Still Picking Daily Produce For Lunch In Bulgaria

It is quite a bonus that even in mid November I am still picking fresh peppers and tomatoes from the factory farm daily for my lunch. Even though the main crops of tomatoes and peppers had been harvested and now stored for the winter, the growing continues alongside aubergines that are still being picked. How long these free lunch treats go on for I guess is in the hands of the weather. There is no forecast of sub-zero nights this week, so it will carry on I suppose – To Christmas? Who knows?

Cabbages have now been preserved are in a 240 litre barrel of salt water and some cut up peppers, green tomatoes and carrots and local herbs for salads through to April. A new batch of grape rakia was made last Tuesday, it took all night to distil with me loosing a complete night of sleep, but it was worth it with over 40 litres of 58% rakia now sitting. This should be ready to drink after being diluted with spring water once thirty days have passed, also with the addition of submerging mulberry wood for colour and cut apples dangling in a pair of tights. The quantity should therefore rise to around 45-47 litres. With the addition of the remainder of the previously distilled sliva rakia (30 litres) the rakia stock will be sure to last a year. So much for the taxing of home made rakia that exceeds 30 litres! I don’t know any Bulgarian who makes less that 30 litres and none who pay tax on excess of this.

Just in case you are interested the cost of making the 45 litres of 44% rakia is made up as follows:

• 150 kg Grapes 45 leva
• 20 kg sugar 28 leva
• Rakia house fees 15 leva
• Wood for the kazan 3 leva
• Salt 0.15 leva
• Bicarbonate of soda 2 leva
• Sweets 2 leva
• Flour for sealing the kazan 0.50 leva
• Apples 3 leva

I bought the grapes from a friend at work and used raspberry flavoured hard-boiled sweets instead of coriander as an experiment. The total cost was 98.65 leva, say 100 leva with a little gas for transportation. This works out that one litre of home made rakia cost 2.22 leva which is about £1 or $1.50! The cheapest rakia in shops at 40% is priced at around 6-7 leva three time the cost and in most people’s opinion inferior. With this in mind you can see the appeal and why Bulgarian oppose the EU for trying to take this wonderful tradition say more a ritual, that remains in Bulgaria for the time being.

Perhaps this post is more pertaining to my Rakia Site, which has a poll running on whether tax should be paid on home made rakia.

In the meantime I hope to enjoy this last batch of rakia with family and friends with the stock of salads over the festive season and beyond. It is of course the life and soul of the Bulgarian kitchen table.

Sorry no pictures, still no digital camera right now.

Tampons - An Inventive Bulgarian Alternative

I know smoking is bad for you but here in Bulgaria it is considered normal to smoke and unusual not to. This will change as the EU grips Bulgaria by the throat and forces the people there not to smoke by raising the cost of cigarettes tenfold.

The cost of cigarettes has double in the last couple of years and is due to increase by another 43% in the New Year, so Bulgarians being Bulgarians find a practical way of dealing with this. The answer they have now is to roll their own cigarettes, which works out at around half the cost of factory made smokes. My partner uses filters in her rolled versions and this is where the tip comes in.

This weekend she ran out of filters so being a practical women she looks for something that could replace it as we were in the village with no shops that sold roll up cigarette accessories. It was that time of the month when potential baby producing women bleeds and she had some tampons in here handbag that dealt with it. Sunday morning I woke up and found one of these tampons cut into pieces. She had used her tampon as cigarette filters!

Well this is how it is in Bulgaria, such a practical people as ever with no scruples about dealing with a problem in whatever way works that lay in front of them. I must add that the tampon in question was unused! (In case you were wondering.)

It worked so well that my partner has decided to use tampons instead of conventional filters as it actually works out cheaper and works just as well. My advice of course is to give up smoking all together which would be a bigger saving, but this is Bulgaria and the smoking goes on.

Image via Wikipedia

Strangling Freedom In Bulgaria

Image via Wikipedia

Living in Bulgaria was the best ever move for me, but only because I take the rough with the smooth. It is not a country for the faint hearted other those who are of a sensitive disposition. It is a wild country with many issues that outsiders feel are not morally correct and that is trying to be tamed by the EU. Interference with Bulgaria’s culture and ways of life are being destroyed right now. It is always outsiders who feel they know what is best when they can’t even manage their own backyard!

