Bulgarian Winter Salad - A Yearly Reunion of Delight

Well it's October and the season of Autumn has gripped nature well and truly with vibrant colours galore - that is if you can find trees between Edgware and Willeseden!

The reminder of Bulgarian dishes on the dinner table is a welcome sight when coming home from work but this week has been a reunion of a long lost delight over the late Spring and Summer. Green salads it seems in the UK just are associated with Summer, not the case in our bedsit!

The simplest foods sometimes just hit the mark and this week is no exception. Having had salad almost every day throughout most of this the year based on cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and green onions as the base it is now time for change.

Bring out the Turkish cabbage, carrots and celery leaves seasoned with sunflower oil, red wine vinegar and salt and the end result is a daily salad throughout the Winter that runs a riot of enjoyment. There has never been a time that this salad has failed to excite the taste buds and the added bonus of a healthy regime of vitamins without any chemical additives!

One week's worth of this salad for under a fiver notwithstanding, the portions are massive!

Dober Apetit!

Winter In Bulgaria - The Problems

Probable unemployment tomorrow aside, we have had some serious weather here, but things just plough on as normal. It takes longer to do things and some things you can’t do with extreme cold weather and almost a metre of snow that remains part of the long-term feature of the landscape in Yambol now. I think I have mentioned many time before that I just love living in these conditions and adapt accordingly. It makes the appreciation and luxury of the other seasons in Bulgaria so much better.

Freezing weather is fine for most if you are tucked away with a wood burner and a outbuilding full of chopped up wood to burn, winter food that has purposely been stored exactly for this season. Eating, drinking and socialising is a long term vocation for most in the villages up and down the country. This was what I used to do, but now during this particular winter I am based in Yambol City with work to attend daily although we still have the winter store of food and drink that last year brought, in fact it was a bumper crop.

Getting to work has been a problem but only because I still have not fully come to terms with dealing with extreme Bulgarian winters and tips to take up with the Lada. Let me explain…

The previous cold spell at the end of last year taught me not to apply the handbrake as it froze solid and couldn’t be released. I learned from that and now this won’t happen again, bit this is only the start of it. The learning curve was the steepest to date as I found that I shouldn’t lock the doors as not only the lock was frozen, but the inside locking mechanism froze up and no way to defrost it.

The battery was flat after a few days of not running the Lada so I wanted to take it out and re charge it. Oh dear, I couldn’t get the bonnet open as another locking mechanism had frozen solid under the bonnet. Finally I got the bonnet open in the evening with hot water, but couldn’t get into the boot as not only the locking system had frozen, but the boot rubber trimming had welded itself to the metal.

After finally getting the battery out and checking the water level, there wasn’t water there but ice. So it had to be defrosted before putting it on charge. Another two days of taxis to work and back. This actually takes away 30% of my daily wages so I wasn’t too happy, especially having to fork out 68 leva for the year’s road tax (vinetka) this month.

Then the was the problem of the road once the car started, after a slight thaw during the day and freezing overnight Ladas don’t work well on skating rinks, I ended up on the opposite side of the road on the kerb and couldn’t move from there, another taxi was sought again. The comfort was that many other cars had been abandoned alongside me.

I take a packed lunch to work each day and have to put it in the fridge in the office, not to keep cool but to stop it becoming rock solid ice. This happened the first day back last week. I had a frozen lunch that day. I took my hat and gloves off at lunchtime and couldn’t get them back on due to being frozen solid. The toilet had frozen up and of course no water at work for over a week now. We have to melt snow for out water source and work in sub zero conditions.

At home we have not had water now for 6 days, the underground pipe had frozen up last Monday and even though we have had a little thaw over the weekend, still no water. There is colder (sub zero) weather forecast tomorrow, so unless we get some water running by the end of this evening it is set to continue. Our water supply comes from purchased water from shops, which have to be carried as the Lada has been out of action, more expense due to the cold.

Baba hasn’t been outside for nearly two weeks as it is too slippery underfoot. At least she is in a warm house and food is ready for when we get back from work. Both Baba and Galia hate the cold and are counting down the days to spring. We all will be very happy when it arrives, but for me winter is a rest season, not labouring in the fields and gardens, I love winter here and for some reason love a bit of suffering in the cold at work. Even with frost bitten hands from work, I really don’t mind the pain, as to me it is a small inconvenience with the seasons to come.

We are in bed at 7:30 in the evening watching television and for us this is the best place to be from the point of saving on heating bills and total relaxation.

