Slowpix.org

Month: June 2012

  • Outdoor market in Vad

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    An outdoor market is arranged in a village called Vad 3 times a year, on 9 February, on 29 June and on 20 November, all of them being related to a saint’s day.

    Passing through the village and getting out in the countryside, we arrived at a large field which was already partially full of people and domestic animals. On our way to the market, we passed several horse-drawn carts with a cow in tow, and when we arrived, lots of carts had already been parked, while horses and cattle were eating hay. Besides, some cars were parked, having piglets inside peering outside, some women were preparing sausages for sale, and mostly men were chatting and drinking beer. New families were arriving all the time on horse-drawn carts, some of them driving so fast that it was wise to be alert. Parents brought their kids, calves and cows, everyone seeming to have a great time. After having parked their carts and given fodder to their animals they joined the other ones.

    My guide told me that this market has been held at least since about 1900, people are coming from all over Brasov county, usually they don’t barter their animals like one horse for two cows, but it might happen, the main occupation in Vad is breeding animals and growing vegetables

    For anyone who wants to go to Vad, a nature reserve called “Poiana Narciselor” in Romanian meaning Daffodils’ Glade in English is worth seeing. Every spring, there is a festival when the daffodils start blooming.

  • Mountain farm in the Rucar-Bran passage

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    Having passed Dracula’s famous castle in Bran, we drove into a picturesque valley, called the Rucăr-Bran pass, flanked by steep hillsides and a wide creek at its base. Before our next visit, we had to give a ride to a local woman, Mrs Rodica Cojenelu, who would show us the way to an enclosure for some 80 cows. The owner, Mr Sumedrea Georgel, lets his animals stay foraging from spring to autumn in this fertile place.

    Having ascended a rather steep and very green hillside, we could see a hut and some horses in the foreground and an enclosure with lots of cows in the background. A shed near the hut housed a group of piglets, while the pigs were more or less sleeping in the mud nearby. Entering the enclosure with the cows, we could see four men milking cows manually. Sitting on a one-legged chair, they made the milking look easy, while the cows being milked seemed like they weren’t even aware of being milked.

    Walking around the enclosure, I could see a hut made of sticks and covered by plastic, one near to each side of the enclosure. Since a very dense forest  was quite close, and big carnivores like wolf and bear live there, it was only natural to think that the cowherds were sleeping in those plastic huts at night in order to protect their animals. Of course, they also had a lot of livestock guarding dogs.

    They would make cheese after our visit, but it would probably be made in more or less the same way as we had seen several times before.

    On our way back to Bran, we could see several persons scything and harvesting hay in quite steep hillsides. When they were high up, it seemed like they put a canvas on the ground, covered it with hay, closed the canvas around the hay and pulled it down. In fact, the whole valley looked very fertile, and harvesting hay for the animals should hopefully last through the next winter.

  • Berries and elder flower

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    We went for a visit to a young farmer called Sorin Neculae who is cultivating blackcurrants and strawberries. Coming from Brasov and crossing the Transylvanian countryside, we arrived at the blackcurrant field of Sorin.  Using no herbicides or pesticides, it was easy to see that the leaves of the blackcurrant shrubs had lots of spots, probably due to some type of disease. Although summers in Romania are often quite dry, he used no artificial irrigation. Moreover, the rows between the blackcurrant shrubs were full of weeds which Sorin removed occasionally.

    About two weeks after our visit in late June, Sorin and some workers would pick all the blackcurrants by hand, then bring them to his house in a nearby village called Bonesti where they would be cold-pressed, pasteurised, the juice would be bottled and the bottles would be labelled. 20 grams of sugar is added for every 100 ml of juice, while no preservatives are used.

    We arrived too early to see how they were making juice from blackcurrants and strawberries, but we could at least see a small part of what was needed for making elderflower juice. Employing local people for picking elder flowers, he puts a large amount in a tank, pours cold water which has been boiled into the same tank, keeping the mixture at 20°C for 72 hours and stirring it occasionally. Then, the liquid is filtered and bottled, labelled and stored at 4°C in order to avoid fermentation resulting in a sparkling wine.

    His products are sold locally in Romania.

  • The Istrate farm

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    Before we could go to the Istrate farm, we had to go to a farmer’s market in Brasov in order to give a ride to the mistress of the house, Mrs Marcela Istrate, back home.

    Having passed another potholed road, we arrived at a farm with sheep, cows, chickens and pigs surrounded by meadows and hills. Unfortunately, their sheepfold was 2 hours walk away leading to that we just stayed at the farm.

    After being served a wide selection of their home-made cheeses, Mr Ioan Istrate invited us to join him slaughtering a calf which had been butchered the day before. Having just entered a cool room, he went inside their refrigerated room and came back with what was left of the calf. Then, he started the business of slaughtering by means of a knife and an ax. Having succeeded in removing bones and some meat he didn’t want, he salted the meat and put it back again in the refrigerated room. The meat and bones he had removed would be turned into sausages another day.

