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The woman, who lives in the Ukmergė district and looks after the 20-hectare farm, puts a little love in every jug and this could probably be considered the main ingredient that determines the success of the family business “Genutės berry”.
“I don’t think much about the results obtained, sales mean anything. The most important thing for me is that I do everything with love and I feel great satisfaction for it ”, smiles Genovaitė.
PHOTO GALLERY. The jams made by Genovaitė take many to childhood
Only a healthy berry has its value
She says that all her life she was sure that she would build her future and fulfill all her dreams in the field. Firmly knowing what she wanted the most and where she felt best, Genovaitė and her husband bought a farm in Žalgiriai village and gradually began to grow berries here.
“I grew up in Dzūkija and from a very young age I went to pick berries with my grandmother. It seems that I identify with the forest and the whole natural world. So naturally, I decided to grow berries.
We first planted 10 acres of gooseberries and a few acres of raspberries, and that’s how it all started. At first, we ate the berries, we sold them in the markets, but there was an excess and we began to think about what we could do with the remaining berries, ”says Genovaitė.
Thus, in 2010, the Sakalauskai family opened a processing workshop and began cooking jams, juicing, making syrups and other products from cultivated berries. Over the decade, the farm has expanded dramatically, new species of berries have emerged, but one thing has remained the same:
“The whole farm is organic, we did not use any chemical products from the beginning. I believe that if a person buys a berry, they do so because it is a vitamin bomb, not just food. The berry must be healthy, grown without pesticides, chemicals, only then it has its value. That’s why we decided to grow organically and continue with that tradition. “
There is no shortage of work throughout the year
Black and red currants, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, quinces and many other types of berries and vegetables grow on the Sakalauskai farm. Genovaitė says they grow whatever is possible to grow organically.
The woman does not hide that here there is no shortage of work throughout the year, and a great team helps to cope with everything.
“During the berry harvest season, up to 20 people work here, and the rest of the time, as we work all year round, there are half. Retaining employees is challenging enough because it is a seasonal job and more outdoors. However, we have such a large core of the team that they are the greatest helpers ”, shares the interlocutor.
She reveals that the most stressful period is over this season, but the activities are here, as is the fall and winter.
“Most of the work with us comes when strawberries are combined, from mid-June to mid-July, because we grow them on 2 hectares. Strawberries should not only be collected, but also prepared, washed, cleaned and frozen; there really is a lot of work to do. Then you need more people, there are also the best sales, because strawberries are the ones that buy the most, it is the real berry that everyone wants, both children and adults.
And in the fall, for example, the juice pressures begin. Since berries don’t always come out to cook right away, we prepare them, freeze them, and boil them in winter. We work all year round, there are no holidays here ”, says the berry producer.
Only berries and sugar are used for the jam.
Genovaitė offers people jams of various tastes, but, as she says, there are no culinary masterpieces in her recipes: simplicity and a flavor that transports you back to childhood dominate here.
“I only use berries and sugar for cooking, I don’t add any additional thickener or anything else. What are berries, what do they grow, they turn out. Anyway, organically grown berries are completely different: they take everything from nature, they do not have a lot of water, they are very concentrated.
When you cook jam from such berries, it is really very different from those that are chemically grown. Those who taste our jams often say that we have finally discovered one that our grandmother prepared for us. After all, our grandmothers grew everything organically, they collected these berries from the forests and the most important thing here is quality, ”says Genovaitė.
She reveals that one of the most common customer wishes lately is for products to contain as little sugar as possible. The interlocutor tries to take it into account as much as possible.
“I remember when my grandmother made raspberry jam, for example, she put a kilogram of red berries and a kilogram of sugar. When the jam was cooked, it could be cut with a knife because it was so thick, like jam.
I’m not doing this just because the prevailing fad now is not to use sugar at all, because it’s supposedly a huge poison. I try to put as little sugar in it as possible and now his jam is only 33 percent. This is the minimum amount that is needed so that the jam sticks, does not spoil and does not sour ”, the interlocutor shares the behind-the-scenes cooking of the jam.
There are no limits to improve
Genovaitė does not hide that the farm and business bring him great joy and pleasure, although there are sometimes difficult moments here.
“Farmers are a profession in which the entire outcome of your work depends not only on how much you put into the work yourself, but also on what God will give you. You can taste all you want, but it will be a frost and you will lose the entire harvest.
There have been years when we had neither apples nor berries. Last year was a particularly bad year, because in the spring the berries froze, we hardly picked any gooseberries, it was a really difficult period, I don’t remember having so little harvest in a decade.
This year everything is much better, much of everything is. This is how we adhere, in one year everything is more, in others less, it even becomes equal ”, says Genovaitė.
The woman remembers that the first steps before starting this business caused her a little fear, but now she sits in her sled and tirelessly plans how she could improve the products she creates even more.
“At first I was really scared and I thought: what if the customer opens the jar and there is mold, how will I explain it? Or what to do if you don’t like it, it won’t be in bad taste? Certainly there were such nuances, but over time you get along well and now it even seems ridiculous.
I really did not expect, I did not even imagine it, to be able to do something like what I am doing now, but of course, there are no limits to improve. We are always looking for something new, customers have also become very demanding, every year they come and ask: what did you do something new this year?
This is how we try to come up with something to be able to offer it and enjoy it with them. For example, this year we have cooked jam, this will be news and we will not stop ”, smiles Genovaitė.
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