We just finished up a month in a rustic little village, tending to animals and farming, in beautiful central Bulgaria. It was one of those old farm villages where all the houses are clustered together, with mud brick walls stretching from house to house, and everyone has their own vegetable garden, fruit trees, and wine grapes growing. We harvested corn, black beans, asparagus, beets, carrots, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, and aubergines. This included doing a lot of – and learning a lot about – preserving.
Every villager is breeding some kind of animal to put in their bellies during the cold winter so the daily journey to get bread from the bakery was like walking through a petting zoo. On an average 20 minute walk we would see free-roaming geese, mules, chickens, sheep, turkeys, horses, ducks – even partridges.
About 2 miles away from the village are some Roman ruins that are actively being excavated. Last week we took a walk down a long country road to visit the ruins and take some photos. It was pretty impressive.
We also met a very nice English couple that were so generous and considerate to take us around to the different villages, merchants, historic landmarks, and overall insider stuff that we would likely never have seen or known had it not been for them. We are forever grateful to them.
