Strawberries

So, to address the question: what do you do all day when you work 8 hours a week and have no kids? I have planned a series of blogs that illustrate what exactly it is I do here in Slovakia. It occurred to me today that I am learning how to live. They don't do things the same way at all here in Pezinok, and I find that is not the case in Bratislava.

There they have laptops and cellphones attached to their ears. They cook from packages and mixes. They take cabs and go out to bars and go shopping and all those regular things that I know so well from New York. Everything is different in the villages.

First of all, no English. We have fresh eggs, fancy homemade recipes, pigeons, rabbits, chickens. Everyone rides a bike. I love the old witches creeping along on their bikes with their head scarves and baskets. Everyone gets excited over fresh vegetables, mushroom hunting, killing pigs, making wine, and most of all fresh strawberries.

I am not the strawberry expert. Milan's mom is the one who planted all the strawberries, but apparently I share a particular love with Johnny Depp who says that one of his favorite things is checking to see how his garden is growing. Doubt he does much work in it after seeing how Milan's mom slaves. So, I have photographed these little darlings from about March until today when I photographed the jam we made from them. I get about 4 cups of strawberries out of that garden every day now. It's amazing. Just add water. They didn't call me "strawberry girl" when I was little for nothing. We've had strawberry cake and shortcake, and we've made lovely salads with them. Thank you to those who sent Bisquik. It is sooo yummy.





The garden is full of treats. It's the most amazing thing. Today I wanted to prepare something for dinner. So, I went out to the garden and found a good sized head of lettuce, a big, green onion, some broccoli, celery and spice. I brought them all over to the well pump and washed them the way Milan's mom showed me how. You do it there because the water from the well is free. The water from the tap ("vodu z vodovodu"-one of my favorite words) is very expensive. In other words though, tonight's dinner came from the backyard.




So, anyway, have a looksee at my "jahody"... sounds dirty doesn't it?