Winter Comes To Bulgaria At Last

Well winter has come with vengeance in Bulgaria as I look out of my Yambol window and see half a metre of snow surrounding us and the finely balanced wedges of white fluffy stuff settled on the bare vine trellis that gave us the wine and rakia this year. I it has been a very warm and unreal over the last few months and it was a worry that the normal extreme cold spell would not kill off all the pests for the crops later this year. Even the bears had come out of hibernation due to this winter heat wave. Well they can go back to sleep now for sure at it was –10C last night and due for a drop to –22C overnight at the weekend.

Not that I have to worry, last Thursday night I injured my back and have been cooped up in bed for the last 5 days. The injury was a reoccurrence of back trouble I had not so long ago last winter. Trying to work with a bad back was murder Friday, physical work is not what the Doctor ordered so I have had to take a week off! Galia still struggles into work and back in taxis everyday and I feel quite hopeless and a burden right now. Rest assured I would return to work on Monday, as injections, rakia/aspirin and cream rubs and the prescribed tablets are well on course for the cure.

Needless to say our plan not to go to the farm in Skalitsa last weekend needn’t have been planned at all now with me on my back and unable to drive; it made it a bit easier to accept funnily enough. Baba, who has had a bad back for years yet never complains is currently nursing me throughout with rakia/aspirin massages, banquets of home made foods and attention. I feel so guilty about not working, being tended to with from someone who needs attention herself. Then of course there’s Galia facing the winter elements as well as working like a Trojan at the factory with me in the warm ‘home hotel!’ Strangely enough it was only a week ago when said to her that I felt guilty about me being healthy all the time and Galia having all the niggling illnesses! I wish I hadn’t tempted fate now.

So it remains that I have to sit out (or lie out) the next few days and look forward to meeting my work colleagues again on Monday. I just hate being non-active!

ps No pictures I'm afraid - for obvious reasons

Bulgarians Ill in Winter

Everyone seems to be ill in Bulgaria during the winter, colds, flu, headaches, you name it they've all come down with something recently. This happens every winter here, I think I know why.

In the winter many just stay indoor unless it is essential that a trip has to be made. Going to work the buses are crowded with all the windows shut. In the work places, the air-conditioning circulates the germs in a air trapped environment. In the Post Offices, Banks and other utility payment places, the waiting in queues with virus filled people seems never ending. These queues are tightly packed, you will often get someone breathing down your neck wherever you queue here. It is no wonder that sickness is at its prime during the winter.

The amount of money spend on drugs is almost on par with the cost of food. I often wonder why there are so many chemists in Yambol, perhaps this is the reason, to cope with the demands that are set upon them in the winter months. Aspirin, paracetamol, throat lozenges, cough syrups, but none as popular than the rakia which is frequently being dipped into as a winter medicine. The 46 litres of 42% proof rakia that was made a few months ago is now down to 30 litres and counting. I dread to think how people cope without rakia. Certainly not making your own would add substantially to the chemists' profits and the increased poverty stricken communities here.

So why haven't I been ill every winter? I can't remember having anytime when I have had a virus, cold or flu since being here. Everyone else around me is dropping like ninepins and the Englishman seems to be immune from all the bugs that are going around. It's not as if I do anything different from anyone else apart from recently taking up jogging again. I'm indoors all day, I queue for hours and use the sardine buses and I also am subjected to air-conditioning environments all day. So why am I in perfect health each winter?

It's a mystery, I don't have an answer and neither do the coughing and spluttering people around me. Galia and Baba both have picked up colds over the last couple of days, Ivo is expected to fall with it any day now and there's me off jogging for an hour. I feel quite guilty about my good health, but then not going jogging wouldn't help matters either.

Spring is only a few weeks away now, the 1st March should just about have seen us through this Bulgarian winter and the illnesses that go with it. March 1st of course is another big day, it's another Imen Den (Name Day), the biggest name day of the year. Have you guessed what it is yet?

Bulgarian Squirrels of Poverty

In Bulgaria most of the population are not unlike squirrels. They stock pile all the food during harvest to see through the winter. Right now we have everything in storage and set for the Bulgarian short, sharp, cold winter hibernation.

It has been quite an effort to get to this stage; much preparation has been made by us all to ensure we will not go short in food and resources this winter. The garage is full of barrels bottle and jars of preserved produce that was harvested during the summer and autumn. It looks like a warehouse. This year hasn’t been the greatest harvest for us as we arrive back in Bulgaria in May, a bit too late to get the farm full of produce, however we still have more than enough to see us though comfortably.