I feel very strongly about interference in other cultures coming from those who have probably never even visited the country they try to dictate to. I’m talking about foreigners who criticize a country from afar believing that their views are the only views that are on the table. There are so many instances of things that go on in Bulgaria that are looked with total distaste from outsiders. Smoking, litter, health and hygiene, corrupt politics and policing, illegal trading and counterfeit goods, cruelty to animals etc. Yes many of these things are facts here, but to Bulgarians this is what happens and is accepted as part and parcel of life here. Then there are outsiders who see this a culture shock and want to change things in line of what they think is right.

Whether it is s right or wrong is immaterial is just different at the end of the day, but that is not accepted. Why do they want to change Bulgarian into becoming another boring EU state with the same petty rules and regulations all built on making money from fining those who break them? It is Bulgarians that live in Bulgaria and they should be allowed to decide what needs doing and deserve a degree of autonomy, but this is been taken away right now.

I live here and see things changing very fast on a day-to-day basis, the freedom is disappearing before my very eyes and that’s not good. I came here to live a Bulgarian life not a European cloned life, which is what it will become. Hopefully the full transition to EU reforms won’t be trance into place until I am resting peacefully six foot under in a Bulgarian cemetery.

New Laws On Gas Driven Vehicles In Bulgaria

There is a new law that has been brought out this week concerning car and the use of gas. Now any vehicle that is powered by gas cannot be filled up at a service station without showing the official sticker on the gas cylinder that proves that is has had an official service check made on it.

Owners have to attend an inspection that cost 20 leva (5 leva for the label and 15 leva for the document) in order to be legally able to buy and use gas. This is another EU dribble that has come in making life harder for the Bulgarians. Most Bulgarian drivers use gas because they can’t afford petrol and this will force more to give up their cars. This is not the point of the exercise.

I was told not to pay anything other than 20 leva when I went for the test. If I was asked for more then I should refuse. The trouble was the guy who was doing the test and documents was a typical weighlifting built ox of a man who I didn't want to argue with. So it was a relief that I was asked for 20 leva and no more. This was after his professional services of putting washing up liquid on the gas connections to check there were no leaks. I think the correct charge to me he made has a lot to do with me speaking Bulgarian, I was also in blue dungerees Bulgarian village clothing and had a Lada with me. The reason I was warned about being overcharged was that many other British expatriates have already been charged 50 leva or more and paid it without question many with monster 4x4 vehicles.

May I add that once a year vehicles go through a test for their roadworthiness anyway and get a sticker on the window screen to prove it. Why introduce another test when everthing is meant to be checked yearly anyway? Another money-making scheme to fill the pot form the EU. Another tax that has been introduced, what's next? I'll take a guess at tax on well water, more parking charges in towns and cities and fees for municiple rubbish to be taken away.

Another 20 leva a year to pay for a gas driven car in Bulgaria, to be quite honest I really could do without a car from the point of expense. A car is a luxury for me here and something I feel quite guilty about considering the lifestyle I have chosen to live here.

Bulgarian Well Water - We Are So Lucky

Water for free from well in Bulgaria is one of the great pleasures of living here. I have been drinking my own well water for years now from source and it has always been reliable and I have never suffered from any ill effects. The well water is sought from deep plates of underground reservoirs that come from mountain springs. It is always, cold, fresh, crystal clear and sweet tasting it seems a shame to water my crops with the quality of the water that comes out.

It amazes me why so many people bother to buy spring water in 1, 2, 5 or 10 litres plastic bottles. It cost a few leva in the first instance the water usually comes from the other end of the country from the mountain ranges south of Sofia so there is transportation involved. The plastic containers are recycled most of the time, but still a resource that we could do without.

I wish I could have had another say on the renovation of my farmhouse and had the well water connected direct into the house. The mains water is full of calcium and clogs all metal heating elements up. It is not really safe to drink over the long term and may well contribute to the many cases of kidney stones to those who persist in drinking it. I bring well water into the farmhouse kitchen to drink and cook with and take 20 litres back to the town house each weekend for Galia and her family for the same reason. How fortunate are we to have such a luxury in this world of pollution and expensive water costs.

The only overhead I have is for the electric pump that brings the water up from 23 metres underground. The cost is nominal. I had to register the well a couple of years ago. I am sure this is for a reason beyond just accountability. I'm sure this will soon be looked at as a tap to be opened for tax in the future. It is quite unfair that natural water on your own land will soon have to be paid for. It will be like paying for the air you breathe. This of course is another idea from the EU and not a Bulgarian ideal.