Living Off The Bulgarian Land
Food over here in Bulgaria is something else.
Everyday a new experience is had in Bulgarian cuisine.
I must say that it helps tremendously that my partner is Bulgarian and cooks like an angel but that aside, the Bulgarian friends and neighbours would still tickle my taste buds at every opportunity with their own cooking.
Since coming here there hasn't really been any moment where a pang for Supermarket branded food has called out.
No Twiglets, Mars Bars, Baked Beans or even Sherbet Fountains with the liquorice sticking out felt needed or wanted.
In fact nowadays the only thing I can remember about these foods it the horrible after taste! Those who have been here eating natural Bulgarian food long enough will know exactly what is meant by this! Every few weeks someone asks, 'I'm coming over, what would you like me to bring over for you?' It is very difficult to think of anything, even after really thinking hard.
So these kind people usually bring over some English teabags, Cadbury's cream eggs or a bottle of whisky, many thanks guys and I mean this most sincerely, but these are then actually used for English guests that come round, so very useful anyway.
This is not being indignant but just speaking truthfully about how things are now.
Back in Bulgaria, most food produce comes straight out of the village homes, most of which are not just homes but smallholdings.
Food from a variety of sources mainly the land, but also the chickens, the cows and calves, goats and sheep.
Occasionally food is bought from the supermarket but more often than not from my local village shop.
These mainly consist of bread and flour, (both made and milled in my village), sunflower oil, (locally produced), salt and sugar (although local honey is used more often for sweetening than sugar), filo pastry for the Skalitsa banitsas, the recipe given further on in the book and other pastry variations on this.
And of course beer! Can't say there is much else needed.
As much wine, rakia and liqueur as I could ever wish for is all home made.
Sunflowers seeds are gathered from the field adjoining my land and as long as it is for personal consumption there is no problem with this, in fact the mice in the field eat more than any villagers.
They are dried half some salted and stored in air-tight, recycled plastic food boxes.
Chickpeas are grown and stored in the same way, sweet corn is grown or again taken in from fields and dried but not use for animal feed, (wouldn't be right if taken form the co-operative fields) dried and fried in oil to make popcorn, what another treat from the garden flavoured with either honey or salt before popping.
So there's your little variety of snacks with drinks sorted.
All the cheeses and yoghurt are home made.
All this is from natural ingredients.
Walnuts are gathered and keep for up to a year used in cooking and stored.
Walnuts baked in honey are another Bulgarian legend in good tasting food or just used as another accompaniment to drinks.
Almonds are gathered with shells you can remove without nutcrackers, ever tried that from a supermarket almond? Fresh figs and preserved in syrup, melons galore both the honey and water type, the latter turns out a marvellous jam to be eaten all year round.
Strawberry jam used for cakes and for milkshakes is a summer taste second to none all year round.
Apples, pears, sliva, can all be stored in boxes or bottle in syrup and keep for up to 6 months.
My last apple was eaten in April this year as almost as good as it was picked in October the year before! And it was sweet and tasted like an apple! On occasion non-Bulgarian guests visit and sometimes, 'turn their nose up' at some of the food offered from a point of not being like you can buy in the shops.
You may well be surprised how many say that! This is the only other reason that supermarkets are frequented, to cater for the need of these occasions.
No offence taken at this point, it's not their fault it's the system they have grown to rely on.
Produce therefore not in season has been either frozen or bottled and supplies taken us through the winter and spring.
This is not a chore as the garlic and onions are platted and the tomatoes, peppers potatoes and pumpkins boiling fro bottling on the outside wood-burning contraption.
Everything is done slowly and very systematic.
When it comes to doing anything like this in the village life there is never any panic or rush with the long day ahead.
Why do we on the other hand still try and hurry things and try and get it done as quickly as possible all the time? With all this food at hand, including most meat, a range of poultry and dairy products you can make anything you want from the ingredients.
Even beef can be grown, bought or bartered for in the village.
Everything and more is grown here than in the UK so what's the problem there? Nothing, it would seem, the problem in the UK for many is the culture of buying convenient food rather than growing your own.
How many have garden where produce can be grown, most people.
The climate here helps a lot but what make it work here and not there is the way of life and the homegrown food culture that left the UK some 40-50 years ago.
You come to Bulgarian and take a big step back in time.
It hit me last night yet again how the simplest ingredients can turn out to be another memorable meal.
Just a sliced young marrow fresh from the garden dipped in flour and fried until brown then served hot topped with home made yoghurt.
It was that simple but the result was something very special.
Everyday another taste or recipe is laid out and enjoyed it really is like going back to base ingredients and enjoying them for what they are.
How often is this forgotten bowing to commercially processed foods made for you from a point of easy and laziness? Conveniently, the process squeezes out the taste of natural foods into chemically enhanced products as the replacement and this becomes the 'taste of the norm' for the weekly consumers.
Food regulations don't help and in fairness the argument will always be, health first which I have to agree with.
But I must add a summing up of the situation at this point by saying that this is maybe and over-kill in regulations.
Perhaps this is an unfortunate phrase considering the artificial preservatives and enhancers being consumed ironically mandatory in processed food for health reasons defeat the object.