Whatever we grew it is now preserved either as meat in the freezer, fruit in conserves or compote, leeks in buckets of soil, other vegetables in barrels or big jars of salt water and wine and rakia bottled up securely. There is something about this system that feels just right; something that is a stick in the spokes of cycle of relying on commercial based goods pre-packed and ready to poison. My soul and spirit is in fine form right now knowing that even in a town centre we can survive on our own back from he produce we have grown and harvested. Next year is something we all eagerly look forward to as we can start at the beginning of the growing season at the end of February by pruning the vines.

How fortunate we feel to be feeding ourselves with food that is basically free of cost and free of chemicals, testimony to that is the fact that I have had no illnesses here for over three years for the food we have produced. Yes a little weight has been put on but I put that down to writing too many blogs!

To Bulgarians this is something that is not special but normal, part of he routine of living here and surviving here. It is a case of having to rather than wanting to from purely a financial stance. To me, the poverty has brought something special, a system that is better than anything that I have experienced before. How ironic that the discovery of good life and living here is a direct result of their poverty and something you can’t buy. Being rich here would completely ruin the infrastructure and the way of living that is part of their long tradition and culture.

Bulgarian Rats and Ladas in Winter

Winter, Bulgaria, short, sharp and should be well prepared for if you have a car here. Now I have a Lada and very proud of it I am, even though I hate cars. But this is a car with character even though there are elements of embarrassment to many who I tell. Not to me you understand but to many Brits who turn their nose up at owning such a vehicle.

The Lada was meticulously prepared for winter in my farmhouse garage. The battery was taken out and put on a trickle charge via a DIY solar charger designed for AA rechargeable batteries stuck on the kitchen windowsill. Wasn’t quite sure whether it was going to work though but worth a try. In fact the idea is so Bulgarian I was glowing with pride with idea being my own.

The car was packed with blankets underneath the bonnet, over the front radiator grill and on top of the bonnet to insulate against the severe cold that was bound to come. It was as snug as a bug in a rug as they say.

The car was jacked up so the front wheels were raised off the ground in order for the tyres to be laid up to rest. The front tyres both have slow punctures (normal in Bulgaria) so this would insure they are not crushed when totally void of air after a few days. The back wheels were blocked and the hand brake off to avoid stretching the handbrake cable.

The fuel tank was run judged to be almost empty and the gas completed used up as the preparations for winter for my Lada almost complete. It was very reassuring that all this was completed, I was to be away throughout the winter months.

Arriving back at the end of winter the car was seen exactly as it was left. The blankets and sheets were removed in the now warmer weather to reveal the engine after hibernation. The two front tyres totally void of air were pumped up and the car let down onto the concrete garage floor. The battery placed in, connected and with the little petrol that was left in the tank the car sprung to life after about five turns of the engine. The trickle charging system for the battery that was improvised and in place throughout winter worked perfectly. The car was a goer, and within 20 minutes of being tucked away all snug, the car was ready for action.

It was only three weeks later when taking the car out during night that I discovered that the lights didn’t work!

Now here is a warning, because I covered the engine with blankets and sheet during winter, this was nesting material for rats and mice. The next morning I took a closer look at the electrical system. Much of the plastic casing of the relay systems, etc. have been eaten and the wiring stripped of plastic. A fair few of the wires have been gnawed and severed from rat teeth. It is no wonder the lighting didn’t work.

Strangely enough the car would have had no problem with vermin if the bedding material hadn’t been placed underneath the bonnet. This just invited a perfect place for rat and mice nests. Next year this won’t of happen again solely due to me being here all the time this time round. But this is a good tip to remember to other hibernating their cars in garages here.

Don’t make the beds up for mice and rats under the bonnet as it won’t only be lights out before bedtime for the vermin but for your car in the spring.

Frozen pipes in Bulgaria

The 2005-6 was the coldest winter in Bulgaria for twenty years! How do you cope dealing with the potential of frozen pipes in your home?

Keeping the taps dripping 24 hours a day is one suggestion that works quite well. Throw in a haystack or two into the shaft over the water meter access if located outside as in many Bulgarian homes is another that is effective. Turning the water off and drain off the pipes is probably the best if you aren't there for long periods is another good tip. The suggestion that you put antifreeze in the toilets overnight was another tip that someone gave to me, not a Bulgarian tip, but this doesn't really appeal to me. Anything involving chemicals just doesn't fit into Bulgaria ways here unless a last resort. Any more tips that can be taken on would be useful, before the cold weather hits preferably

This method was tried out recently and worked a treat:

Turn the mains water tap off, leave the taps open and then flush the toilet. This obviously applies to those not staying in their house, perhaps away for the winter to warmer climates. It works as the amount of air in the piping system copes with the expanding water that turns to ice leaving no fractures! Again, this worked as it has been tried and tested.

www.ourbulgarianworld.com

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