Women have the reputation as the best strawberry pickers, Rosita Bolandis told when she joins the harvesters - mostly Polish and Romanian - who come to Wexford for the summer
'I don't let fellas pick the strawberries because they have such big maulers," declares farmer Susan Kearns, who is standing in one of the family's strawberry fields, in the townland of Curragraigue, near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.
Believe it or not, today is hot and sunny, and for once, there are no clouds anywhere. Such days have been so rare this summer that every farmer in the country has been worrying about how to get their harvest in. Susan's husband, Jimmy, who had originally offered to show me around their strawberry farm, has been at work since dawn, cutting corn, taking advantage of the first clear day they've had in weeks. The Kearns's farm just two crops: corn and strawberries. Jimmy has called from his tractor to explain - though no explanation is needed - that it's perfect weather for cutting corn and the harvest must come first. Do I mind talking to his wife about the strawberry crop instead?
Susan Kearns protests that she is no good at the talking, but she's wrong. Not only does she have a fine turn of phrase, she knows the strawberry business inside out.
The Kearns's have been farming this land for generations, and for much of that time, they have planted strawberries on their land. Originally, the fruit was sold chiefly to the Chivers jam factory, but now it is all sold directly to consumers, through Dunnes Stores and SuperValu, via the Wexford Food Producers group, of which their company is a member.
The Kearns's strawberry farm has an outdoor and indoor element. We're in one of the two fields, which are located in an absurdly pretty rural setting of undulating hills and hedgerows. As they grow crops inside, using glasshouses, and outside, this mean they have a two-crop season. Picking runs from April to November, and they sow half a million plants every year.
In the past, as the strawberries were destined for the factory to be turned into jam, it didn't matter if some fruit got bruised in the picking, or squashed under the weight of other fruit in the bucket. Nowadays, Wexford strawberries are the most prized of all Irish-grown strawberries, and the demand for them is as a simple and delicious summer food. So, as Susan explains, the delicate fruit needs to be picked carefully, and, in her opinion, women make the best strawberry-pickers.
"There are no men here - men have too fat fingers!" laughs picker Kate Humbla, from Warsaw in Poland. Depending on the time of the season, there are between 20 and 25 pickers on the Kearns farm, none of whom are under 16, as the Kearns's don't employ anyone younger than that. Right now, the pickers are all either Polish or Romanian. In each group, one person heard of the farm, came here to work, and then spread the word to the others, so that each group is closely connected. There are friends from the same towns, a mother and daughter, and two sisters.
ALTHOUGH THERE WERE a couple of Irish girls working here earlier in the summer, this year is the first when virtually the whole workforce was composed of foreign nationals. "For the Irish girls, this is not a real job," Susan says. "It's only pocket money for them. For these girls, the money goes much further and the job means much more to them."
On this farm, you're paid by what you pick, so it's up to yourself whether you work slowly or quickly. The girls are paid between 20 and 30 cents a punnet, depending on the punnet size. They all say they think they are being paid a fair price, and that they don't find the work too hard; for most of them, this is their second summer at the farm.
The Kearns's are currently experimenting with propagating their own strawberry plants, as it's expensive to buy them in. The majority of their plants come from Britain and the Netherlands. In the two outdoor fields, the plants are laid down in bags, in long drills. The bags are cut open as the plants start growing. There is a layer of breathable plastic in between all the drills, to stop pests from transmitting disease or eating the berries. Over the plants is a hood of clear plastic, which protects them from birds, excessive rain and wind.
"Birds love red fruit," Susan says wryly, explaining that they would lose half their crop if they didn't cover them in this plastic. The strawberry plants are irrigated with watering tubes that feed into each bag. When each bag has yielded its crop, they are taken away, the peat is used for fertiliser elsewhere on the farm and the plastic is recycled.
Some Wexford strawberries (and potatoes) are grown for sale at roadside stalls, and identified as such. As anyone who has ever stopped their car to buy from these stalls will know, prices vary hugely. This summer I was asked for €7 for a medium-sized punnet, which I declined to pay. Susan is delighted when she hears this. "Some of the stall-holders are greedy and charge far too much. More people should complain and refuse to pay such high prices - I know exactly what they get them from us and other producers to sell for."
The drills are long, and two women work each one, starting at either end, first lifting off the plastic hoods. They each pick on one side. Every woman has a different way of picking, to suit her height and her methods. Some women bend, pick the berries and put them in punnets on trays, stacking the trays as they move down the drill. Others sit on the ground so they aren't bending over so much, and slide their trays along beside them. All punnets and trays are counted before they are moved on pallets to the packing shed.
THE WOMEN START by 9am and work through until 6pm, with three breaks. They never pick in the rain. Not only would it rot the fruit, but it would be miserable for the pickers. On those days, they pick inside, in the glasshouses.
It's 1pm, lunchtime. By five past, there are two distinct camps sitting on pallets at either side of the field, eating the food they have brought with them. The Romanians and the Poles never sit together. Why? Nobody looks even vaguely embarrassed when this question is posed to the women who have the most English, Cornelia Boldica from Timisoara in Romania, and Kate Humbla, from Poland. "We don't understand each other other's language," they each say firmly.
The 20-plus women might all be in the same field, far from home, but your own nationality and identity is stronger than a wider desire for camaraderie, it appears.
The youngest of the Polish pickers is 16-year-old Angela Slebioda, from Poznan. She came over with her friend, Marietta Pawlak, for the summer. Slebioda will return home to school, and Pawlak to college, at the end of the summer. The money is good, the work is not too hard, and they can save, they both say, via Humbla.
In one of the farm buildings, the berries are weighed and packed. At the end of each day, a truck will come and take away the harvest. The next morning, the fruit is on the supermarket shelves. That's as fast a turnaround as you can get.
Vera Wilson, who has been working for the Kearns's for almost 20 years, is the longest-serving member of staff. She explains how each pre-filled punnet that comes from the field is weighed. Depending on what's in it, it'll either be fine, or need a couple of berries added or taken away to bring it to 400 grams. "I love working here," she says. "But I don't like strawberries, I very seldom eat them."
ONLY THE BEST red berries will make it to the shops. Damaged and oddly-shaped ones are discarded. While I am wondering how long would be polite before I ask to sample a berry, Susan shows me a tray of rejects. I look at them carefully. Some are a bit whitish-green near the stalk, and some others look less than perfect shapes, and yet, these Wexford "reject" berries look better than many others I've seen on sale in my time.
The best ones are a storybook heart-shape, glossy red, with a jaunty green stalk-cap. They taste fresh, sweet, light and alive with an intense flavour. They are delicious. They are as different from the other non-Wexford strawberries I've had this year as wild salmon is from farmed. There is no comparison in the flavour, taste, texture or look. So why are Wexford strawberries so good? Even Susan isn't quite sure.
Wexford Food Producers are trying to initiate a label that will identify their berries in the shops. Their berries are currently identified as being Irish-grown, but their exact origin is not yet on the labels. The reason Wexford strawberries have such a good reputation is, she thinks, a combination of longtime local expertise with handling the fruit, growing conditions, and skill of the pickers. One thing is sure: in a waterlogged year such as this, you can't say it's because the berries were grown in "the sunny south east".
