In Renda parish at Bukmeķi, the largest orchard of cold-hardy walnut varieties in Latvia is in operation – SIA Westlake is trialling various varieties in the Baltic climate. The cold-hardy walnut saplings come from Moldova. They are resilient to harsher weather conditions, such as spring frosts. Eduards Ostrobrods, who has international business experience, wants to share his knowledge and develop walnut cultivation on a national scale in Latvia. He is also writing a book and is prepared to donate these trees.

How it all started

The owner of Bukmeķi and proprietor of the company Westlake, E. Ostrobrods, explains: “I was born in the Soviet Union in what is now Saint Petersburg. As my parents are Jewish, they moved to Israel. I have lived there myself since 1990. My father and I had a business in China, Russia and Israel. We previously had a summer house in Estonia, on Saaremaa. There aren't many forests there, so we sold the house and bought a plot of land here because we wanted a summer house in the woods. We first built a summer house and dug a larger pond.”

When Covid started, my mother and father moved here from Israel. I am continuing what my father started here – sadly, he recently passed away. There is a 100-hectare area here, and walnuts have been planted on 7.7 hectares.”

https://kurzemnieks.lv/uznemejdarbiba/grib-izveidot-latvijas-valriekstu-zimolu/