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The Manitoba Co-operator | September 27, 2012
Swedish farmers diversify operation With fruit and vegetables not paying the bills, this Swedish couple turned to agro-tourism and unusual activities such as golf played with a soccer ball By Alexis Kienlen FBC STAFF / SWEDEN
“I think it is very common in Sweden nowadays, that the farms are too small to live on. A hundred years ago, this was not a problem.”
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wedish far mers, like Canadian ones, have had to diversify in order to earn more revenue. On Marie Jonsson’s farm that used to mean U-pick strawberries. Now it means things such as paintball and football golf. Jonsson and husband Roger Karttunen turned to agrotourism, even though her farm is 80 kilometres from Stockholm and 50 kilometres from other smaller Swedish cities. The couple, along with Roger’s father and their children, run Morrarro Culture and Entertainment. The farm, first purchased by one of Jonsson’s relatives in 1928, has 150 hectares of land and a 200-hectare lake. It originally produced vegetables and eggs, and was also a popular place for ice fishing. The farmers also maintained forests on the property. In 1950, Jonsson’s grandfather and his four brothers took over the farm. Her grandfather began growing strawberries in the 1960s and sold them at local shops and a farmers’ market. “He was one of the first in this area to have self-picking of strawberries,” Jonsson said. “At
MARIE JONSSON
that time, it was not common at all in Sweden.” But times have changed and so have the economics. “ When my grandfather bought the farm, there were five families who got their income on the farm,” she said. “But nowadays, my husband and I also have full-time work in the city. This farm is too small to sustain us.” Their situation is common, she said. “We rent most of our land out to a bigger farmer, but we have about 20 hectares that we use for the strawberries, sheep and vegetables that we grow by ourselves.” Jonsson’s parents took over the farm in 1965, expanding the strawberry operation to 10 hectares and adding black
currants for jam-making, and sweet corn to the U-pick lineup. However, U-pick operations fell out of fashion at the end of the 1990s. “No one cared about where their strawberries came from at that time,” she said. They eventually stopped growing corn and black currants and scaled back the strawberry operations. “Now we only have two hectares of strawberries,” she said. “But it’s very funny these last few years because the self-picking has begun to rise again. It’s because people want to know where their products come from. They want to show their children where it comes from and they want to make their own jam again.” So strawberry production
Marie Jonsson and her family run an agro-tourism farm which attracts Swedes from the cities PHOTO: ALEXIS KIENLEN
is again expanding and the couple is selling pre-picked raspberries, vegetables and potatoes at the farm and at the Saturday farmers’ market. Everything is produced organically, except for the strawberries, which are sprayed due to insect pressure. A few years ago, the family added 20 Gute sheep, a traditional Swedish meat breed, to their operation. Five years ago, they began offering paintball and football golf, similar to regular golf, except it is played with a soccer ball and people have to kick the ball into the holes.
“Football golf is like minigolf because you have to pass some things, but you have a football to kick. It’s quite a good activity because everybody from children to adults can play,” said Jonsson. It’s also good for the farm, as the football golf and paintball season runs from April to October. “When my father was running the farm, he did more farming and didn’t rent it out, but we like having activities where we can meet people on our farm,” Jonsson said. “The customer contact is very important for us.”
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