Eco-Culinary Tour in the Rhodope Range
Do you like eating jam when you are on a holiday? If so, do not hesitate to take a vacation in the Bulgarian Rhodope Mountain. Except for its enchanting landscape the mountain will offer you mouth-watering and irresistible scents floating from every village house or family hotel. What people value here the most is a traditional cuisine based on old grannies' recipes, as well as eco-friendly and GMO- free products that are grown in the region. So, don’t worry, eat as much as you want with no pricks of conscience: the Rhodope menu is healthy and easy to digest. It is a must to see the Rhodope dairy farms and bio farms, which will offer you typical food from the region.
Many people associate the Rhodopes with juicy potato meals, spicy parsley-flavoured soups, mouth-watering barbecues and….putting on a few more kilos than usual. The culinary emotions you will experience here will leave a permanent mark on you changing your attitude towards food. It is a matter of honour for the Rhodope people to cover the table with typical local dishes prepared with products from their own gardens. For instance, many local people make their own cheese and milk. They will treat you to freshly-laid eggs with big yellow yolks and spicy flat sausages made from beef and pork. The vegetables of the Rhodope people are fresh, sweet and delicious arrayed in orderly backyard beds. By all means, you should taste the Rhodope jams, bottled fruit, marmalades and honey! The local people will also treat you to rakia (a strong alcoholic drink produced by distillation of fermented fruit), which is boiled in a special cauldron. A very typical drink of the region with a somewhat sharp taste is the so-called barkanitsa (mingle-mangle). It is made from the liquid that is left when the fat content of the yoghurt is removed. It should be noted that a lot of Rhodope people are still churning butter themselves, says Milkana Yordanova, chair of the cooperation for cheese production in the village of Smilyan, who often demonstrates churning in home conditions. The Smilyan cooperation produces typical Rhodope types of cheese that can compete with popular Swiss, French and Italian brands. Yet, the local people pride themselves the most on the Rhodope Cheese that is made according to the region’s ancient traditions.
“We call it also men’s cheese”, Milkana Yordanova explains. “It is a prototype of the Parmesan rivaling it for taste, savour and hardness. Unfortunately, it is not popular around the world. It is made from cow’s milk which is very high in fat in the Rhodopes. The fermentation process is affected by our high altitude and atmospheric pressure. So, the Rhodope Cheese can be produced only here, in the Rhodope dairy farms”, Milkana Yordanova told Radio Bulgaria.
You must also try the Rhodope yoghurt that is so dense that you might need a knife to cut it through. And it has a wonderful effect on the health! Your hosts will most surely demonstrate how they prepare it in home conditions using their own yeast that contains the well-known lactobacillus bulgaricus. This bacteria, which makes the milk ferment, can often be found on the leaves of the geraniums and on the bark of the willow trees in the Rhodopes. “It happens that the milk curdles itself since the bacteria grows in abundance on our pastures and permeates the milk” Ms Yordanova says. A most hailed specialty in the region is the Smilyan beans that are grown only in the Middle Rhodopes. You will not be able to resist them especially when they are stewed in a pumpkin. If eating healthily has become a lifestyle for you, you must drop by the village of Bachkovo. There you will find the biodynamic farm of the Stoyanov Family, who are hosting tourists all year round. You will get to know their unique bio methods for growing fruit, vegetables and grain crops according to the Moon´s different cycles.
“We have a kitchen which the guests can use or they can eat our eco foods” Dimitar Stoyanov, owner of the farm says. “We cook for them pancakes, pastries that are prepared on a special iron pan or our delicious vegetarian Bachkovo hothcpotch”.
Whether you eat products grown in acorrdance with the Moon´s phases or simle village meals you will most surely experiece a culinary adventure in the Rhodopes that will kindle a wish in you to live a wholesome life in harmony with nature.
Text and photo source: bnr.bg
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