    After having finished the meat, we were treated to how to make cheese. Since the cheese mass was ready for separation at our arrival, he started scooping up the cheese mass by means of a bucket and pouring its contents into a tank which he had covered with a porous cloth. Always pouring the cheese in a different area of the tank, he obtained a somewhat level surface in the end. Having transferred all the cheese mass to the tank, he used a knife to divide the cheese mass in a grid, one vertical or horizontal line at a time. Afterwards, he tied up the cloth, put a wooden lid on top of it, then he put some heavy weights on the lid in order to press out the whey, which started flowing out of an opening in the tank into another container below.

    We were also shown the room where they were smoking some of their cheeses. It was simply done by lighting a fire below a bowl filled with whey, from which they would extract ricotta, while the smoke would pass the cheeses stored on a shelf in the same room.

    Our next demonstration was how he made cheese in sheep’s stomachs and in fir-tree bark cylinders. Starting with a porous cheese, he cut it in pieces with a knife and put the pieces in a box. When all the cheese had been cut up, he put the pieces in a meat grinder and turned on power. It was like watching someone grinding meat, just that the colour of the stuff being ground was yellow. After having ground the whole cheese, he mixed the shapes into fist-sized clumps. Having finished this, he started making cylinders of fir-tree bark.

    The fir-tree bark looked like a piece of leather having more or less the same colour. He started with cutting it into a rectangle, then he used a needle and a narrow ribbon used for wrapping Christmas gifts. Having joined the two long sides of the rectangle by means of sewing, making a cylinder, he started sewing a lid to one of its ends. Having finished, he used a knife in order to cut away the superfluous bark. Then, he started filling the cylinder with the cheese, compressing it as much as he could and filling it up to the top. Finally, he put a lid on the top, joining it to the cylinder by means of sewing again.

    Having made a fir-tree bark cylinder, he started filling up a sheep’s stomach with the same cheese. Having put as much cheese as possible into it, he closed the opening by putting a circular-shaped piece of fir-tree bark in the opening and closing it by sewing.

    Making a search on the internet for cheese in fir-tree bark, I found that it may date back to the time when the Romans invaded what is now called Romania. The locals fled to the mountains bringing their sheep with them. Having abundant fir-tree forests, they learned how to preserve sheep’s cheese in fir-tree bark, making the cheese edible for a much longer time than by just storing it without protection.

    Anyway, having been shown so much, it was time to have a look outside. In addition to pigs sleeping in mud and free-ranging chickens, a large flock of cows were grazing on a meadow near the farm, being looked after by a cowherd. Before we entered the room for watching preparation of meat and cheese, there was a large flock of sheep in the shade of a giant tree. When we came out again, the sheep had disappeared, possibly ascending some of the beautiful hills surrounding the farm.

  • Farmer’s market Dacia in Brasov

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    Since we had to give a ride to Mrs Istrate, who was selling her cheeses at a market called Dacia centrally located in Brasov, before going to her farm in Fundata, we had to pass lots of Rom people hawking their wares, some of them selling flowers while others were selling strawberries, blueberries, bilberries and blackberries they had picked in forests outside Brasov.

    Even before we entered the indoor market, lots of people were going in the opposite direction and inside, it was really crowded, vendors selling a wide selection of vegetables were busy serving their customers. Having passed the vegetable vendors, we entered another section of the market where the cheese vendors were located. There, my guide found Mrs Istrate more or less at once.

    Afterwards, I was told that about 450 small-scale producers sell their products, like fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese and flowers, at this market. It’s very popular among the citizens of Brasov and the products are priced lower than at other markets in the town.

  • The Tafta farm

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    We went to another Saxon village called Cincşor. As usual, it had a fortified church, but we were looking for a farm just outside the village. After just a few minutes drive, we arrived at a farm where we were met by Mr Vasile Tafta, a friendly man in his sixties who had come from the south of Romania in the 70s and stayed ever since.

    After having entered their dairy located next to the farm, he poured some rennet into the cheese in order to separate the cheese mass from the whey. While waiting, he served us their own cheese together with a glass of pálinka, a homemade spirit which almost everyone in the countryside is making by themselves. Afterwards, we went back to the dairy, watching him using a utensil like a smoothing plane in order to transfer the cheese mass layer by layer from one container to another one. After having finished the transfer, the procedure was the same as usual. Tying a cloth around the cheese mass, compress it, and hang up the cheese mass for drying.

    Afterwards, he showed us around the farm, letting us see the calves which were staying together inside, then we went to visit a young ox. He jumped across the fence and started stroking the ox who was alone inside. If I’m not wrong, it seemed like he really knew how to treat animals well.

