A Tired Man Sunday Evening

Firstly, another big apology for my lack of comments and visits to fellow bloggers, it really is quite difficult fitting it in at the moment. Another busy weekend as you may find out.

Friday arrived and it was off to the farmhouse in Skalitsa again on my own. Galia was working as an administrator in Yambol on Sunday for the European Elections and would be working on Sunday so she stayed behind. The elections by the way warrant a story on their own from the feedback I get here, but I not in the mood for political writing right now, there’s too much around right now.

On my own I can never sit down and relax, Galia isn’t there to tell me to. The weather was over 30 degrees all weekend and most of my time was spent outside digging, weeding, pruning, watering and pottering around. Every 20 minutes I had to take a break, clean the sweat off my glasses drink and splash cold well water over my body to cool down, again no one there to tell me to stop working. To me this was the main reason I came to Bulgaria to be out there in the field growing food that is completely organic and chemical free and that was exactly what I was doing.

This idyllic life without the reliance from a supermarket looking from the outside may look easy, but it isn’t. Working on the land is hard work especially trying to cram one week’s work into a weekend. I thought is would be easier growing crops that only needed watering once a week, but that is not the case. My neighbour has to pop in and do some watering midweek, even with a wad full of rain that come over here a few days ago. I do fell guilty though as my neighbour has too much on his plate on his own farm to get on with.

A few melon seedlings had died form last week and the rest seemed to have got through the worst. When the crops are more mature they can go longer without water it should be downhill from now on even though the real hot weather is still to come.

This Saturday was a special day where tend to the graves Nationally it is the day for the dead. I was asked to help my neighbour dig a grave for his mother and father on Saturday – of course I offered my help and we built a grave from scratch that Saturday morning. It was really hard work with the heavy stone bed that took four people to lift. My neighbour had been saving up for eight years to do this since his mother died in 2001. We stood over the grave after we have laboured hard and the cement still drying out as we admired the new home of his mother and father who lay there now finally resting in peaceful surround. Again another blog needed on this occasion with the ceromony ihvolved centering around food and rakia.

By the time Sunday afternoon arrived the farm was in tiptop condition. A patch of garlic had been harvested and the second round of crops was now in place ready for planting next week. I’m not too sure what to put in again it has to be something that doesn’t need watering every couple of days. I’ll fish for ideas from other Bulgarians before making my mind up.

Time on my own isn’t good for my health, like I said, no one to tell me to stop working and all the time locally every Bulgarian in the village was inside in the cool relaxing, not because it was Sunday but because it was too hot to be outside, but then they are here all week not playing catch up. Therefore it was a very tired Martin who drove back to the city counting the snakes, dogs, birds, polecats and even a badger that had been victims of cars on the road to Yambol. The wild life here is fantastic, Strange as fate would have it, I don’t suppose I’d get to see them unless they’d been hit by a car.

I hadn’t mentioned the swifts that had nested on the farmhouse veranda ceiling, no more than two metres from where I sit outside, another posting needed on this with their four hatchlings chirping ways for food.

I won’t mention the spring water, cherries, strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, broiler chicken, goat meat, grapes sweet corn, watermelons, bonfire and haymaking again that were involved this weekend. There is too much to tell and too little time to write at the moment.

Galia didn’t finish working until 8:30 in the evening with the election, she started at 5:00 in the morning she was more tired than me! 15 ½ hours work, without a break for around $20. The rest of the evening we sipped cold beer on the steps watching Baba peeling the 100 or so garlic through to dusk outside. Then the inevitable words “Haidi leglo lubimka,” (Let’s go to bed darling) No contest, that’s exactly what we did after massaging each other’s feet.

Great weekend, even without Galia there with me, again always different and always on a learning curve. And today (Monday) is was full steam ahead again working on the factory farm starting at 6:30 this morning. I will be nagged to sleep for an hour or so after lunch by Baba.

Bulgarian Marrows (Tikvichki) But Not As You Know Them

Marrows are a food that many people shy away from - It’s boring, or I don’t like the taste is the reaction from many. Of course many recognise the marrow a big green sausage shaped vegetable and the bigger the better. That’s what I thought until coming to Bulgaria.

Having cooked marrow in the UK many times before I came here, there wasn’t much incentive really. I was the only one in the family who ate it! It was marrow for me and KFC for everyone else, I ‘m so glad that doesn’t happen now. The Bulgarians love their marrow or tikvichki as it is called here, but it is completely different here for two reasons. The first is that the bigger is not better; I’ve never seen marrows eaten by Bulgarians more than 20 cm long. The other reason is they choose a very light green and shiny skinned variety of marrow very different from the dark green rough textured skin types you see in the UK.

