Malta and Gozo are in the middle of strawberry season and many farmers in the country are currently harvesting many strawberries from their fields for all to enjoy!

To mark the strawberry season, Malta’s Department of Information shared a photo from the Malta Review that shows two farmers from 1965 harvesting strawberries in Rabat.

The Malta Review article attached to the photo states that during that time, the Department of Agriculture started providing black polythene to cover the soil and eliminate wild and unwanted plants.

Strawberries have been growing in Malta for a long time. The first references to strawberries in a Maltese dictionary were made in 1760. Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis included the words 'fraula' and 'frauli' in the Damma tal-Kliem Kartaġiniż, Maltese-Latin-Italian dictionary.

The fruit is a popular one among the Maltese. In fact, every year thousands of Maltese flock to the rural town of Mgarr for the annual ‘Festa Frawli’, a festival which sees the celebration of everything strawberries. This year’s festival will be taking place this Sunday 27th April.