We will ripen tomatoes in pots

The Hazelnut Market is bursting with colour. The colourful carpets of the market are beautiful to look at, and the vendors are in no hurry to sell their flowers, as long as they buy them, that's fine. The flowers are in vases, so they will be available for purchase all summer long.

Gardeners think differently. They want to sell cucumber, tomato, pepper and cabbage plants as soon as possible. They fear that there will be nowhere to put them, and tomatoes, although in pots, have already set and are producing fruit. „We will ripen the tomatoes in pots“, – says one gardener with a smile. Tomato plants are €1 each. The growers say that they cannot sell any cheaper because the long, prolonged cold spring has made the seedlings more expensive, because they had to heat the greenhouses with electricity and the heat from candles did not help their plants against the effects of the cold nights. Cucumber seedlings – EUR 1.50. Various cabbage seedlings – EUR 0,30 each. In some places you can find them for 0,20 €. It is true that the growers are generous, and when you buy one, they add another sprout as a gift, as they say.

Turgel is full of curiosities. There are no curly basils, the seeds of which the grower herself saw unexpectedly in the shop. After sowing – now she sells: one seedling – 1 EUR. But a bunch of mint – strawberry, lemon and even wormwood for planting – €2.

„Planting plans have been upset this spring. Some have got everything cleared and replanted, others are still planting, and there will be others who will be planting more," say gardeners. They often teach them how to plant, which fertilisers to use (nettles are an indispensable fertiliser for tomatoes, they say, and they show them how to pluck the tomato leaves).

Turgus – a lovely place to shop, to meet, to talk to friends, to find out the news of a small town, who went where, when they came back, who they were with – it's very interesting. Also news about a fire that ended well (they put it out in time, the hole in the bed was just burnt out), unemployment benefits, that the state pays unnecessarily, and of course jobs, like the woodcutter. As always, the talk is about the farm and the bees.

Dineta Babarskienė ("Dzūkų žinios")