    Walking around the courtyard on the farm, suddenly some pigs and a dog arrived in the door opening of the barn, maybe they woke up from their afternoon rest.

    Since the cows and sheep were out grazing, we couldn’t leave without having a look at them. One of Mr Tafta’s sons agreed to follow us and after having ascended a steep hill and walked for some time, we found the cows grazing on the top of a hill having a lovely view to the surrounding countryside. Then, we went on in order to see their sheep, and passing two guarding dogs, I really appreciated that we had a guide who knew them. Walking on rolling meadows and passing deciduous trees here and there, we arrived at a flock of sheep which was guarded by a shepherd. Fortunately, our guide showed us another way back such that we could see even more of this pretty part of Romania.

    The next day, we went to the home of the Tafta family where Mr Tafta’s wife, Maria, had a small refrigerated room for storing their cheeses. Free tasting of the cheeses together with another glass of pálinka was included.

  • Saxon cakes and Austria pro Romania

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    Photo gallery of Saxon cakes

    Photo gallery of the visit in Stejarisu

    We visited a Romanian family in a town called Agnita in order to have a look at the cakes they were making. We were met by Viorel whose mother and wife are making cakes using recipes which have been used by the Saxons in Romania for centuries. Unfortunately, no baking was taking place during our visit, but we were shown three of their cakes, all of which tasted delicious.

    Although Viorel’s parents are Romanian, Viorel convinced his mother to start baking Saxon cakes since he had always been interested in healthy food. During our visit, we were offered three types of Saxon cakes. When I started photographing the cakes, Viorel brought a doll showing a woman dressed in a typical Saxon dress. The dress was a copy of a dress Saxon women used during processions when the Saxons were in the majority in Agnita.

    While his mother and wife make the cakes, Viorel brings the cakes to various outdoor markets organized by Slow Food, always trying to make the Saxon cakes known in Romania. He also wanted to buy a house in a village called Stejarisu and he joined us for a car ride there in order to show us a very enterprising small-scale food producer.

    Having arrived in Stejarisu, another Saxon village, he led us to a large building where we would be served lunch. The building housed a company called Probstdorfer Naturprodukte, founded by an Austrian woman, Mrs Schöfnagel, selling honey, several types of jam, liquor and herbs, serving meals for visitors and providing accommodation. The locals were working in the kitchen, the garden, the workshop, etc. In fact, Mrs Schöfnagel has been tirelessly helping the Romanians since the 1970s.

    Having assisted in two reconstruction projects in 2005 and 2006 after major floods, she was one of the founders of a foundation called Au-Ro or Austria pro Romania in 2007. It seems like Au-Ro has been replaced by the Augustinian Humanitarian Foundation.

    Stejarisu has about 800 inhabitants and when she first started helping them, the buildings were run-down and most of the locals were unemployed living on social assistance. Now, the village has a kindergarten, a school, three small shops, a milk collection centre, a post office and a village inn.

    The organization aims to provide education and vocational training in addition to offering work for everyone. In this way, the persons managing Au-Ro think that the locals are able to solve their own social problems and getting out of poverty.

    After having eaten a delicious lunch, we were free to walk around on their property where lots of herbs were being cultivated, chickens were walking around freely, some local women were tending the garden, while the local men were doing some kind of practical work.

    Last but not least, the foundation accepts volunteers who want to work in Romania.

  • The Schuster farm

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    We went to another Saxon village called Mosna in order to visit Lavinia and Willy Schuster. Willy Schuster is one of the Saxons who has decided to stay in Romania instead of going to Germany after the fall of communism, while Lavinia is Romanian.

    Having entered their kitchen, Lavinia started preparing a large selection of cheese for us. In addition, their children were entering and exiting and guests were arriving. A French volunteer also arrived in need of a break. A lively place, indeed.

    Having cut up several types of cheeses and rolled some of them on plates filled with dried herbs like oregano, red pepper and basil, we were served a tray covered with various types of delicious cheese together with homemade jam.

    Having 6 cows which are milked manually twice a day, they make cheese and other dairy products daily as shown below:

    • low fat cream cheese
    • cream cheese with herbs, red pepper or horseradish
    • cream cheese with different fruits or berries
    • raw milk cheese with herbs – naturally aged in an old basement
    • fresh cream, homemade yogurt, cottage cheese
    • herbs and teas

    After some time, Lavinia’s husband, Willy. also arrived. He had brought his cows inside their barn because they were constantly attacked by large insects.

    We were told that they bought the more or less rundown farm in the early 1990’s and had their farm certified as organic in 1999.

