Hello dear ones,
This week I went to help in a LAND center candidate in the village of Blatec, Kyustendil region. We were planting, weeding and watering the garden. My observation after this work really inspired me to do a poster about mulching, its importance and the right way to do it. In my gardening experience, I have had some teaching in the process of mulching that are universal, but I didn’t take the effort of first getting informed. I thought that you just put a thick layer of mulch (even on top of planted seeds) and that’s it, the weeds will not grow, but the plant will somehow magically grow. I was wrong of course and after waiting for quite some time for the seed to grow into seedling I decided to see what is happening under the mulch and discovered small seedling with very weak steams, and even after I uncovered them they didn’t survive. This was the first year, in my defense, but we live and we learn. A few days ago when I was working in the LAND center candidate garden, on one of the raised beds half of it had a proper amount of mulch and the other half had very little with a few uncovered places. I got to work on the both halves and the difference was so obvious in the quality of the soil, in the weeds and in the moisture. After that my coordinator sent me a poster about mistakes we are doing while mulching, and so I said ok this is a sign, this week one of my subjects will be about mulching. So I made this poster about how to properly mulch in Bulgarian.
In the village where this LAND center candidate is located they had an annual gathering while I was there, so I took part of it, by making traditional bread with sourdough. It turned out delicious, so I am sharing the recipe below:
1kg of white flour
5 eggs
300ml milk
250 gr of the sourdough Levito Madre
1 tbs of salt
120gr of softened butter
We mix all the ingredients and knead the well and leave it for 6 hours on room temperature. I usually make it in the morning and in the evening I form it. And when it is formed, we leave it again for 6 hours on room temperature. Then we spread ½ of a beaten egg on top of the bread, and we sprinkle with sesame. We bake it on 200 degrees Celsius until golden brown (around 30–40 minutes, but check the oven). Then you enjoy. I just want to mention that the sourdough Levito Madre does not make the bread sour, it is like a yeast but healthier, it just takes more time.
Love,
Marija
