A Time to Store Up

Sapareva Banya (Сапарева Баня) lives by the seasons. We have all been taught that there is a time to plant, a time to grow, a time to harvest, a time to store up, and a time to eat that which was planted. But in our modern cities, with trucks, ships, and planes to bring us produce from around the country and from around the world, we have forgotten that seasons have rhythms. Sapareva Banya still flows with the calendar and the sun.

Cucumbers Becoming Pickles

Unlike larger cities in Bulgaria where many, or most, people live in large apartment blocks, Sapareva Banya (population 5,000) is almost all single family houses one, or more often two stories, with a basement that sticks halfway out of the ground so that a person has to go up a half-flight of stairs (inside or outside) to get to the first floor. Houses sit on large lot, between ¼ and 1/3 acre. The whole yard is fenced. Sometimes there is a little bit of front yard but often none. Frequently there is some outdoor living space because there is no air conditioning. (Tomorrow it will be 34 C [93 F].) All the rest of the fenced yard is either garden or orchard with a small shed/barn.

Now is the prime time for harvest, some to eat today and some to store up for winter. At Shirley’s house today green beans in canning jars were boiling for two hours in a large washtub over an open fire when I stopped by for lunch. Cucumbers were becoming pickles and only boiled for six minutes. The berries I helped pick last Sunday are now compost. Plums are now ripe and ready for canning. Apples, apricots, and peaches are coming on. Later cabbages, potatoes, and onions can be stored whole.

Shirley's Host Mother Making Pickles

These are not hobby gardens or a local desire to go organic, these gardens are a necessity for getting through the winter. In towns of this size, people grow much of what they eat, even meat. Yes, it’s partially a matter of limited money but it’s also culture. It’s the way that things are done.

Seasons also determine what we eat on the table today. This is not the season from green salads with lettuce and radishes. Lettuce doesn’t do well in the hotter part of the summer. Right now salads are tomatoes and cucumbers with a little oil. I think I have probably had this salad for every meal including breakfast since I have been in Bulgaria. We even take it on picnics. These home-grown tomatoes are wonderful and full of flavor. And I love all the fresh cucumbers. A national dish in Bulgaria is shopska salad, which is tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, and other optional veggies (not greens) with oil and always topped with white feta cheese.

Baba Venetka Removing Pickles

The Goat Barn has Adobe Bricks

Bulgaria is famous for its yogurt. It’s somewhat like American unflavored yogurt but with less of a bite. It’s used in many dishes as well as alone. I had yogurt tonight on top of chili peppers stuffed with rice. Yogurt is often used like sour cream. There is a cold, uncooked, soup called tarator which is chopped cucumber, yogurt, and water with a little salt. It’s a soup but it’s served in a glass not a bowl and we drink it.

Beef is expensive. I haven’t seen any yet. But pork, chicken, and fish are plentiful, particularly pork. There are cows here but they are for milk not meat. Goats are common for milk and cheese. Goats, cows, and even horses are not kept in fenced pastures in our area. Rather they are penned at night and taken up into the hills or out in the country in the daytime to be watched by their owners all day long. When I am walking to class every morning a man with three cows meets me in the middle of the street. My fellow trainees encounter herds of goats or sheep on their way to language class. Shirley’s host family has one goat which baba (grandmother) takes out to the edge of town each morning. This particular goat doesn’t need tending and baba returns home to other chores. Each evening the goat returns home alone to be milked. Baba gets about a half gallon each day which she can use to make feta cheese.

Today when I visited Shirley at her host family there were homemade donuts with sladko, a thick fruit preserve. In this case the sladko was strawberry and it was delicious. Afterwards we walked around town to see how people live.

The Bean Snapper

Almost every house has large gardens that take up almost the whole lot. A typical garden will include a large grape arbor, plum and apple trees, possibly pear and peaches and blackberries. There will be beans and cucumbers and large patches of peppers, tomatoes and onions. Frequently there are good sized strawberry patches. The grape arbors are particularly nice. They are eight feet off the ground and often cover 1/5 of the lot with wonderful shade while other garden plants can grow beneath them. Our training center in Sapareva Banya has a garden outside the center with a picnic table under a large arbor which provides a great space to enjoy cool shade on a hot day.

This week seems to be bean picking time. The other day Shirley was sitting outside at her host family working on flash cards for learning Bulgarian. The hostess was breaking bean pods into manageable lengths in preparation for canning. A five-gallon bucket of beans was setting next to Shirley so she started snapping beans. When she finished, a second bucket magically appeared which Shirley finished and then a third bucket suddenly appeared. Shirley now has strong hands, but she’s not yet ready to milk the goat.

Baba Milks the Goat Every Day

Shirley and I are enjoying this harvest season and we eagerly wait to see what happens next. There is something primal about being connected with the soil and the seasons.

p.s. Did I mention the homemade stills? That’s where the rakia magically appears from grapes, plums, or apricots.



The world is a book. Those who do not travel read only one page.
Saint Augustine