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.

No Outside Toilet - Doesn't Feel Right

One of my favourite places in the village farmhouse is my outside toilet. I’ve done a few articles on the use of this facility and the advantages of outside toilets over using the inside toilet. I have a major soft spot for my outdoor roofed hole in the ground.

Last month there were a few earthquakes and disaster for my outside toilet. A massive crack opened up on one of the walls. This was looked at and presented no problem at the time, but as each week went by it got worse, no time or money to repair this it was left thinking it would be okay.

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from my neighbour. He told me that my outside toilet wall had collapsed and it was only the doorframe keeping the roof intact. This was a worry and when I got there at the weekend the worry was just reasoning. The whole wall has crumbled and the small building was structurally unsafe, it had to be demolished for safety reasons. I was quite devastated and had a slight uneasiness knowing that there wouldn’t be an outside toilet at the farmhouse. It’s a bit like having part of the your soul going missing. And thoughts about how it could be rebuilt without cost were ringing in my head.

It was a painful operation last weekend dismantling the outhouse brick by brick. All the bricks that where whole were saved and the rubble was physically transported by wheelbarrow to the dumping ground at the top of the hill. This took over half a day to complete and all that was left was a few broken fragments of brick and mortar dust where many used to squat.

It was a sad day, but I know if ever a spare bit of time and cash for cement I will have another built, it just doesn’t feel right not having one there, I can honestly say this is on the top of my want list. Simple pleasures!

Home Grown Crops On The Dinner Table

The produce is rolling off the land now both in town and country. The food we eat at lunchtime and evenings nearly always has home grown produce in it. It is exciting have the end product on you plate and tasting as good as it does. There is something very special about doing something like this.

Let’s start and see what on the dinner table on a day-to-day basis right now. We have had a continuous supply of onions and garlic and these will last us right through the winter. The lettuce now has finished its season and the space that was left has been filled with more peppers. After May it becomes too hot for lettuce here and you can’t freeze or preserve it.

The strawberries were the next; we had two crops and are still in the middle of the second. Not enough o make jam with but this is the first year they have been laid down. Always enough for a family dessert at the weekend as they are grown in the village. I am not too sure whether I will keep these here next year. The reason is they need watering regularly for a good harvest and that isn’t happening, hence the relatively small fruits we are getting from them. Also, they need to be harvested every day and that isn’t happening either so a lot of waste form over-ripe fruit each weekend.

The beans I though was going to be a complete failure. I planted 12 rows of beans and only two survived. I didn’t know why. Locals tell me that the seeds were old, but I felt that the two rows that did survive would indicate another reason, perhaps over-watering. Anyway the crops that come from the ones that survived where great. We got at least 8 kg of superb white beans from just that little crop.

The potatoes looked fantastic with the foliage and flowering more pertaining to a flowerbed than a potato crop. All the Colorado beetle and other gorging vegetarian insects were contained with no damage throughout the crop. There was however a massive disappointment on pulling up the first crop. Only a couple of potatoes were found and they were the size of golf ball. It was later realised that this was the shallow end of the troughs made for the watering and apart from the first couple of plants that stood there the rest were a fine crop. It is such a joy to see some potatoes of different shapes rather than the uniformed specimens in imported potatoes in supermarkets.

The beans and potatoes made into a soup by Baba and we just couldn’t get enough of it eaten hot or cold or in a secret raid of the fridge between meals.

Other crops aren’t quite ready yet and we can’t wait. This will be the most successful season growing here because for the first time I have been listening and watching and copying the Bulgarians. Still never as good and it never will, they just seem to have the magic touch with growing here, but I will improve each time I’m sure.