    After lunch we walked to their barn where 6 cows and one horse were living. Walking barefoot into the barn, walking on a far from clean floor, Willy used a pitchfork to bring some hay to the cows which stood up immediately in order to eat. To our surprise, but not to his, one of the cows pushed the other ones aside, then started eating. We were told that there was a hierarchy among the cows where one of them obviously was the boss. One of the cows didn’t even go to eat, maybe because she was the lowest-ranking one.

    Interestingly, Willy started sweeping hay on the floor towards the cows and it seemed like the dust which was made by the sweeping didn’t affect them at all. We were told that he had learned it from an old farmer and that sweeping the hay led to that the cows would get hold of more nutritious stuff.

    Last but not least, Willy has been vice president of Eco Ruralis, a grassroots society for small-scale farmers in Romania. Both Willy and Lavinia are very active regarding fighting for agriculture which treats the earth like it was a gift, staying in touch with small-scale farmers and trying to affect the agricultural policy of the EU.

    This farm accepts volunteers from April to October as described here.

  • Malancrav village

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    Malancrav is another Saxon village where numerous remnants like inscriptions in German on the houses still exist. It is like Viscri located along a creek flanked by grassy verges with ducks and geese in and out of the water. In the evening we could watch a long procession of cows and some buffaloes heading home followed by the cowherds who had to make some stray cows go straight home.

    Just above the village church, lots of terraces had been made in the hillside. Often, they were used for growing vines a long time ago, but have now fallen in disuse. Instead, in this village they were used for growing  apple and pear trees. For maybe every 4 metres, another terrace had been made containing a long row of apple trees. In between some of the apple trees, large haystacks had been made showing that the locals try to grow something edible wherever it’s possible. Ascending to the top of hill and walking along it, I walked for maybe an hour without getting to the end of the orchard. According to the Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) , the area of the orchard amounts to 200 acres which equals about 81 hectares.

    The next day we visited a small apple and pear juice factory which was located near the church. Each autumn about 10-12 locals pick apples and pears for about a month bringing all the fruit down to the factory. Since many of the terraces were completely covered by hay, the workers probably have to carry the fruit to some meeting point where they are freighted down by car.

    Since we visited the factory in June, there was no activity but we were told that they apply no herbicides or pesticides to the fruit trees, leaving everything to Mother Nature. Having brought the apples to the factory, they are put in a press in order to press out the apple juice. After having been pasteurised, the juice is bottled and labels are put on. Their products are for sale in Romania only.

    In fact, the MET states that there are traditional varieties of apple, pear, plum and walnut trees in the orchard. The pear trees are often grafted onto quince rootstock since quince is more robust than pear trees. The MET bought the orchard in 2002 and the British Embassy in Bucharest donated juicing equipment, which was installed by a specialist,  the same year.

     

  • Breadmaking in Vânători village

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    Although most Transylvanians buy bread baked in electrically powered ovens, a few hardy souls are still baking bread manually in wood-fired ovens.

    Just a few kilometres from Saschiz, we could watch Magda, a woman in her sixties making bread manually. When we arrived, she had already filled a large trough with dough. While her sister Elisabeta poured water on the dough occasionally, she was kneading it. Having to knead such a large amount of dough must have been heavy work. Eventually, she was satisfied with the result, covered the dough with a towel and let it rest for leavening.

    Instead of resting, she went straight into her courtyard, firing up her oven with lots of paper, then putting various pieces of wood on the burning paper. After having let it burn for nearly an hour, the oven was hot enough. In the meantime, she applied vegetable oil to some metal containers and put the dough into them.

    Having put out the fire in the oven and moved the embers aside, she used a long wooden paddle to place the breads in the oven. The woman next door had obviously heard about our visit since she also brought some breads to be baked. When all the breads had been placed inside the oven, a wooden plate was placed across the opening, then we just had to wait for about 2 hours.

    Having nothing else to do, I went for a long walk. In the beginning the houses made of brick looked solid while further away they looked much more run-down and having been built more carelessly. A woman was collecting water in a well before carrying it back home in a bucket, while a family was collecting water from a tiny creek which looked cleaner the further upstream I went. All sorts of poultry was walking around freely, while it seemed like everyone was growing vegetables in their gardens.

    Returning just in time to see the breads being taken out of the oven, we could see that they were brought out using the same paddle and placing them on a nearby table. As expected, the tops of the breads were completely burned and almost shining black. In order to make the breads edible, Magda’s son hit the breads continuously with two sticks until most of the burnt stuff had fallen off. Then, he and the woman next door used graters to make the finishing touches. After the bread had cooled, we got some delicious slices of their home-made breads tasting much better than the machine-made bread we usually got.

    In fact, Magda is making bread weekly for her family, but before she made bread for selling. Now, she’s feeling too old for such hard work.

