Welcome to Marjasoo
Estonia’s situation is unique regarding berry growing
worldwide – suitable for plantations are unexhausted milled peat fields, caused by
Soviet era resource production policies. There are about 5000 hectars
of such fields with ca 2m depth of peat left over, open for the air and
turning very slowly into regular non-acid soil. Their recultivation has
been an unsolved ecological problem for decades now. The efforts of
Farm Marjasoo to establish berry fields on such areas is the only
considerable activity today to improve the situation.
The Farm Marjasoo –
directly translated The Berry Bog Farm – specialized in wild
berry growing, lays near the largest inland lake in Estonia, Võrtsjärv;
in the middle of pine forest.
The farm
took off in year ´88 with cranberry cultivation, since then there were
added blueberry fields, experiments have been made with cowberries. All
three are suitable for cultivation; cranberry and cowberry, though,
need larger investments to ensure stable crop.
A unique know-how for choosing the
plants and maintaining peat fields has been worked out on site. An excellent lowbush blueberry
propagation collection and fine local cranberry sorts are growing in
Marjasoo.
The goal of Farm Marjasoo is to establish a plantation with yearly
production of 100 – 150 tons. Based on today´s experience, it would be
possible to develop such plantations in Estonia to produce
altogether three to five thousand tons of berries a year.
For additional information, please feel free to contact:
Toomas Jaadla
GSM +372 517 0277
toomas@marjasoo.ee