• Medical

Strawberry fields forever

• 10 Months Ago

Henriette Lamprecht – Their research into a commercial strawberry farm already started two decades ago.

At that time, Ettiene and Jeanine Botes knew that it was going to be part of their future, but waited for God’s timing. Fast forward 17 years and they erected their first greenhouse in 2020. Today, Grow Getter’s Strawberry Farm has become a sought-after outing over weekends, with families flocking to the farm to spend time in nature, picking and filling their punnets with strawberries as well their own bouquets of flowers.

Their interest in specifically strawberry farming was the fact that most people were (and still are) of the opinion that commercial strawberry production is not ideal for Namibia, Jeanine says.

“That is what fired us up. Nothing like an opportunity to show what can be done with hard work and unconditional faith.”

From getting the right location to preparing the site for their strawberry dream, entailed setting up a greenhouse, along with “lots of money, tears, prayers, improvising, school fees, mistakes, victories, more prayers, and lots and lots of homework,” she admits.

“It was small steps at a time. We started with one greenhouse, figured it out from there and then added more structures. We currently have planted equal to 40 greenhouses.”

Days at the farm start early, as the bulk of the harvesting is done in the early morning hours when it’s still cool.

Hands-on

“We harvest daily and have teams that pack, teams that plant and teams that ‘manicure’ the plants. We currently grow 100% organically and we are 100% hands-on every day and in every aspect of the business. Also, we have strawberries 12 months of the year, so it’s busy, busy, busy!”

It is such a joy to see people’s reaction when they visit their farm, Jeanine says, and an enormous honour to be at the forefront of commercial strawberry production in Namibia.

“To be leading the ground-breaking work on Namibian strawberries is just wow! But most of all, we have front-row seats in God’s masterpiece every day. We witness miracles on this farm daily. We know He has something really big planned for us on this strawberry farm, and we can’t wait to see what that is.”

The farm is fully booked every weekend without exception as people flock to their strawberry fields and their “joy factory”.

“What a blessing! It is only natural that we have to share the joy of this farm with our fellow Namibians. We have hosted locals, tourists, young, old, fit and disabled people and everyone can participate. Families spend time together. This is not only a strawberry farm, it’s also a joy factory!”

The Botes’ strawberry dream for the future includes expanding the farm to hopefully start with exports soon.

“We also have plans to develop the public picking area to make it even more fabulous for our visitors.” – Facebook: Grow Getter Strawberry Farm; growgetters@lantic.net