To this day, many people still disbelieve that such a citrus fruit can grow in our country. Those who don't believe it, should visit the plantation in Lajosmizze, where you can even taste it.
It's a fairy tale, as Éva Kisjuhász and her husband András Szőrös have become a Hungarian lemon magnate. Éva graduated from the Horticultural College and she and her husband have been gardening for 33 years. The lemon tree was another curiosity they tried and it worked. Traders could not believe their eyes, the public was and still is amazed that we Hungarians can have our own lemons. They have opened their doors, the farm is open to the public, the lemons are available in many parts of the country and now they have told our magazine about their story in detail.
From November until January, the orangey, thin-skinned, juicy lemons are harvested. Eve and her family never imagined that this would be the result of 2 planted trees, from which the bananas grew less, but the lemons more, under the foil.
Why did you start working with lemons in Lajosmizze?
Eve: It was completely by chance, and now it's as if we both had a hunch that it would lead to something good. At one point my husband came by with 2 lemon trees that we planted. The trees started to grow so much and then bear fruit that we could hardly believe it. We have given to family, relatives, friends but they said thank you, enough is enough. My mother-in-law took them to the local market and sold them there. We didn't bother much with it, we just wanted to sell it, because that wasn't our main profile. We grew strawberries and flowers, that's what we concentrated on. But my mother-in-law told me to look at it, that we had already made a hundred thousand forints from the market from lemons. What we had planned earlier was not a successful planting at the time, so I started thinking.
I said to my husband: let's plant more lemons. He said: damn it, let's plant more lemons!
So it is a misconception that citrus fruits grow in the south. Doesn't it depend on the climate?
In our region, we have 32 crowns of soil (0-17 poor, 17-25 good, 25- excellent soil quality), which is basically a big advantage. By comparison, Sicily, for example, has a poorer soil quality. Therefore, there are very few households here that do not garden and grow their own fruit and vegetables. We did not expect the soil to be suitable for citrus fruit, but it was. Of course, we heat them in winter and keep them at 10-12 degrees and take care of them. We garden without chemicals, and after picking we only control stubborn pests with chemicals if we really have to.
Every November, Eva publishes a list of the Hungarian lemon's contact details on their social media page, and this year they are launching their webshop.
It was not always so simple. What did it take to make your business a success?
When I finally persuaded András to plant a large number of lemon trees, a big frost came soon after. In 2016, the boilers in the greenhouse also stopped working as it was -24 degrees, a lot of plants were shocked that particular night, as were the citrus. They all seemed to freeze, but we waited it out. Suddenly, the thicker branches started to sprout. All the trees came to life, survived the cold and haven't stopped since.
I didn't know it before, but I always had faith that I could make a living in this profession. Being around plants is comforting, they have an effect on me and I couldn't imagine my life without them.
There is one more thing they have to deal with. Can you tell us about that?
That's exactly what I'm doing now, I'm interviewing you, talking to you, telling you about our lives. For me it was terribly difficult and I didn't want to do it at all, I couldn't do it. I thought that we were just quietly doing our work in the garden, on the farm, and it was a lonely business. When the idea came up to post pictures or tell the story of it on a social media site or in a magazine, I didn't want to hear about it. I felt a bit like it was self-promotion or bragging, I don't know, just that that's not who I am. I thought, I thought a lot, and I finally realised that the world is moving on and that I have to change some things in order for us to move on. We gave in and now we use Facebook, in November we will launch the magyarcitrom.hu website and we have opened the farm gate, where we welcome all those who are interested. I must add that I have no regrets at all, because we have received nothing but kindness since then. However, one thing I haven't let go of since then is that only pictures in which we are self-identified are allowed to be posted. In work clothes, in the garden and us together as a family, as it happens in real life.
The lemon farm also makes jam from whole lemons, and even the globally popular salted lemon, which is only available in limited quantities.
