Ping Pong verses Tennis

It was a total disappointment pulling my onions up this weekend. They were worse than last year and last year was bad!

What was the reason behind the failure? There were many reasons but the main one was I was only there once a week over the last three months. Guests were staying at the farmhouse over those months and it has been a struggled to get there to tend to the produce with the rush on each time I was there.

This year I grew then the Bulgarian way with trenches made and the sowing of the sets made on the slant of the mound. The water is held in the trenches and they should have done really well. This Bulgarian heat during May and June really saw them off as they needed watering every two for three days, not once every seven.

Then there was the timing of the planting, they should have been put in during March to April, I was in the UK thinking about putting them is at that time. This couldn’t be helped as things turned out.

As the row was picked I was reminded of ping-pong balls; that was the size of the bulbs that were coming out. In fact they weren’t much bigger than the sets that were put in, perhaps just doubled in size for most. It was a feeling of failure on my part but there isn’t anything you can do about it, you need to be there most of the time to have success, what did I expect. And there is everyone else saying, you can buy as many onions as you want with the money from renting the farmhouse. But that certainly wasn’t any consolation to me; it wasn’t the money but the waste of time and effort put in and the 70 km drive each week trying to resurrect the dead.

So with my tail between my legs we went back to Yambol Sunday only to have salt rubbed into the wounds by stopping off at the roadside in the village of Roza. A man was standing there with a 20 kg bag of onions selling them to passing traffic. These were the size of tennis balls as we took a closer look. Then we were invited to look in his garage where there were at least 100 netted bags stacked, again all the onions were tennis ball sized and as firm as you can get. It was with a deep heart that we bought one of these sacks, put it in the Lada and drove home with it.

Galia was very happy, they were being sold for 50 stotinki per kg and in the market in town they were going at a leva per kg. I suppose that’s the crunch of it. As we spoke about this, it was made quite clear to me that if I was a Bulgarian I wouldn’t have bothered going back each week tending to onions that ended up as ping pong balls. What was the point? In the end I had to agree and to be quite honest made me feel better. The only problem in the first place was my English attitude to die for a pointless cause, even when I knew that the hope for successful tennis sized onions was over in early June.

So next year will I bother if guests are staying at the farmhouse? Mmmm, I’m still thinking the English way!

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Fishing For Food At Roza

Well having got up early on an overcast day to start working there was a phone call. It was Galia's son Anton asking whether we want to go fishing for food. Now I had been with him before river fishing but this was a bit different. The fishing season doesn't start until 15th May for river fishing and it is only private reservior fishing that was open us and that was what was on offer.

The clouds threatens rain but that didn't put us off as 2:00 approached Anton turned up on his push bike with four rods and a rucksack ripped to smitherines, but it still just held fishing contents. All this was, in typical Bulgarian style, strapped to the frame of his bike causing him to ride bow legged!! (Picture of Anton shown)

Galia was to go as well and we steamed off tot he fishing tackle shop for some worms and maggots. 10 minutes talking to the owner getting the best tips for fishing was made as Antan and I purchased the bait. We were off again - but even after all this talk to the expert of fishing we didnt' know where the reservior was! We travelled 10 km and caught sight of the reservior but because of the rain the track leading to it was too muddy to risk a lada getting stuck. We opted for the Roza reservior and hastened as the cloud of rain still threatened.

We arrive only to find that again the track tot he fishing area was only accessable by tractors and 4x4s. We walked a kilometer and found the owner who gave the nod for us to fish. Then it was back another kilometer for the equipment and Galia who was waiting in the car. Then another kilometer to start fishing after paying the 2 leva fee! This entitites you to a full day of fishing and to keep all the fish you catch. (Roza reservoir shown here)

Before we had even got our breath back Galia had caught a fish as we had set her up first. From thereon it was a fish every few minutes from us all! What a brilliant afternoon as the rain held of and the sun broke through toward the end of our stint of food gathering.

The fish once caught were just laid live on the sandy shore of the lake, it was cool enough for them to keep for a few hours in the open. Might seem cruel to many but that is how it is here. We had over 5 kg of fish, not large but in gross numbers and a feast to take home.

While we were fishing, talking and having a 'whale' of a time we observed a 4x4 getting stuck in the mud and at least 8 Bulgarians that had gathered tryign to bounce the car out of the dip it had dug itself into. We knew from the first moment that the tractor of the other side of the reservior was to be called upon. But being Bulgarian they spent two hours talking about it before actually to the neccasary. As we left at about 8:30 just before sunset, we saw the tractor making it's way to the stricken 4x4.

The fish were taken and placed into a bucket of water then left overnight outside for them to be de scaled and prepared the following morning of George name day day.