The Dutch soft fruit season has started in earnest at Berry Brothers. The red currant season has begun too. We took a tour of this nursery's fields with Berry Brother's Nijs van Zuilen.
Red currants
"We have been picking the Junifer variety since last week. This is growing in the tunnel. I think we began a week later outside this year than last year," says Nijs. "We are seeing nice, full bunches again. This good growth is thanks to the favorable weather conditions during fruiting."
"We expect to be able to offer red currants year-round again this year. This year we will be picking a limited volume of black and white berries. This will happen for the first time in a few weeks."
Raspberries
"We have a total of seven hectares of raspberries. These are available from the beginning of June until about November. When we planned cultivation, we decided we wanted to have one hectare in continuous production," Nijs continues.
"We expect to move from greenhouse cultivation to protected outdoor cultivation within two weeks. This year, in our raspberries, we again opted for the Kwanza variety."
Blackberries
"Currently, we are still busy harvesting blackberries in our cooled greenhouse. Fortunately, over the past few days, we have seen the prices climb to a normal level. We will switch to outdoor harvesting of the Lochness variety in a short two weeks. Our harvesting season runs to approximately November," the grower explains.
Blueberries
"We are going to harvest the first Dutch blueberries at the end of next week. We are starting with the early Das variety. We have noticed that, at the moment, there is very little product on the market. It is a good start, to begin with the Dutch blueberries," concludes Nijs.
For more information:
Nijs van Zuilen
Berrybrothers
18 Nijken
6088 NR Roggel, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 646 708 453
n.vanzuilen@berrybrothers.nl
www.berrybrothers.nl