Very Busy But Bulgarian Food Still Rules!

What a busy couple of weeks! What a great couple of weeks, mainly getting stuck into growing crops and telling people about what it is like in Bulgaria rather than writing about it. My book has been selling really well recently as well and add funds from renting my farmhouse for a week to a decent respectful guest, it all adds up to being able to afford to change the oil in the Lada after three years! That’s how things work here for us living on a day-to-day basis. This busy time looks like continuing for sometime as the growing season moves up a couple of gears. I have said it before and will say it again, the food here grows faster than the pace of life.

Both farms are really doing well and we have had crops of potatoes and beans, which again were cooked by Baba direct from delivery. The bean and potato meal with whole onions cooked to a tee was tremendous – We ate it for breakfast the following morning it was that good! We also are eating this year’s garlic every day, raw with bread as an appetiser, what a great start to a meal and of course so healthy. Everything seems to be coming together now and we will soon not be buying any food for many months on end and probably well into winter – a massive saving on the cost of living.

We have a big problem though, the Yambol home has never has so much food being delivered from this keen Englishman and we only have a small top freezer compartment, we haven’t anywhere to store all the fresh food that we can freeze, i.e. beans. So what we have to do it pick it the day we go to the village farmhouse and freeze it there. In a few weeks that will be full and we will have to use our neighbours’ freezers as we did last year. Sharing all the time is what goes on here. We can’t afford a big freezer our Bulgarian neighbours know that so they help us out. I used to feel so guilty about receiving help form neighbours that were also in a state of poverty, but they insist that it is good to keep their freezer full as it runs more efficiently. They flatly refuse any form of payment including a percentage of the food we store. They just like to help, as that is how it has always been.

Last Friday we visited out local fish store where some friends of the family own it. We always get a handshake and a kiss from the husband and wife partnership respectively before they decide what is the best fish to have this for the evening meal. Today it was recommended we eat carp or Sharon as it is called here. There were two big plastic boxes with fresh water being pumped and circulated with live carp swimming around inside. We singled one out and our friend pounced on it and fished it out. It was weighed and priced and we went off home round the corner with a flapping fish in a plastic bag.

Like most things here, it is a DIY meal without packaging as it was de-scaled. I had to knock it out with a sharp blow to the head to kill it initially it wasn’t the way it is usually done this way here. The normal Bulgarian way is to de-scale with it still alive. This to me wasn’t necessary from two points, suffering and from the practical point of flipping about making it harder to do the job.

After further preparing the fish and giving the dog next door the inners, tail and head which he really enjoyed, it was cut into steaks and Galia took over. There was a special Bulgarian fish herb mix and salt sprinkled over the steaks in a tray and left in the cool place for 6 hours.

The evening arrived and the plate of flour and frying pan of sunflower oil was set out for the final process before tucking in. Twenty minutes later the fish was on the table next to a bowl of homemade shopska salad and of course the starter of bread and raw garlic. The fish was finally enjoyed and washed down with cold beer after a ‘Nastravay!’ and a look in the eye of each other from a small glass of rakia we all shared to go with the shopska salad.

This was a special meal and cost more than we would normally spend on food in the home. The fish cost just over 8 Bulgarian leva, around £3.50 and it was only because we had paying guests staying at the farmhouse this weekend that we indulged in such luxury food. It makes it even more special when these rare occasions happen. Having said that, every day here is special when it comes to home-cooked food.

Well, this post started out quite confused on what to tell, but another Bulgarian food story just appeared as I am drawn time and time again to the process of eating here.

Finally, I have to apologise to many of my blogging friends for not doing the rounds, there just isn’t enough time in the day for this and neglecting things that need to be done here can’t be done. There is much socialising going on here as well in the evenings so the previous non-stop blogging just has to take a back seat for a while. It is very difficult to decide what to write about as far too much happens here. Life is treating us well right now. We are very, very tired at the end of each day, but very happy and thank those bloggers who continue to care about how we are.