Hello dear ones,
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to be a part of a workshop for grafting trees. I was helping with the organization and with the cooking. The workshop was in the village of Blatetz, in Kyustendil region and the man leading it was Hristo “Ashlaminatora” ( I guess his nickname in English can be translated as “the grafter”). He is famous in Bulgaria in the field of grafting. Every spring and autumn when it’s actually the season for grafting, he is visiting multiple villages around Bulgaria and teaching people this craft. This was his second visit to this village, as the first one was held in the natural estate “Blagodat”. This time the initial goal was to walk and graft trees from Blatetz to the next village, but taking under consideration the age of some of the participants it was decided that the workshop will take place around the village and on no one’s land. I don’t have pictures from the event itself because not everyone gave me a consent to post them and all of the pictures were group pictures.
We had a beautiful weather. Approximatly twenty people gathered, some with experience and some totally new to the subject. I was one of the second group. It was fun, I don’t know if it’s my cup of tea but I tried it and to be honest I felt a little bit scared that I am going to hurt the tree, which I know it’s irrational.
On Monday I went and made an interview with Ivo, who was the main organizer of the event. He is a member of Green School Village association and the Permaculture Association of Bulgaria. In the video he explains a lot more than I ever can. He is a person that is into this craft for few years now and he is doing it actively. He is on a mission of grafting as many trees as possible everywhere he goes, whether is it a city or village, if he sees a wild tree he will graft it, and the reason for it being that in this way there will be more edible fruit trees available for everyone. I am posting the video bellow.
This week I also continued with reading Bill Mollison’s book “Permaculture: a designer’s manual” I am currently reading the chapter on soil. I finished the poster for the workshop in the village of Smolichano in the childrens center “Live with love” and it is out and about on Facebook.
My fellow volunteer Poli is “freezing” her project due to a very beautiful event in her life – she is getting married. She is taking time off from the project and will be back on track with us on 24th of April.
I wish you a lovely spring weekend!
Love,
Marija
