A tour to Norwegian cherry farm

For Jo’s Monday walk, today we shall take a tour to a farming village called Lærdal in Norway where major agriculture production includes potatoes, apricots, oats, raspberries and most of all cherries. Sweet cherries or Morello cherries, originally from China now grown in Norway are popular and are sold in majority of grocery stores in Norway. The cherry production in this region is more than 200 tons and accounts for half of the total cherry production in Norway.

To learn about Norwegian farm life and its challenges we took a guided tour/walk with one of the renowened farmers of this region.  His talk also includes the following topics:

• Cherries – varieties, root stocks, tree architecture and cover systems in operation
• Testing and benchmarking for the cherry varieties:  The Canadian varieties from Summerland reseach: Van, Lapins and Sweet Hart, and the European: Regina (Germany), Kordia  (Czeck rep) and Girgia (Italian)
• Ideas around robotics and drone monitoring in fruit orchards

Protection against rain, wind and birds

Tempting

Result of good care

The chief

No grapes just berries

Bees had their share

Ready to go to the packing station

Nutrients supply

Long growing season, soft light, good soil and plenty of fresh water give the cherries the good taste. Cherries or Moreller tastes best when they have a deep dark red color and kept on room temperature.

The Norwegian agriculture has by far the strictest rules. It’s one of the reasons why one can safely eat cherries and other norwegian proctuct.  Our tour also included

•  Visit to Lærdal Grønt Pack House to study the operation of cherry grading machine that will deliver more then 200 tons of cherries to the Norwegian market this year (about 50% of Norwegian production)
• Discussing ideas around big data and cherry grading based on the 30 pictures pr cherry data optical grading system
• Visit to “Smak av Sogn Landhandel” local & regional food and drink shop

Right from farms

Washing of cherries in very cold water

Grading of cherries

The best are ready to be sold in shops