Sweden is the third largest country in Western Europe but has a population of only nine million people.
More than 50 percent of the country is covered in forest with many lakes, some very large such as the two south of Stockholm. One of these, Lake Vattern, is the reason for the most northerly apple growing area in the Smaland region of Sweden.
This long, thin, very deep lake encompassing the 15km long island of Visingso in its southern section produces a micro climate that has allowed commercial top fruit orchards to be grown on the island and southern lakeshore since the 1930s, when an American adviser first suggested production would be possible there. American links can also be seen in the landscape of southern Sweden, which reminds the visitor of a mixture of southern England and the farmlands of the Mid West.
The traditional wooden rust red painted Swedish barns are the same design as the ones in the Mid West, not so curious when one finds that in the late 19th century a million Swedes emigrated due to famine and poor agricultural and economic prospects at home.
The short growing season of 200 days at this latitude is somewhat ameliorated by the very long summer day length, but unlike the UK Sweden has no warming benefit from the Gulf Stream. True, winters now rarely bring months of lying snow and Lake Vattern does not freeze over as it used to do but growers still need all the localised climatic benefits going. The warming effect of being close to large bodies of water means that the main top fruit growing region is a four hour drive away in the far south Scania region where 80 percent of Swedish apple orchards (national apple area is 1440ha) are found in the coastal strip along the Baltic Sea around the town of Kivik. Closeness to the sea is also considered a protection from hailstorms.
Early apple varieties adapted for northern growing conditions can give yields of 35 to 40t/ha with Danish variety Ingrid Marie (now known to have Cox as one of its parents) and Swedish bred Katy (Katja).
Scottish variety James Grieve is a parent of this apple with the recently Swedish bred Aroma completing the three most successful. None are considered suitable for long term storage.
Summer washout
Dramatic weather is always a good topic of discussion among growers but no-one could remember seeing a newly planted orchard almost buried under the washed away remains of a farm track. This was dramatic evidence on fruit grower Karl Wisen’s farm near Kivik of the unseasonable summer rainstorms, which Sweden experienced in late June about the same time as we had flooding in Yorkshire and Humberside. The group visited the rock strewn orchard while Wisen joked that he was lucky that the trees hadn’t ended up in the Baltic. By early July the area had had 430mm of rain since Mid Summers Day - similar to the total annual rainfall for the area, with one storm dumping 120mm in less than an hour.
The main railway line to Stockholm and the motorways in the area were seriously affected by landslips and undermined embankments and river levels were still high during our visit. Spray rounds had been difficult to fit in due to the weather but earlier dry conditions meant that fungal disease pressure was not high.
Home market loyalty
From the tasting room for his fruit juices, fruit grower Staffan Rudenstam’s family farm has a dramatic view over Lake Vattern and the hillsides covered with his immaculate apple, pear and plum orchards. With cousins in the wholesale market and a family growing tradition stretching back to the 1930s, he trades on the family farm image. So much so that he has established a thriving sideline tapping into the health conscious Swedish mindset and great loyalty to anything home produced.
All year round he packs boxes of fresh fruits (supplemented with imports where necessary) to be delivered twice weekly to local factories and offices where employers are happy to provide their staff with this health promoting snack time perk!
Swedes love to have local strawberries as a celebration of their precious summer so main crop strawberries are grown in most areas of Sweden by around 700 growers on 2,000ha, but there is little late production. Varieties tend to be early ones like Honeoye or ones we have only grown for PYO like Bounty. Sonata is becoming popular but Elsanta has never really made much impact. Swedes claim that the flavour of soft fruit is intensified the further north it is grown, and certainly the strawberries consumed on farms were remarkably sweet and flavoursome.
Two of the best strawberry growers in Sweden are women. Lena Horenius who, with her husband Alf, over the last 25 years, has restored a beautiful old farm in the hills above Lake Vattern, was one of the first growers in Sweden to adopt raised bed growing techniques. With hard work and attention to detail her yields were again high this summer even after this spring when a -6C frost at flowering wiped out many growers.
In the south, the group spent the last morning at Anna Nilsson’s 20ha strawberry and raspberry production unit with - new to Sweden but familiar to us - Haygrove tunnels covering some of the crop. Nilssons’s success is due again to attention to detail in growing, harvesting and marketing. To maximise profits she has 20 roadside stalls in her area for direct sales as her experience of working with the wholesale market is mixed.
She is keen to expand raspberry production as at present Swedish raspberry production is low because winter conditions are not favourable to the crop, but she thinks tunnels and new varieties like Tulameen and Polka will solve this.
With a fruit growing heritage and summer cottages, John Orelind is considered to be one of the most progressive Swedish fruit growers with a portfolio of crops from glasshouse tomatoes to table top strawberries, plus a stunning cherry orchard. The cherry crop had survived the heavy rainfall in June due to a new vented plastic crop cover system and there was a good crop of Lapins, Sunburst, Sweetheart, Regina and Kordia. Orelind’s immaculate apple and pear orchards and thatched farm shop are a mecca for summer visitors to this pretty holiday area where golf courses and summer cottages bring wealthy health conscious customers all summer long. Sadly his children do not want to take on the farm and he plans to retire in two years time with the possibility of the fruit farm being swallowed up by the neighbouring golf course.
The largest juice factory in Scandinavia and still a family run business is based just outside Kivik. The factory is adjoined by a high quality tourist attraction called The House of Apples. A well designed shop is surrounded by gardens and a well presented apple variety collection with about 80 varieties each with tonnes of information on their origins and importance. The Brogdale Horticultural Trust back home in Kent could learn a lot from this excellent showcase for fruit enthusiasts. An apple festival every September has been established since the 1980s in Kivik, where sculptures made of thousands of apples are much admired and the whole event has become part of the national calendar.
Super berry research
Established after World War II, the fruit research station at Balsgard still acts as a national variety collection with, for example, 1,000 apple cultivars and has bred successful varieties like Katy and Aroma.
It continues genetic research (always part of the local Agricultural University, there have been no costly upheavals like the ones East Malling has suffered over the years) and is particularly a centre of excellence in researching novel fruit crops for northern conditions, which have potential as functional foods.
Researcher Kimmo Rumpenen showed the group around the trials after first presenting the latest findings on the phenolic content and antioxidant activity of both well known and unusual fruit and berry plants.
Apples (with skins) grapes and citrus are on the lower part of the scale but for really high activity interest centres around purple chokeberry (Aronia), sloe, Japanese quince, rosehips lingonberries, blueberries and sea buckthorn.
The sea buckthorn research was particularly fascinating as this shrub can grow on the poorest soils and is nitrogen fixing, but its orange berries are an amazing mix of Omega 3 oils and fat soluble antioxidants.
It is considered to be very interesting as an additive for healthy juice drinks but a major snag is that the berries are very difficult to separate from the stem. The latest idea is to harvest biennially (as the fruit is carried on last year’s wood) by pruning whole branches and freezing to -22C and then threshing to remove the still frozen fruits.
No comments yet