  • Visiting a sheepfold near Saschiz

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    We went by a horse-drawn cart from a Saxon village called Saschiz to another sheepfold. Leaving Saschiz quickly behind us, the strong mare Dora pulled us upwards on cobbled roads, then passing fields of maize until we came to meadows covered by hay. Dora, being a strong horse, and the horse-man driving her on, we quickly got within reach of a horse-drawn cart filled to the brim with hay. Fortunately, they turned left and we were free to go as we pleased passing meadows, deciduous trees and enjoying lovely views of the Transylvanian countryside. When we were approaching the sheepfold, the ever-present guarding dogs were the first ones to meet us, then we drove down to the sheepfold.

    The setup was more or less a copy of what we had seen before: one large enclosure encircling a smaller one bordered by a shed with two holes large enough for one sheep to pass through.

    Just 3 shepherds were milking the sheep, while a young girl who was probably the girlfriend of one them, was just sitting next to them milking no sheep. Of course, another shepherd was tasked with chasing the sheep into the small container, closing the gate when it was full and solving any problems the sheep might have with entering the shed. This day wasn’t as hot as the day when we visited the sheepfold near Viscri when the sheep seemed to be breathing heavily all the time. Another reason for the more relaxed behaviour of these sheep was that one guy was continually shearing sheep, having sheared one just selected another one. I was impressed seeing this guy bending over a sheep in the hot sun, shearing for hours. Anyway, getting rid of all that wool must have been great for them.

    The milking of the sheep was by now a standard procedure offering no surprises apart from some fit sheep which tried to jump past the shepherds but always ending up being restrained by their tails and milked.

    Due to unpredictable behaviour of the guarding dogs, we let Dora bring us from the sheepfold to the hut where the cheese would be made. The cheesemaking was done the same way as we had seen before, one shepherd putting his arms into the milk and gradually extracting the cheese mass. After having put it in a cloth and hung it up, the rest of the whey was put in a large pot, heated and after some time the ricotta cheese was lifted up and put in another container by means of a sieve. The whey was poured into a container providing food for their pigs.

    A large number of pigs were just resting in the shade during our visit, while some puppies were playing. Eventually, their mother arrived apparently full of milk ready to be consumed by her puppies.

    We were also shown a baby deer which had been left by its mother just a few days before. It made a loud squeaking noise for some reason.

    Having watched both milking, cheesemaking and shearing, it was time to let trustworthy Dora and her horseman bring us safely back to Saschiz. Getting encouraging calls more or less constantly from the horseman, she easily brought us back again.

  • Anca Călugăr, maker of traditional Romanian food

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    During our visit in Saschiz, we went to Anca and her husband Charlie for our meals. Anca, making typical Romanian dishes for us, prepared three-course meals at both lunch and dinner together with home-made wine. Coming from a cool country like Norway to a hot country like Romania, it was great to sit outside in the shade being served delicious meals.

    Anca and Charlie, being hospitable hosts, willingly told us about their farm, their products and their plans. Anca, a local woman, had inherited the place we were visiting, but first she had to buy the shares of her siblings in order to have the farm for herself.

    Now, she and her French husband Charlie are making many types of jam with or without milk, using rhubarb, apples, rose hip, strawberries, mint, onions and green nuts which they sell directly from their farm and on mail order across Romania. They also sell pickled chilis, all based on old Romanian recipes.

    Since Romania has become a member of the EU, their food production has to be in accordance with EU regulations. Unfortunately, they are meant for big households, even factories, while a wife and husband enterprise like theirs is not covered. Fortunately, the local food inspectors have been flexible not requiring Anca and Charlie to follow the rules exactly. Having been shown their kitchen for preparing their products, it looked okay to our untrained gazes.

    In addition to making the products mentioned above, they also have a large garden above their house all the way to a forest on top of the hill. There, they grow a wide variety of vegetables like salad, onion, etc.

    They also want to have a guesthouse, but again, they have to follow the EU regulations meaning that they still can’t offer accommodation.

    Since we went from Saschiz to a sheepfold by means of a horse-drawn cart. we let Anca prepare lunch for us. As expected, it was delicious, but not unsurprisingly, far too much.

  • Transylvania food company

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    Transylvania food company is located in the Saxon village Saschiz. We weren’t allowed to visit their factory, but some of the employees were willingly sharing information about their company. Besides, they had a shop where all their products were for sale.

    It was founded by the Scotsman Jim Turnbull, one of the founders of the Adept foundation, in 2005.

    Their main product is elder flower cordial whose main ingredient, elder flower, is picked by local people, mainly the the poorest ones in the village, in early summer. The permanent staff amounts to 8, while seasonal workers in 2012 were about 1200. They picked more than 27 tonnes of elder flower in May and June 2012.

    Emphasis is made on providing fair wages and let everyone have a contract such that noone is being exploited in any way. In any case, the company does not do charity and it has to make money in order to pay their workers.