I grew Bulgarian marrow in my first season here, but without hindsight left them to grow much bigger. It seemed a waste to eat them, as waiting another few days you’d get double the size and weight. Then I’d take the seeds out, stuff it with a mince/herb mixture and bake it – Very much an English dish that I enjoyed, but apart from mashed marrow with potatoes and butter or slicing it and boiling as a vegetable side dish that was the limit to marrow dishes in my recipe repertoire.

Then the Bulgarians came along and my view of the marrow was altered to such an extent that now the season is on us, we eat it at least two or three times a week -We just can’t get enough of it. It is often the main course and a pleasure to cook. Why is it a pleasure to cook? It is an easy answer, quite simply because we barbecue marrow here and every man on earth likes barbecuing.

Barbecued Tikvichki is a melt in your mouth moment and I will give the exact recipe we now use here. If you got UK marrow in your mind forget about it right now.

Bulgarian Tikvichki Barbecued

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 kg Tikvichki (Around 4-5)
Garlic
Dill
Sunflower Oil
Salt

Method:

Wash the tikvichki and slice lengthways to about ½ cm thick. Put them on a tray and sprinkle salt liberally rubbing it in to cover all the areas of the tikvichki. Leave in a cool place for at least 30 minutes. (This is done to remove the excess water that the vegetable hold and is the key to successful barbecuing tikvichki.)

Take each slice of tikvichki and brush of the excess salt and place another tray. Pour the oil over the tikvichki and rub it so it covers all the surfaces, it is now ready for barbecuing.

You need a hot heat, but not a flamed heat. You need to check that it is cooked thoroughly. You can tell this is done if the tikvichki is tender and begins to fall apart.

Whilst cooking chop the garlic and dill finely and add some oil mixing it all in a small bowl and put to one side. Each slice of tikvichki that is cooked should be put on a plate or serving tray and the herb mixture spread on. This should be done when the tikvichki s piping hot to get the flavours to merge. You will end up with a few layers of tikvichki, which should be criss-crossed as each layer goes on.

They can be served straight away to waiting family or guests.

When cool store in the fridge an they can be eaten cold or reheated the next day, but I guarantee there won’t be any left from the evening before!

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This is another major discovery of exceptional food in Bulgaria where simple food rules again.

British marrow photograph from http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk

Sliced tikvichki photograph from http://fitnesinstruktor.com/

Free Food Well On Its Way Now

Can I firstly thank everyone who sent Yambol their condolences over the last week; they are appreciated and make a difference.

After the catastrophy we spent the weekend in the village farmhouse and just reflected on lots of things. How lucky we are to be here doing what we do and having people around who care. Family here is everything part of everyday life, never shut out and that is very new and reassuring to me, but that's normal to Galia.

Relaxing is something the farm doesn’t do as the work lay before me on the land. It was a full two days of watering, weeding and setting up another Bulgarian growing system that was taught to me before after the failure of the melons. We now have more crops that should survive with this new system. Also we have our good friend and neighbour who has offered to water the crops mid week now the hot weather is upon us. This certainly helps relieve some of the worry from our side. This same friend and neighbour had also gathered up all the hay that was cut over the last two weeks and stored it in the hay house. Mind you, this hay is winter feed for his horse, but he would have done it anyway!

The evening in Skalitsa are fantastic sitting out in the warm evening air as fresh as you can ever get and no noise whatsoever other than the night noises that used to scare me when I was first lived there. I know what every noise is now and can relax with that thought.

My first encounter with a snake in the field whilst cutting hay took place on Saturday, it was more scared than me. I saw a movement in the long grass and then as I approached the speed of this snake was amazing as it darted toward the outside toilet with me in pursuit. Within a few seconds it had covered 10 metres and was in the hut. I wouldn’t be going to the toilet for while with this 1½ metre snake occupying it. It wasn’t a poisonous snake and like I said was far more scared than I was. It must have been to dart into the toilet so quickly!

And so the weekend ended Sunday afternoon and back to Yambol where we were invited for an evening of eating and drinking with family, we refused as we were too tired. Monday it was the factory farm, which was doing pretty well right now. We have almost finished all the lettuce that we have grown; it is becoming too hot for them now. The potatoes had the first round of Colorado beetles that are hand picked and destroyed on sight, they don’t cause a problem if checked and destroyed regularly.

More advice was giving on the melons growing there as moats were made for more access to water. The branches that were pruned from the fruit trees in Skalitsa in the winter now support the tomatoes on the farm and work pretty well. The peppers need no support other than another pepper! What do I mean? Well you plant two peppers seedling in the same spot and their roots wrap around each other and this gives them a good base stability and no need to stake them up. Last year all my peppers fell over as they were planted singly.

The factory farm really does look like it will provide all the tomatoes and peppers that will be eaten from July onwards and many preserved for the winter ahead. There will be big savings from these crops and of course that was the whole purpose of growing them anyway. It is really strange me working on the field and Galia a stone’s throw away working it the factory office…