“It’s fairly ideal weather for us.” Despite the frost and rain, the strawberries arrive early on the stalls

The 31st edition of the strawberry festival is being prepared in Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne in the Corrèze. This unmissable event puts the spotlight on producers from the region. Despite the gloomy weather, the fruits are there, but will the quality be there on their stalls this year?

“They are waiting for the sun, that’s for sure, which will be even sweeter. But there is a good start, good production potential despite the frost I had on the flowers”. On her three-year-old farm, Camille Devineau grows strawberries in the open field, organically.

This year there was frost, but also rain. However, the producer is ten days ahead of her schedule from last year: “Such a strawberry in the open ground only yields in mid-April, or even last year I harvested my first strawberries on May 8.” explains the producer. “They will arrive much sooner above ground or in the greenhouse”.

At Thierry Massalve, who grows in greenhouses, the strawberry harvest actually started a month ago. And this gloomy start to spring seems to suit his crops well: “The weather is quite ideal for us, because we don’t have any major sudden temperature peaks. So we have a maturity that is quite uneventfulhe notes.

On May 12, during the Beaulieu strawberry festival, Thierry Massalve wants to sell 300 kilos of strawberries. An event that demands all his attention: “You have to anticipate the celebration, know a little about the volumes you will have available, how the harvest will proceed until the day of the celebration. We don’t want to disappoint”

Charlotte, mara des bois, gariguette or mariguette, two tons of strawberries should be sold to the 15,000 expected visitors at this strawberry festival. Six strawberry growers from Corrézien will offer their production there. This will be the second participation of the young farmer Camille Devineau. She still counts on a little sun so that her strawberries ripen on time.