    Using wild fruits, fruits from meadows, orchards and gardens, they produce various types of syrup and jam using the following:

    • blackberry
    • cornelion cherries
    • raspberry
    • bilberry
    • wax cherry
    • strawberry
    • rose hip
    • apples
    • plums
    • nuts
    • morello cherry
    • quince
    • apricot
    • blackcurrant
    • rhubarb
    • raspberry

    The seasonal workers are only employed for about a month each year, but the company is planning to expand such that they should employ workers for up to half a year.

    An interesting video can be watched here.

  • Transylvanian buffalo company

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    The Transylvanian buffalo company was founded in 2005 acquiring properties abandoned by Germans in Romania who left the country in 1990 after the communist regime was toppled.

    Originally, Germans were invited to act as a buffer against invasions from the east in the 1200s by a Hungarian king. Forming seven towns, Siebenburgen, and many villages, the descendants of the first Germans, also called Saxons, stayed in Romania more or less ever since. However, the communists treated them badly and most of them couldn’t get out of Romania quickly enough, leaving their houses and maybe even their belongings behind.

    The Saxons were avid buffalo farmers reputedly having as many as 100,000 of them in 1990. However, due to their slow growth, less milk production, heavier bones and having less meat than a dairy cow, their numbers diminished quickly after the Saxons left. Since the local farmers mostly didn’t want to raise buffaloes, the Transylvanian buffalo company could easily buy them from local farmers.

    The grown-up buffaloes are taken out to pastures next the premises of the company. There, they can take mud baths covering themselves in mud which works as a sort of sunscreen for them.

    When we arrived, two groups of buffaloes were being milked at the same time by milking machines, while a large group of buffaloes were standing outside in an enclosure waiting to be milked.

    We also visited the calves which were kept inside in small enclosures, 2-3 calves sharing a “room”. Like all buffaloes, they were very curious, whereas dairy cows mainly ignore visitors.

    The company also have 7 bulls in order to make new generations of buffaloes. They have to be kept separate because they will start fighting if they meet. We were told that they wanted to let two male calves grow up together in order to accept each other later in life.

    We also visited a small dairy in Rupea apparently owned by a sister company called Transylvanian buffalo products. The English-speaking manager, probably a dairy engineer, lived in the same building as the dairy. Due to limited demand, they only worked 2-4 days a week. In fact, we were told to arrive in the afternoon, but when we arrived, the workers were already cleaning the machines having finished the day’s production. The manager told us that he couldn’t foresee when production would take place even the day before.

    The dairy produces mozzarella and feta cheese both of them containing much more fat than corresponding cheeses made from milk from dairy cows.

    Buffalo milk products have been well known in Romania and has been highly appreciated. They are perceived as healthy, natural and tasty.

  • Teofil and Emil Pandrea, beekeepers

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    On our last day in Crit we walked to the beekeeper in the morning, arriving at another cobbled courtyard. After both of us had got dressed in protective clothing from head to toe, we entered the garden of the Pandrea family. There, we first saw a big coach whose wall facing us was covered with colourful squares. Approaching further, we could see that there was a small, rectangular opening at the base of each square where bees where entering and exiting as they wished.

    The coach, being wide as a car and with wheels, was similar to other coaches we had seen on our trips in Transylvania, being freighted by car wherever the owner wished. On the contrary, this coach seemed like it was meant to stay in its place forever. We were offered to enter, and inside, there was another series of squares with texts written on them by chalk. We were told that they were for indicating when the beehive had been inspected and the quality of the honey. Bees which didn’t produce honey were transferred to other beehives where they were fed something nutritious.

    Since the beekeeper was rather old and frail being more than 80, he’s letting his son Emil be in charge of the beekeeping. Both of them willingly told us about what they were doing. While we wore protective clothing, they were only wearing a hood with netting to protect their faces. They opened several of their beehives, lifted up wooden frames with a plate consisting of hexagonal holes called a honeycomb. Sometimes the whole plate was full of bees and quite often Emil showed us how to identify the queen. He even put his fingers into the mass of bees in order to pick one of them out for us to have a look. Of course, the bees got very angry and they were flying around me, trying to pass the protective netting around my face. Luckily, they didn’t succeed. In any case, Emil brought a small container from which smoke was exiting continuously. A light “shower” of smoke before entering the beehive was their standard procedure although I have no idea how effective it was.

    Teofil showed us a tiny metal box whose walls were covered with netting. They used it for transferring queen bees to beehives without a queen. First, they put the queen bee inside the box, then they close the box by means of beeswax and put it inside a beehive. If the bees like the smell of the new queen bee, they will eat the beeswax and let the queen bee out. If not, they have to insert another queen bee into the beehive.

