First topic message reminder :

..grows a bit like this.

bgbazz wrote:

Been a busy day..weighed in just over 600 tons of wheat this morning, then had to deal with most of the villagers coming up with their bags, wheelbarrows and small trailers to sweep the floors and take away their 'bonus'. This will go on for the next week or so, as the other producers process their crops..eventually, everyone in the village will have enough 'dirty' wheat to feed their chicken, ducks and pheasants for the coming year.

This is a prime example of how the garden grows in a good village..everyone sharing the excess. I know that I will be offered a lamb for St Georges Day, a huge basket of peaches when they are ready, a dozen bottles of Rakia (mosquito repellent), buckets full of cherries etc.etc..!

Don't you just love this country?

Well done Barry - youv'e ended up being the local hero and why not. This is life in our villages and I have seen the locals here taking the excess after the fields have been harvested, this seems part of their tradition and it helps them all to continue living in the villages. Our lanes and tracks are filled with trees which have fruits for all and sundry to pick and we have picked what they call the junkees, don't know how it's spelt, but that is how it is said. Roll on marrow and plum chutney, with a little spice added!!

Thanks Chrissy..the year is shaping up quite well. I hope it is the same for everyone else, whether you have 10 sqm or a million sqm.

Local hero, I am not! Plums which hang over into the laneway belong to anyone who cares to pick them.

So anymore on the excess and what anyone did with their excess fruits and vegetables.

Blink wrote:

So anymore on the excess and what anyone did with their excess fruits and vegetables.

We didn't have any excess fruits, but in the villages they don't appear to have any problems making anything into Rakia, not much left on the trees around here!!

Excess? I have never seen so many tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, okra and courgettes, all planted by our neighbours before we got here. :Angel1:It has been totally overwhelming and a huge learning curve. We have sauced, pickled, ketchupped, chutneyed, dry bottled, syrup bottled, jammed, sun dried, dehydrator dried, and in the freezer, more sauce, dry packed veg, fruit.

If all that is not enough we have been given melons, figs,grapes,carrots, potatoes and onions from their garden.

It has been a massive learning curve. I have never bottled before, but the internet and a couple of books have taught me, as well as a couple of mistakes. I have enough tomato, tom and pepper and lutinitza to last years. I have enough chutney and jams and jellies to last years, thanks to plums, apricots, pears and now quince. Lots of walnuts too. Dave pulled up the tomatoes last week....yeeeaaayy, and yesterday the neighbour came over to help pull the pepper plants up, then gave us two banana boxes full of peppers!!!! Noooooooooooooooooo.... We are drying them to save space.

We got here in time to put in beans, beetroot, carrots, rhubarb and chard. Also salad which failed along with the beans and carrots. (Wrong location, too hot)

I grew Tuscan kale and broccoli from seed and they are going mad, bought leeks which are reaching for the sky....and neighbour came round and planted 50 cabbage which are huge...there's only two of us! I have just put in a few carrots, beets, chard, spring onion, land cress and lettuce. I have plenty of eggs which I am turning into cakes, enriched bread and quiche for the freezer, and milk is cheap in the village so experimenting with cheese.

Nearly time to put in onions and garlic...and plan for next year when we will have control of our garden. There will be few toms and peppers, no okra, a couple of aubergines and a couple of courgettes....and a lock on the gate!

But we adore our lovely neighbours, love living here, and hope we will never have to leave. I thought I was coming out here to retire early! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Roll on winter! One thing is sure...we will not starve and we will not freeze!

Sara

PS I have just read through this and I am exhausted and going for a lie down!

Making plans for next year will be one of my jobs with the vegetable garden being laid out a lot different to this year. My tomatoes were so close together I couldn't get in between them to give them a clip and also not able to tie up some of the branches, let alone cut the tops off. Because they were so close together, it was almost impossible to get the hose pipe on all of them as well and impossible to water any of them without getting half soaked myself. The runner beans were all over the place as well, with marrows getting in way, not to mention other unknowns that I watered but have no idea what they are now that they have flourished and ready to pick. Some of us can be seen running for the red tape, but not wearing running shoes or spikes or a number on our back of course, in essence many of us are trying to get everything done before the weather really closes in for the Winter.

BG villagers in our area are collecting the left overs from the fields for food for their animals in the Winter and spending days hacking at thin branches and twigs to get kindling wood for their fires. The usual noise can be heard of villagers whacking tree branches to get walnuts to fall off and this can be heard everywhere here as well. The grapes are also being crushed everywhere in an effort to provide enough wine and Rakia for themselves, their families and friends until the harvest again next year. Our Russian holiday makers left for home today after spending the past six months here in BG, I did notice that they were wearing far more clothes than usual, this is obviously to combat the cold when they get to their destination.

Now the veg garden has more or less come to an end this year and some of us Brits are making the last improvements to our properties before the cold interrupts the advancement in making our houses more comfortable. The cold wind means that getting up at seven o'clock to beat the scorching heat can now be relaxed to a more moderate hour for climbing out of bed to get work done. This all sounds very sad, but even in Blighty the same sort of thing happened and we relaxed more in the Winter with central heating piping the warmth around the house and watched more TV. But cheer up, there is plenty to do in the Winter if we look for it and the snow is not knee deep.

Tanyas parents have a lot of different fruit trees in the garden and what does not get eaten goes into 2 large plastic drums for the rakia, (even though they do not really drink it themselves), its just something they have always done.
We normally end up smuggling a few large bottles of it back to England, its very strong and to be honest I only drink it to be sociable.

Tanyas Dad grows the best grapes I've ever eaten..huge, almost black beauties!


I don't drink rakia either, but it works great on mozzie bites..stops the itch instantly!

bgbazz wrote:

I don't drink rakia either, but it works great on mozzie bites..stops the itch instantly!

I use it for exactly the same thing any type of bite or sting and it works like some miracle cure.

Gimp wrote:

bgbazz wrote:

I don't drink rakia either, but it works great on mozzie bites..stops the itch instantly!

I use it for exactly the same thing any type of bite or sting and it works like some miracle cure.

Yes, agree I got stung by a wasp last week and the pain was killing. One of the villagers qickly got some rakki and told me to put it on the sting - Sure enough, the stnging was gone with minutes.

Oddy by any chance did you also sample any of it, or is it just me seeing double.

On advice from Bernard I have pulled all my chilli's out of the garden before the cold ruins them tonight. Safely in the barn now awaiting further instructions from Bernard as to what I do with them. This garden veg business is all new to us and another education for me this year on what to plant and where to put things and when to water them all.

Just when you think you've seen it all! Mrs Bazz surprised me yesterday afternoon with a tray of peanuts which she had grown in
her garden..I had no idea that they would grow here, but they did and they grew well indeed. Next year she plans to plant a bigger crop so we can experiment with different recipes.

oh fab Bazz - peant butter YUM YUM!! Our garden is just weeds and grass but around the edges are these lovely yellow flowers like tulips. The garden has been rotavated a few times but they still come up every year. By the end of the month we will get the man with the small tractor to come in again to plough and I will sprinkle some merrygold seeds and see if they take.