Berry farmer Geir Joa at Jæren is behind this year’s first Norwegian strawberry. Almost two weeks before May 17!
Less than 20 minutes ago
–
– It is a new record, says strawberry farmer Geir Joa (65) at Røyneberg in Sola municipality.
Joa has been growing strawberries for 30 years, but has never seen the like of early ripening.
On Thursday, he sold his first 200 baskets of red berries from the sale on the farm.
– The strawberry baskets flow out in 15 minutes. There was a queue down the road here and a full parking lot long before we had opened. We had to set a limit of three curves for each, says Joa to VG.
And people were happy, he says: “They taste sweet and they taste Norwegian.”
– You can thank the fantastic spring weather we have had on Jæren, says Joa and points to a very mild March with lots of sun combined with clear weather and cold April days.
–Tangled own record
The first strawberry plants were planted at the end of January and have been growing in greenhouses ever since – with the help of both sunlight and natural gas heating.
With this year’s strawberries, he broke his own record from 2019, when the first strawberries were ready to eat on 11 May.
But Joa is not alone in being out early with Norwegian berries. Strawberry colleague Kåre Nordbø (70) from Finnøy expects to get his first berries out at the end of the week.
– Due to high gas prices, I waited three weeks to plant out this year’s berry plants, but since the spring has been so nice, I have almost regained the lead, he says to VG.
He emphasizes, with a twinkle in his eye, that he still holds the record:
29. april i 2020.
–Not for most people
For now, Norwegian strawberries are probably an exclusive and sweet pleasure for people on Jæren and in the Sandnes, Stavanger and Haugesund areas. Norwegians elsewhere in the country still have to wait a little longer for the red Norwegian sweets.
Torleif Müller in the Norwegian Farmers’ Association is also a strawberry farmer, but does not think he can deliver his first until the beginning of June.
– The farmers at Sola always beat us on tunnel and greenhouse berries, but we beat them on berries grown in the field, says the Nøtterøy farmer to VG, who can confirm that Joa takes this year’s record.
The Norwegian strawberry season usually lasts from the end of May until the end of September.
It was Solabladet who first mentioned the case.
––