    In addition to their more or less standard beehives, Teofil showed us a beehive from the middle ages which he had mounted near to their house. It looked like a basket formed like a wide cone with the opening facing downwards, and it was full of bees as can be seen from one of the photos. Searching for the history of beekeeping, I found out that beehives until about 1850 were shelters only and that was what that “basket” looked like.

  • The Suciu family

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    Having visited Rozalia, we crossed the street in order to visit Elena and her husband Adrian Suciu. They have about 200 goats and they produce various types of goat cheese which they mix with one of the following:

    • nuts
    • pepper
    • caraway
    • green pepper
    • mint
    • basil

    The goats reside close to Crit and having gone to the outskirts of the village, then followed a very bumpy road for a few minutes, we arrived at an enclosure with the goats. The system for milking was the same as we had seen for the sheep, that is a small enclosure from which the animals can only exit through two small holes in the wall of a shed. There, Adrian and a worker milked each goat by hand while a young boy made sure that there were always goats ready to enter the shed.

    Having milked the goats twice daily, Adrian brings the milk by car to a small dairy next to their house. Having just arrived with the milk, they pour it into a large container through a filter. Heating the milk up to about 40°C, adding rennet in order to separate the whey from the cheese mass, the cheese mass is lifted up into plastic moulding forms which are placed in a container with a sink such that the whey can be collected in a another container. In the beginning, they have to turn the cheeses around every 10 minutes both to the get rid of the whey and to let the cheeses keep their shapes. After some time, salt is added both to put taste to the cheese and to get rid of more of the whey.

    They also made sour cream by pouring some of the milk into a small container on top of a separator. Then, skimmed milk was running down one side of the separator, while sour cream was running down another one, both being collected in separate containers.

    Adrian also made a cheese called ricotta which means recooked in Italian. The whey from just one production was brought outside in a large pot and hung from a horizontal bar. Then, he made a fire below the pot and stirred they whey more or less continuously in order to avoid burning of the remaining cheese in the whey. After some time, a foam started appearing on the top of the whey which he removed carefully by means of a sieve. A little bit later, the cheese mass started thickening and Adrian used a sieve to pick it up and pour into another container through a porous cloth. In this way, the ricotta would remain on top of the cloth, while the whey would end up in the container. Afterwards, the cloth was tied around the ricotta and hung up to the let the whey exit.

    In addition to helping her husband make cheese, Elena also makes lots of jams and sweet fruit juices. She makes the following jams:

    • apricot
    • elder fruits
    • cornelian cherries
    • wax cherry
    • plums
    • plums with nuts and cinnamon
    • morello cherry
    • rose hip
    • wild strawberry

    She makes the following fruit juices:

    • blackberry
    • acacia flowers
    • bitter cherry

    The products of the Suciu family are for domestic consumption, tourists and various markets in Romania.

  • Rozalia

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    We left Viscri by means of the same horse-drawn cart which had taken us to the sheepfold. This time we often had to bow our heads because of branches which crossed the path we were following. Having passed the forest, we again crossed meadows passing a sheepfold where several guarding dogs went running after the horse, barking all the time. Then, at the top of the hill, we could see a small village called Meschendorf which we approached slowly due to rather steep terrain. In order to aid the horse, the driver laid a metal thing on the ground, drove over it with the backwheel, and attached it with a chain. In this way, the backwheel was clamped, making it a bit easier for the horse to descend. Next, we went by car to Crit, our next stop.

    It was only a short walk from where we stayed to Rozalia’s house. There, she makes several types of jams, mainly buying berries, etc. from local pickers. She also buys herbs which she dries in a solar drier in her courtyard. The drier consists of several frames with netting on which she laid the herbs to be dried. When she wants the process to start, she pushes the frames inside a box and closes it. Below the box is a metal plate tilted at about 45 degrees, press-shaped with some depressions and covered by see-through plastic. Then, the air will be heated by the sun, rise up and pass the herbs which are dried quickly.

    Later, I found a notice describing the solar ovens. A company called TravelPledge was founded in 2008 in order to help travellers contribute positively to the places they are visiting.

    Rozalia produces the following for sale in Romania:
    jams:

    • rose hip
    • plums
    • mirabelle plum
    • rhubarb

    salads:

    • mushrooms
    • horseradish
    • pickled salad

    dried herbs:

    • yarrow
    • bilberry leaf
    • lime flowers
    • elder flowers
    • hawthorn leaves and flowers
    • nettle leaf

    All the jams have high fruit contents, little sugar, and no additives or preservatives.

    Rozalia makes jams for consumption at home and for tourists who come to her guesthouse besides delivering her products to various shops across the country by mail.

