Bulgarian Watermelons - Was It Worth It?

Bulgarian Watermelons - Was It Worth It?Was it worth it? The amount of time I spent watering those Bulgarian watermelons over the last few months is unqualified. Quite often and especially over the last few weeks, I’d cycle a 74 kilometres round trip just to water them and of course on the hottest days in Bulgaria, which is why they need watering more often anyway!

The time and effort was made with some people looking at what I’m doing feeling that only an Englishman would cycle in the midday summer sun just to water some melons. The question raised was why don’t you just buy them from the bazaar? Well the most obvious answer is quite simple, money! One melon weighing around 6 kilograms can cost 4 or 5 leva, that is sometimes a whole day's earning right now! To be quite honest water melons are a but of a luxury, even with a glut of them on the market stalls. Many people who know me here of course think I am loaded with money and living off a large pension from the UK. This added to their own reasoning make it even more difficult for them to understand why I bust a gut to grow my own.

There is also another reason why I take so much trouble with making sure my watermelons are water regularly. This is the first time I have ever grown them, I took on advice from my neighbours with the system used to grown them and of course, growing my own produce is my passion and one of the main reason for coming to Bulgaria. The aim is to produce food that is on par with the food my village neighbours grow, as they produce food that to me is the best in every aspect.

So the first water melon was cut last weekend weighing in at 8.5 kilograms. It was too heavy for my bicycle but it rolled into the Lada boot quite comfortably. We got it home but didn’t try it until today just as I got back on my bike this morning from another 74 kilometres trip to water the remaining watermelons. Baba had already cut the melon and the lush ruby red inside of the melon was making my mouth water before even getting a sniff. Well the moment was here, was the effort worth it, was the watermelon going to live up to he standards of my village neighbours? It was a nervous Martin about to try the fruit made from the reservoir of sweat from his brow over the last few months.

Bulgarian Watermelons - Was It Worth It?Well it more than lived up to expectation, I can honest say that this was one of the best watermelons I had eaten. Baba and the family all gathered and congratulated me on that raving success. “It’s better than you neighbours!” Galia said comparing, as we sampled some of their watermelon last weekend - That is after the flies had their say on the fruit.

Was it worth it? You bet!
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8 comments:

  1. Wow does that ever look good , watermelon being one of my favorite summer fruits , that one looks soooo sweet and from the look on your face I'd say yes , I'm soo glad all your hard and hot work paid of and I'm sure Galia is proud of you to o . Take care and think of all your ole friends when you are enjoying the fruit of your labor Malcolm

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  2. I do think that anything you love to do, even if it busting your ass off for a seemingly little gain is always worth it. :)

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  3. I was thinking, Martin ... if u hv loads of it n cant consumed them in time, u could make them into juicy drinks n freeze them for later or the next hot season ! I do that to my modest harvest of strawberries n black berries - they r especially delish when mixed with plain yoghurt.

    So the seeds r kept for the next planting ?

    Y'day I chanced upon loads of bell peppers at the market ( every thursday). 1,5kg for € 1,00 ! 2 days b4 I paid 99 cents for 3 pieces (pre-packed), weighing 500 grams, at the supermart - man, that seemed like daylight robbery now *grrr* ! I am quite apprehensive if the collected seeds will succeed this time bec my past trials were complete failures. Bugs ate the young leaves n it withers thereafter *sob*

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  4. I have a relative who lives in Sofia. They live in an apartment without air conditioning. To cool off, they depend on cool, refreshing snacks from their refrigerator. They mentioned they had a wonderful chilled, watermelon in their fridge, just the thing to cool off when it gets too hot. Well, recently their fridge stopped working. I offered to help them get it fixed. Living in America, I thought…how much is this going to cost me? Here repairs of any sort cost more then the item itself. To replace the refrigerator’s compressor, with labor, was only $100 American dollars. I thought to myself…only that? We need Bulgarian repairmen here in America!

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  5. William Wallace7 August 2009 at 21:47

    It is glad to see that all your hard work paid dividends and it reminds me on my days living in Barbados, when I use to eat delicious water melon, which was grown by my wife’s relatives, delicious.....

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  6. Very good. I am glad it came out good for you. I know you did a lot of work to get there.
    Have a good trip.

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  7. Mark @ TravelWonders16 August 2009 at 05:16

    Certainly looks well worth it to me.

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