Good afternoon to all!
Today I will tell you about my visit in Venets permaculture farm. Venets is a magnificient permaculture project created by Catherine- a very kind and passionate woman who decided to create a small paradise in Todorovo village (near Pleven) and Debnevo village (near Troyan). I was so lucky to be able to hear the story of Venets by Catherine while walking through her magical gardens.
First, we started with the garden next to the house she was so kind to let us sleep in. The variety of plants I saw in both gardens was countless. In the first garden there was a green house where Catherine kept her tomato seedlings and coriander. You can see the inside of the green house in the cover image of the blog. In order to create heat in the green house she put big apple crates and filled them with horse manure and soil and then she planted some seedlings.
All the produce from this garden goes to the lucky people who have subscribed for a CSA box (which means “a community-supported agriculture box”). The box is filled with seasonal organic produce. The elderberry which you can see in the photo above was going to be included as well. I was so impressed by the fact that Catherine was finding a purpose for each plant in the garden. There was no waste at all.
The garden had all kinds of salad greens, shiso (a japanese herb in the mint family), kiwi, sorrel, perennial herbs, salvia (used for pollinators), spinach (normal and caucasian), asian salads, perennial onions, rhubarb, strawberries, horseradish, kale, chives, peas, comfrey, beets, mangold and so so many more.
I am excited to share with you that this weekend we are continuing with our adventures by going to a village called Mezek (in the foot of the Rhodope mountain) for 4 days. We are going to plant some vegetables with the children from the village and we will teach them about Plant guilds.
Next week I will continue with my tour through the enormous fruit trees garden of Venets. Thank you for reading!
See you soon!
Polin
PS: If you are curious to read more about Venets permaculture farm you can check the blog post of another ESC volunteer from our organization here: https://pab.greenschoolvillage.org/week-14-an-introduction-to-polyculture-farm-venets/
