudas from Žibartoniai is also preparing for the first harvest and announces that he is looking for pickers.
Blackberries are fruiting on a 1.2 ha plot
A strawberry grower says he has been growing strawberries for eight years and this year planted a 1.2-hectare plot.
„Early strawberry varieties are almost always affected by frost, even though we cover them with agri-film. However, some of the strawberry flowers freeze. If it rains again, the strawberries are no good – the berries are half. Then you will have to throw away a lot of berries – up to 15 per cent. Let's hope that this summer will not be too rainy and we will have nice, well ripened berries," Paul reflected, saying that last year he had lost a lot of his crop due to the rainy weather.
Desert berries – very tasty
P. Gudas grows dessert strawberries in his fields and explained to the newspaper „Tėvynė“ what these berries are.
„Dessert berries are meant to be eaten rather than processed. Industrial berries should be used for cooking berries. These strawberries are high yielding and suitable for transport. However, they do not have a good taste, not like dessert berries," said the farmer, who said that every year he looks for helpers to pick the berries.
He grows only strawberries
„We allow people to pick strawberries when we have already picked them for sale ourselves. We grow only strawberries. Different varieties. We count up to 15 varieties. There are early, medium and late. And, of course, dessert strawberries. All varieties of strawberries have their positives and negatives. There is no special – golden variety that we plant every year. One year one variety will be great and the next year it won't be any good," said the strawberry grower.
Different varieties of strawberries
He introduced the ‚Asia‘ variety of strawberry: „The berries of this variety are big and beautiful, but last year, for example, the berries of this variety rotted. Some strawberries grow well and keep well but are not tasty, while others – are tasty but grow large strawberry bushes. However, these bushes suffer from pests and are very sticky.“
They sell the berries from home
According to the owner of the Žibartoni strawberry farm, he sells some of his strawberries from home – he sells them from the farm.
„Another part of the berries goes to Panevėžys and the strawberries are sold to market traders – they buy the berries. We do not sell berries in the Panevėžys markets ourselves. The strawberries grown on the Žibartonys strawberry farm can be bought at the Panevėžys Central and Zemdirbių markets and at supermarkets," said Mr Gudas, who said that he could not predict what the strawberry harvest would be like this year.