  • Viscri village

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    We arrived at Viscri from Brasov in the afternoon, having passed a potholed street lined with meadows, occasional deciduous trees, lots of flowers and distant hills. Then, suddenly, houses started appearing on each side of the road until we arrived at a crossroads. There, in front of us, was a creek surrounded by wide, grassy verges. Then, a wide gravel road followed by a grassy stretch with occasional fruit trees and benches and then a narrow sidewalk followed by a row of houses as far as the eye could see. On the other side of the creek, followed by a grassy stretch, there was also a narrow sidewalk followed by a row of houses. When later it started raining in a village with a similar layout, I soon found out that the sidewalks were excellent pathways while the puddles and mud on the gravel road were best to avoid.

    It doesn’t take long to discover that Viscri is very different from most villages having chickens, geese and ducks walking freely around as they please! In the courtyards, it’s common to see hens pecking, while turkeys and guinea fowl do whatever they want.

    Just walking along the main street of Viscri, it’s impossible not to notice lots of horse-drawn carts passing back and forth, some carts empty apart from the driver, while others may be fully loaded with beehives, milk containers, hay, and so on.

    Next day at sunrise, sounds of domestic animals and people crying could clearly be heard. This was the daily morning ritual when the cows and goats, after having been milked by hand, walk out from the courtyards in order to join the cowherds who bring the animals to some pasture nearby. The same procedure was repeated in the evening in reverse with the animals returning to the village and finding their way home where they would be met by their owners.

    Being surrounded by nutritious meadows, it’s only natural that sheep from Viscri spend the time from spring to autumn outside. We went by a horse-drawn cart early in the morning passing a large flock of sheep being guarded by a shepherd. Going by horse-drawn cart entails feeling all bumps along the road, squeaking from the cart and encouraging calls from the driver to the horse, while passing a beautiful landscape consisting of rolling hills and some deciduous trees. The hills were covered with high grasses and lots of flowers.

    The sheepfold we arrived at consisted of a primitive hut for making cheese and preparing meals, and a short distance away, a large enclosure partly full of sheep, and an adjacent enclosure almost filled to breaking point with sheep and bordering a shed with two holes large enough for a sheep to pass through. Having closed the entrance to the small enclosure, the sheep had to exit via the holes in the shed where 5 men were waiting for them. Each time a sheep entered the shed, one of the men would grab it by the tail, pull it back and milk it. This operation lasts only a short time, maybe less than a minute, then another sheep is milked. Being a very hot day, the sheep waiting to be milked were breathing heavily making a continuous sound. When all the sheep had been milked, the milk was brought to the primitive hut and poured into a wooden container. Rennet was added to the milk in order to separate the whey from the cheese mass.

    After having had lunch consisting of polenta and pork, one of the shepherds separated the cheese mass from the whey just by stirring the milk with his arms. After some time, he was able to feel that the cheese mass was being separated from the whey. He then brought a porous cloth into the container, somehow put the cloth around the cheese mass and lifted it up into another container with a sink such that the whey could escape.

    Having compressed the cheese mass to his satisfaction, he tied the cloth tightly around the cheese and hung it up such that the whey could go on dripping down.

    We didn’t stay to see how they treated the whey, but having watched cheesemaking several times, it seems like every cheesemaker prefer their own way of making it, even though they want to obtain the same, that is extracting the remaining cheese mass from the whey.

    It may seem like milking sheep for hours in a place with no running water, then putting one’s arm into the cheese mass would  create perfect conditions for dangerous germs in the cheese. However, having tasted cheese made in more or less the same way at several places without getting sick,  these guys somehow know how to make cheese safe for consumption although their cheesemaking is distant indeed from the way the cheese most consumers are eating is made.

    Going back to Viscri by the same horse-drawn cart, the driver stopped on a meadow with tall grass, brought out his scythe and started scything. After about a minute, he had cut a large amount of grasses and flowers, which he put in the back of the cart as food for the horse.

    We left horse and driver at a large trough in the middle of the village where the horse could have a well-deserved drink after having worked hard.

    In the evening we visited Gerda Gherghiceanu, in whose courtyard we could watch a bunch of turkey chickens mount a ladder in order to enter their home, a hole in the wall. The mother turkey waited until all her chickens had come home before she flew up the ladder and somehow entered the small hole in the wall in order to be with her chickens. Having passed the guinea fowl, we entered a barn where 3 pigs were kept, of which one of them would probably be slaughtered at Christmas.

    Gerda is renowned for her delicious meals, but we visited her in order to see what kinds of jams and juices she made.She told us that she mainly uses fruits and berries from her own garden, while her husband makes wine from their grapes. Some of the berries get picked from her own orchard, while other ones are gathered from the surrounding forests.

    She makes the following types of jams:

    • rhubarb
    • wild strawberries
    • blackcurrant
    • plums
    • apricot
    • hiprose
    • syrups:
    • elder
    • rhubarb

    and the following juices:

    • apple
    • grape