Week 1 - Picking cherries, smelling roses and making friends

Someone once said that life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all... 

And I think they might have been right. 

One week ago a group of five strangers from foreign countries sat on their planes and buses and flew, or drove, to a tiny little Bulgarian village.

Why, you ask?...

 The short answer would be, to become ESC volunteers, at a beautiful permaculture project. 🌿👍

Although each and every one of us has their own story to share, what I will say is that we were all hungry for an adventure. 

We left our homes and everything we knew to challenge ourselves and push our limits, 

to see what we are made of, 

to have fun, to play, to unlearn and learn anew,

 to expand our minds and become thicker skinned,  

to help and be of use, 

and to experience a different kind of life and surround ourselves with people that motivate and inspire us. 

And now we are here... 

In this tiny Bulgarian village called Shipka, learning from our amazing teachers, from the Balkan Ecology Project and from the Green School Village, how to grow food and other beneficial resources for ourselves and our communities, in a way that mimics nature and enhances the natural biodiversity. 

Here we are given the chance and are inspired to become the agents of change, that will not only benefit us, but will also benefit other people and beings and the natural world on a local and global scale. 

We will learn how to regenerate depleted land and live and act in a way that is respectful and mindful of the world and nature that surrounds us. 

We will help elderly people in their gardens and in exchange for our help they will share with us some traditional knowledge and hopefully some beautiful seeds. 

We will learn how to plan, create and carry out cool community projects :D

The next six months are without a doubt going to be exciting and productive. If you want to share this beautiful journey with us, make sure you stay tuned...  but for now let's dive into our first week here.

Our first week in Shipka was a little bit chaotic and a lot of fun. 

In the first five days upon our arrival we were already making new friends, sharing a home, picking cherries, roaming the nearby meadows, collecting wild roses and herbs, planting garden beds and enjoying this new way of life. 

We planted our first polyculture garden bed. 

A garden bed that is completely different from the garden beds we are used to seeing. 

Polyculture gardens are focused on enhancing biodiversity and soil health. Rather than the balm to our eyes, they are the balm to millions of diverse organisms and greatly contribute to the health of the soil and surrounding environment. 

Sophie and Paul, the founders of the Balkan Ecology Project, the project that we are a part of, have dedicated their lives to the extensive research on how people could grow their food and other resources in a way that enhances biodiversity. The polyculture garden bed that Sophie helped us plant, is a great example of their work. It's called the Zeno and you can read everything about it here: Balkan Ecology Project : Polyculture Trials 2016 - Home Garden Records.

What we did was plant the garden bed with different types of annual vegetables and herbs, that improve each other's growth and health.  We planted the tomatoes, beans, courgettes and basil. Also, we have decided to let some of the beneficial native plants inhabiting the Zeno bed, grow there as well, as we believe they will in turn attract the pollinators, enrich the soil, or keep the the pests at bay.

Zeno polyculture isn't the only thing Sophie showed us the first week. She also took us on a tour around their big forest gardens that are located near by and that we will be working on in the next months.

 

All these white squares that you see are the plot of lands that the Balkan Ecology Project bought to prevent the big monoculture farming fields from spreading and causing damage to the local biodiversity and nature. Some of these are the forest gardens that we will be caring for and working on. 

But week one wasn't all work. 

Misha, our volunteer coordinator from the Green School Village, took us on a beautiful hike to the hills surrounding Shipka. 

It was a beautiful walk. We were surrounded by luscious nature and all kinds of creatures. On the way we had the chance to observe and admire the ancient Thracian ruins that spoke an old tale of the culture that was here before us. 

What also made the first week special for us were the abundant cherry trees with their branches full of ripe cherries, that were just waiting to be picked. I don't think any of us had ever eaten as many cherries before as we did in the first week here. On our walks through the village we would stop at every single cherry tree to enjoy their fruits. 

Our first week here was so sweet. 

And not just that... It smelled good too. 

Shipka is located in the Valley of the Roses. 

And when we arrived, all the rose bushes were in full bloom. 

Big pink fields of them, accompanied by the blooming poppies and other beautiful flowers and herbs popping up everywhere and creating an even dreamier scenery. We collected some of the herbs and flowers that we will be using for tea mixes and ointments in the following weeks and had put them to dry.

Are you ready for our second week? 

We are both ready and excited to spend even more time outside, learning and observing, picking and digging and planting and sowing. 

Don't forget to join us next week when we will have even juicier tales to share :)

Brought to you by Tara from Slovenia, 

Cheers!