A large family runs the Vīgrijai farm, and even though everyone is in a different place during the daily run, a lot of love and strength can be felt in the story of the owners. Grapes, apples, pears, quinces, physalis, sheep, chickens and more are grown on the farm, and there is a peace here that tends to disappear in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. As the owners say – “this is our little paradise”.
The owners Sanita and Oskars Kadakovski are not locals – Sanita is from Riga, but Oskars is from Olaine. They are parents of five children and are happy that they themselves have a place where they want to be, and their children and children’s children have a place they want to go to. This is the family’s seventh place of residence, but in Valdgale, in “Vīgřežias”, it has been lived the longest – 17 years have already passed.
If the start had that knowledge
When I came to live in Valdgale parish, I had to think about what to plant and grow because of the large area. The owners admit that in the beginning there was very little information, however, everything that has been created so far has been thought of by their own heads and made by hand. One of the housewives’ wisdom is that you should learn at least one new thing every day. “Either it’s a new word or a new thought, but it’s good when that thing sits in a drawer of the brain and comes out at a very necessary moment. Maybe learn a new program, something that settles down, and then it’s already there cool. 17 years ago it was not possible to enter YouTube look at both the good and the bad in growing. Not everyone shares their experience, and that’s sad, but you should share and not sit on your knowledge, not hold a candle under the dowry,” says the owner. She is more interested in growing tomatoes and cucumbers, while Oscar’s hobby is grapes. In addition to these crops, the farm also grows apples, quinces, physalis, as the owner likes to say — Chileans — and much more.
Why grapes?
Approaching the greenhouses, the air smells of sweet grapes. When they ask the owners why they decided to grow grapes, they find out that it came from Oskar’s family – there were very large grapes near the house, which covered the whole house, and now and then mom also made grape juice from them. So slowly, slowly, all this is also in “Vīgřežias”. “We didn’t know if they would grow here, because after all, Latvia and Northern Kurzeme. That’s why we took the most traditional varieties that everyone knows to grow: ‘Zilga’, ‘Supaga’, ‘Guna’ and ‘Jodupe’. These are not demanding. If they make mistakes in breeding, they forgive those mistakes. Then, when we learn how to deal with them, then we can also try the large varieties. There are, of course, breeds that we have not been able to make friends with. At the start, there were about 140 varieties, bought from different growers, but now there are about 40 left. Now in Latvia, many are on grapes pulled awaybut in that year 2007 there were quite a few growers. You could count on your fingers.
We have had many mistakes. We also planted a new field in the area of 0.3 hectares, but it turns out that everything happens near the walls of the house, but in the open field, the vines and the owners would have to fight more. Not so simple. In total, there could be 0.3-0.5 hectares at the moment. I laugh that the other answer to why we grow grapes or sheep is that I examine the biblical values that are preached. I need to check that it’s not like that (laughs). It is different with grapes. First, the branch is cultivated, grown, then there is a harvest on it. When the crop is harvested, the branch is cut because it no longer produces. The branches are cultivated every year in order to have a harvest,” explains owner Oskar, adding that last year the vines suffered greatly in the spring frosts, freezing three times. Usually around this time they are saffronized, but this year the owners gave them a chance to recover, let them grow as they want and let the root system recover.
Because you have to eat yourself
Sanita’s main profession is a pharmacist. “Working at a homeopathic pharmacy in Riga for 14 years has given me a more natural outlook on life, and one of my worst qualities is trying to dissuade people from taking medication. Working in a pharmacy, this is very uncharacteristic, but I believe that you really need to evaluate the need for medication, evaluating what to discard and what to leave. I’m not talking about serious things, but often – do you really need vitamins, for example. If we ate right, moved right and thought right, there would probably be a lot of things that are not needed at all,” says Sanita Kadakovska.
In their homes, they have always grown everything organically, so they have to eat it themselves. “This does not mean that we do not go to the store, but knowing the store’s products, if possible, we grow and cook it ourselves. If my jam has a little mold on top, that’s it okay. This means that there are no chemicals, no stabilizers, no preservatives, or anything the body does not need. All this comes from those old days, because when we were small children, quite simply, living at home, we grew everything. In the past, goats were also kept to provide milk for children, strawberries and potatoes were also grown. Everything so that children have clean food.
Since we have sheep, their dung is used as fertilizer, and during the winter we had chickens living in the grape greenhouse, because we made sure that it was a very good decision. Early in the spring, she dug up, of course, made holes, but she picked the ants, because the ant is the pest that carries the caterpillar up the grape, which then feeds, and that’s not really good. It is based on personal experience, but now complete organic farming training has also been completed. Therefore, I can say with my hand on my heart that both theory and practice match. For a moment we thought we wanted an organic farm, but there are so many of these controlling mechanisms that it goes against our conscience. And if I grow it for myself according to my conscience, according to the best feelings, then why do I need a paper that it is organic,” reveals the owner of “Vīgřiažu”.
For others, but most importantly for ourselves
Every year, a juice party has been introduced as a tradition, which combines the gathering of large family and friends, cleaning, picking berries, and there are also those who are just waiting for it, when they can go with scissors and cut. “Since we are a big family, we eat ourselves, the children eat, the children’s friends eat. We are very happy that we can trade here on the Roja market, Talsi market. And it is possible to drive home to us as well. In the market, people are asking a lot for grapes without seeds, so I say to taste the berry and see if you can feel if the seeds bother you. Then when they come to visit us, I don’t let anyone spit them out, because the seeds have everything – the necessary antioxidants, vitamins C, D, E and resveratrol, which is necessary, but usually we buy it in pharmacies or elsewhere. That’s why I always ask people if that dice really bothers them that much. You don’t even have to crush it, you can just swallow it and then it will also work as a natural scrub. I would also like to try making oil myself. Grape seed oil is the most neutral, odorless, so it is also used in cosmetics. Even olive oil does not match the properties of grape seed oil. For now, we only make juices and jam for our own use,” says the owner. When asked for the most delicious grape recipe, she replies that the best recipe is simply eating the berries.
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2024-09-12 07:00:05