A sweet scent envelopes your nose when you step inside.
Maybe you cannot stop thinking about the joy of your first bite even before you see the red shapes dangling from the vines.

Yes, the scent is coming from the strawberries cultivated here.

“Flying strawberries” in Awajishima

When you experience strawberry picking at a strawberry farm, maybe you can feel the coming of spring, and it makes you feel light-hearted.
Today, we introduce a new style of strawberry picking which we cannot put it in the category of ordinary “strawberry picking.” It was started by the farmers at GREENARIUM awajishima.
This is called “Strawberry Picnic.”

Literally, you have a picnic in the greenhouse and are surrounded by the sweet scent of strawberries.
You will be surprised at how the strawberries are cultivated here.
They are “floating” at heights above your eyelevel.

That is why you can spread your leisure sheet out on the ground in the greenhouse, and can look up the strawberries which are like jewels shining under the blue sky.
And also, you can eat strawberries as a topping on a Paris-Brest (ringed cream puff) which is full of cream.
Maybe it is unique experience for you to do “strawberry-blossom viewing” while watching the white petals falling one by one.

The scent of strawberries will fill the greenhouse up even more when spring comes.

I know that you already can imagine eating Awajishima’s strawberries.
So why don’t you make a reservation for tickets to the strawberry picnic before you finish reading this article?

The restaurant run by a tomato farmer

GREENARIUM awajishima is located in between mountains on the north side of Awajishima island.
The company which runs the place and the president of “Awaji-no-shima Saien,” Mr. Omori is a farmer who has been cultivating tomatoes in Awajishima since 2008.

Not only strawberries? And tomatoes?

Yes, tomatoes!
There is also a tomato greenhouse, and more than 15 kinds of tomatoes are cultivated by data collection and scientific verification which has been done repeatedly.
The colors and shapes are different from one another and look cute.
And of course, the taste is guaranteed.
Mr. Omori says that they have a technique to cultivate tomatoes which are sweeter than strawberries “very easily.”

There is a plan where you can experience picking fully ripened tomatoes in the greenhouse.
It is fun to make “tomatoes skewers” by skewering a lot of cherry tomatoes.

And there is a restaurant and café where you can have dishes with fresh tomatoes and strawberry sweets.
From the window you can see a very dynamic view with windmills, and you will be convinced that this place is very special.
The dishes provided here are seasonal, but each one uses the most recommended kinds of ingredients and is cooked in the way most recommended by the farmer.

Strawberry café’s building had been used as a soy sauce brewery.

The team of the “island’s vegetable garden,” led by the president Omori (the man in the right on the photo), is seeking out what will be valuable 10 or 20 years from now.
The reason why they started the cultivation of strawberries 5 years ago was that they thought that strawberries had the biggest potential.

The next step for the team was the opening of the café “Greenarium Granary,” which serves menu items using strawberries and sells both tomatoes and strawberries.
This building is located near the Ura Prefectural Sun Beach on the eastside of Awajishima, and had been a soy sauce brewery for more than 100 years.

The combination of a historical building and the sweet scent of strawberries is so unique.

We cannot help anticipating the taste of the strawberry sweets, because the strawberry farmer makes it…!

Photographs and text by Madoka Hori