It is quite strange that most village folk don't have a choice of shopping for food over growing their own food, they simply can't afford it.
If they could afford to and had a choice the convenient foods are there, waiting in the wings ready to pounce at profits, which is the name of the game.
The new generation of Bulgarian are making their way there to becoming part of the American and Euro fast food brigade horticulture activities done as in villages throughout Bulgaria may be just restricted to commercial dimensions as it did in the UK so may years ago.
It is a grateful thought and a privilege that at this time the opportunity is here now to experience Bulgaria as it is now.
Just one point I should mention as I continuously hear stories about this and it's an 'Old Wives' tale'.
Eggs! The chickens I keep are free range totally with access to all natural food in the big yard and greenery from the wasted organic vegetation, with a supplement of natural wheat to call them home in the evening.
Nothing could be more free range than these chickens.
So, when someone says, 'Oh, I tried some free range eggs and the colour of the yolk was so deep in colour, almost orange!' What are you thinking right now? Do you have this picture of this seemingly fresh free-range egg now revealing its sensuous lush orange yolk just waiting to melt in the mouth after being lightly fried in a little oil and laid on a bed of softest white buttered bread you could imagine? Looks good? Tastes good? Doubt it! This is not true the colour of free-range eggs is a very pale yellow and just plain yellow at best! On the contrary My Dear Watson - Battery and commercial egg producers (other than the chickens themselves of course) put colour additives in the feed to produce a more deeply coloured yolk, which is what the consumer wants and gets - supply and demand.
Market research has found that the soft pale yellow yolk doesn't sell well so they artificially change the colour.
Next time you go to a town supermarket and buy the cheapest mass-produced eggs, see how orange the yolk is - you know why now.
Finally, and this doesn't apply to many people coming over here but some, it is so petty when I hear complaints about Bulgarian food from non-Bulgarians.
The comments include, 'it has no taste' or 'it's bland' or it's boring,' Well these sentiments just get are passed back into to thinking it's not the food but the who people who complain who have no taste, are bland and boring.
In many cases they just haven't even tried Bulgarian food! I just remember a quote from someone talking about Bulgarian food saying, 'I hate Bulgarian sausages, I have never tasted one and never will!' No names mentioned here of course but this comment just speaks for itself.
Back to Bulgarian earth chaps - there is still a lifetime away from getting my produce up to the standard of my Bulgarian neighbours the learning way goes on all the time.
With a previous life in the UK weaned on convenience foods tied up with no time to eat due to work constraints, it is like being born again here in Bulgaria.
In Bulgaria I have found one thing that rings true, the food grows faster than the pace of life.
Everyday a new experience is had in Bulgarian cuisine.
I must say that it helps tremendously that my partner is Bulgarian and cooks like an angel but that aside, the Bulgarian friends and neighbours would still tickle my taste buds at every opportunity with their own cooking.
Since coming here there hasn't really been any moment where a pang for Supermarket branded food has called out.
No Twiglets, Mars Bars, Baked Beans or even Sherbet Fountains with the liquorice sticking out felt needed or wanted.
In fact nowadays the only thing I can remember about these foods it the horrible after taste! Those who have been here eating natural Bulgarian food long enough will know exactly what is meant by this! Every few weeks someone asks, 'I'm coming over, what would you like me to bring over for you?' It is very difficult to think of anything, even after really thinking hard.
So these kind people usually bring over some English teabags, Cadbury's cream eggs or a bottle of whisky, many thanks guys and I mean this most sincerely, but these are then actually used for English guests that come round, so very useful anyway.
This is not being indignant but just speaking truthfully about how things are now.
Back in Bulgaria, most food produce comes straight out of the village homes, most of which are not just homes but smallholdings.
Food from a variety of sources mainly the land, but also the chickens, the cows and calves, goats and sheep.
Occasionally food is bought from the supermarket but more often than not from my local village shop.
These mainly consist of bread and flour, (both made and milled in my village), sunflower oil, (locally produced), salt and sugar (although local honey is used more often for sweetening than sugar), filo pastry for the Skalitsa banitsas, the recipe given further on in the book and other pastry variations on this.
And of course beer! Can't say there is much else needed.
As much wine, rakia and liqueur as I could ever wish for is all home made.
Sunflowers seeds are gathered from the field adjoining my land and as long as it is for personal consumption there is no problem with this, in fact the mice in the field eat more than any villagers.
They are dried half some salted and stored in air-tight, recycled plastic food boxes.
Chickpeas are grown and stored in the same way, sweet corn is grown or again taken in from fields and dried but not use for animal feed, (wouldn't be right if taken form the co-operative fields) dried and fried in oil to make popcorn, what another treat from the garden flavoured with either honey or salt before popping.
So there's your little variety of snacks with drinks sorted.
All the cheeses and yoghurt are home made.
All this is from natural ingredients.
Walnuts are gathered and keep for up to a year used in cooking and stored.
Walnuts baked in honey are another Bulgarian legend in good tasting food or just used as another accompaniment to drinks.
Almonds are gathered with shells you can remove without nutcrackers, ever tried that from a supermarket almond? Fresh figs and preserved in syrup, melons galore both the honey and water type, the latter turns out a marvellous jam to be eaten all year round.
