We interviewed 74-year-old Laura Kutchukhidze at her home in Kvareli. She jokingly told us that she wants to become famous.
“I want to be famous for starting a business at the age of 74,” Laura tells us with a smile.
She was born and raised in Kvareli. She was 28 when she got married. She has two children and three grandchildren. In addition to the strawberry business, she takes care of a garden, grows cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, peppers… She also showed us her blackberries, which she says have no thorns.
“When I started working, we didn’t have such a big farm back then. I had small children, and when they grew up a bit, I started doing everything. By the way, it was not a problem even when they were small, I still managed to do everything, both work and the garden. That’s what youth was like. I can’t do that much anymore.”
Laura’s morning starts at 06:00. First, she measures her blood pressure and takes medicine, then she looks after the chickens, and heads to the garden, where she works until 10-11 o’clock. Then, when it gets hot, she gets out, rests for a while and takes care of the housework, sometimes takes a nap, and in the evening goes back to the garden. It’s cooler in the evening and she does more work than in the morning. She tells us that she loves all this and that it makes her happy.
“I enjoy it, I really do. I sometimes tell my husband that I like working in the garden more than doing housework. I have a neurosis and when I’m feeling unwell, I go into the garden and pull grass here and there, do something and it feels good right away, it passes. This work is especially good for neurosis.”
“I planted a lot of tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants… It’s true that we were delayed a little by hail, but everything is growing fairly well, I’m taking care of everything. This year, the harvest is good, hail came in the beginning and everything is a little late, because we planted everything late, but it’s okay, we’re still ahead, the harvest is actually starting now.”
She thinks that physical labor makes a person healthy. Believe me, it does, she says, it is good especially for the heart. Then she adds with a laugh, that it’s not that good for the joints.
She tells us that they heard that there was a European Union grant and they became interested. At first they were considering a hotel, then a wine cellar, and finally they settled on strawberries.
“We made a project on strawberries, we wrote about our idea, and I got lucky. I had written in the idea that I would grow bio strawberries, natural strawberries, which we would not touch with any toxic chemicals and we certainly did not. I didn’t think that would fund us, pensioners, but I wrote in the idea that although my husband and I are pensioners, we are healthy and can work, and no one had strawberries, everyone had hotels and wineries,” recalls Laura.
They got their first harvest this year. She tells us that they planted a German variety of strawberries, which is distinguished by its aroma and quality, and also tolerates transportation well. But they ran out of seedlings and planted some that they brought from the village, which didn’t grow well, so this year they will have German strawberries throughout the entire territory. We asked about the harvest and sales. She told us, “By the way, it’s better to buy them online.”
They had a hard time selling at first, but soon they had so many customers that they couldn’t answer the calls.
“We picked 10 kilos the first time, they were very good quality strawberries. I took them to one store, they refused, I took them to another, they refused. Then Nika [a neighbor] told me, come on, Laura, let’s put them on the internet. We put them on the internet, took pictures, and the calls started coming in… There were so many clients that not everyone got it. No pesticides, they were environmentally friendly, and everyone wanted them, whether they were small or large, they didn’t even consider that. They came here and I sold them from home,” Laura tells us, adding: “ Now they’re so big, they’re raving, there’ll definitely be a lot next year.”
She is an accountant by profession. She tells us that she worked in this field for 25 years in various organizations, which is why she easily got into business. She didn’t know how to use a computer, and that’s why she hired an accountant. “It really helped me,” she says, but she did the rest of the work herself. She also took training on budgeting before that.
We asked her if she would participate if there were more grants. She replied:
“Why wouldn’t I? Of course, I will participate. Even though I’m old, I can still do anything. I’ve always wanted to. If they fund me, why not?”
She says that we could achieve a lot with European assistance and that reducing it would hurt her personally.
“Did I lie when I said that I would even participate?! Life will move forward. Our lives will improve a little, right? If there are Euros elsewhere, we also want to have pensions in Euros, why wouldn’t we?”
We also asked about internal migration, the reasons why people move from the regions to the capital. She tells us that she has never had the desire to live in the city.
“Ah, this place is so good. I don’t like the city, what can I do? I love it here because I can go out and look at the garden, life is closed up there. Everyone is working, running around, one job, another job, no one is home at all. The city is more difficult, but here I feel free, wonderful.”