Spouses Dragan and Dana Šop have their hands full in July. Organic Lika raspberries have more and more supporters

After several climatically turbulent days and nights, the morning dawned sunny and fresh everywhere in Lika. A light dew covered the entire landscape. All this is ideal for outdoor work. In the village of Stari Lički Osik near Gospić, Dragan Šop's family farm grows raspberries. In the vast malinjak, the largest in Lika, we found only two pickers: wife Dana and Dragan. Although at first it seemed to us that the morning harvest was somewhat romantic, as a modern escapism for "recharging life's batteries", the reality is somewhat different. Dragan tells us that Dana and he have been in the raspberries since early dawn. The work is not difficult, but it is demanding.

"We make sure to pick only first-class raspberries. The fruits we pick are delicate and easily damaged. There are no machines or devices that can replace human hands. It is difficult to find workers for this work, because those who wanted to work got a job and don't have time for the morning harvest. In this way, Dana and I are the sure solution to this problem at harvest time".

A total of 13-14 thousand raspberry stems were planted on this plot. The first raspberries were planted 15 years ago and it turned out that Lika's soil and climate suit them perfectly. An obligatory issue and problem of most Likas family farms is crop placement. Dragan and Dana have no problem with that.

"The placement of the entire crop is always ensured. Mostly fresh fruit, some processing and frozen raspberries are sold. After the harvest, we will again use part of the services of the Lika-Senj County Development Center. Fresh raspberries that are sold "at the doorstep" are the most sought after, and we sell some of them at the markets in Rijeka and Zadar. We process a small part of the harvest into juices and jams. If everything goes according to plan, we will harvest up to 2 tons of raspberries this year. That's why we will be in Malinjak for almost the entire month of July.

During cultivation, we do not use pesticides, we water the raspberries with rainwater and use only manure. Customers have recognized this for a long time because organic production has more and more supporters", concluded Dragan Šop.

There is a small artificial lake near Malinjak, which was filled by heavy rain these days. This is a guarantee that the raspberries on this familiy farm will not be thirsty if, according to the meteorologists' announcements, July will be hotter than expected.

Taken from: Novi List.