Strawberry jam used for cakes and for milkshakes is a summer taste second to none all year round.
Apples, pears, sliva, can all be stored in boxes or bottle in syrup and keep for up to 6 months.
My last apple was eaten in April this year as almost as good as it was picked in October the year before! And it was sweet and tasted like an apple! On occasion non-Bulgarian guests visit and sometimes, 'turn their nose up' at some of the food offered from a point of not being like you can buy in the shops.
You may well be surprised how many say that! This is the only other reason that supermarkets are frequented, to cater for the need of these occasions.
No offence taken at this point, it's not their fault it's the system they have grown to rely on.
Produce therefore not in season has been either frozen or bottled and supplies taken us through the winter and spring.
This is not a chore as the garlic and onions are platted and the tomatoes, peppers potatoes and pumpkins boiling fro bottling on the outside wood-burning contraption.
Everything is done slowly and very systematic.
When it comes to doing anything like this in the village life there is never any panic or rush with the long day ahead.
Why do we on the other hand still try and hurry things and try and get it done as quickly as possible all the time? With all this food at hand, including most meat, a range of poultry and dairy products you can make anything you want from the ingredients.
Even beef can be grown, bought or bartered for in the village.
Everything and more is grown here than in the UK so what's the problem there? Nothing, it would seem, the problem in the UK for many is the culture of buying convenient food rather than growing your own.
How many have garden where produce can be grown, most people.
The climate here helps a lot but what make it work here and not there is the way of life and the homegrown food culture that left the UK some 40-50 years ago.
You come to Bulgarian and take a big step back in time.
It hit me last night yet again how the simplest ingredients can turn out to be another memorable meal.
Just a sliced young marrow fresh from the garden dipped in flour and fried until brown then served hot topped with home made yoghurt.
It was that simple but the result was something very special.
Everyday another taste or recipe is laid out and enjoyed it really is like going back to base ingredients and enjoying them for what they are.
How often is this forgotten bowing to commercially processed foods made for you from a point of easy and laziness? Conveniently, the process squeezes out the taste of natural foods into chemically enhanced products as the replacement and this becomes the 'taste of the norm' for the weekly consumers.
Food regulations don't help and in fairness the argument will always be, health first which I have to agree with.
But I must add a summing up of the situation at this point by saying that this is maybe and over-kill in regulations.
Perhaps this is an unfortunate phrase considering the artificial preservatives and enhancers being consumed ironically mandatory in processed food for health reasons defeat the object.
It is quite strange that most village folk don't have a choice of shopping for food over growing their own food, they simply can't afford it.
If they could afford to and had a choice the convenient foods are there, waiting in the wings ready to pounce at profits, which is the name of the game.
The new generation of Bulgarian are making their way there to becoming part of the American and Euro fast food brigade horticulture activities done as in villages throughout Bulgaria may be just restricted to commercial dimensions as it did in the UK so may years ago.
It is a grateful thought and a privilege that at this time the opportunity is here now to experience Bulgaria as it is now.
Just one point I should mention as I continuously hear stories about this and it's an 'Old Wives' tale'.
Eggs! The chickens I keep are free range totally with access to all natural food in the big yard and greenery from the wasted organic vegetation, with a supplement of natural wheat to call them home in the evening.
Nothing could be more free range than these chickens.
So, when someone says, 'Oh, I tried some free range eggs and the colour of the yolk was so deep in colour, almost orange!' What are you thinking right now? Do you have this picture of this seemingly fresh free-range egg now revealing its sensuous lush orange yolk just waiting to melt in the mouth after being lightly fried in a little oil and laid on a bed of softest white buttered bread you could imagine? Looks good? Tastes good? Doubt it! This is not true the colour of free-range eggs is a very pale yellow and just plain yellow at best! On the contrary My Dear Watson - Battery and commercial egg producers (other than the chickens themselves of course) put colour additives in the feed to produce a more deeply coloured yolk, which is what the consumer wants and gets - supply and demand.
Market research has found that the soft pale yellow yolk doesn't sell well so they artificially change the colour.
Next time you go to a town supermarket and buy the cheapest mass-produced eggs, see how orange the yolk is - you know why now.
Finally, and this doesn't apply to many people coming over here but some, it is so petty when I hear complaints about Bulgarian food from non-Bulgarians.
The comments include, 'it has no taste' or 'it's bland' or it's boring,' Well these sentiments just get are passed back into to thinking it's not the food but the who people who complain who have no taste, are bland and boring.
In many cases they just haven't even tried Bulgarian food! I just remember a quote from someone talking about Bulgarian food saying, 'I hate Bulgarian sausages, I have never tasted one and never will!' No names mentioned here of course but this comment just speaks for itself.
Back to Bulgarian earth chaps - there is still a lifetime away from getting my produce up to the standard of my Bulgarian neighbours the learning way goes on all the time.
With a previous life in the UK weaned on convenience foods tied up with no time to eat due to work constraints, it is like being born again here in Bulgaria.
In Bulgaria I have found one thing that rings true, the food grows faster than the pace of life.
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