Seasonal Living: Lutenitsa & Firewood

This week we have been busy with preparing for the colder season. Usually, we try to use solar energy as much as possible for different things like cooking, heating the water boiler, etc. But as the days get shorter and darker this becomes more difficult, so we prepare for winter when it’s still summer.

In order to have a warm and cozy home during winter we collected some firewood in the forest. Carrying the blocks of wood from one place to another could be quite heavy sometimes, so we formed a chain to make sure that not everyone had to walk the whole distance. This was really effective and facilitated the process.

These few days of collecting the firewood are also a great example of the support between the neighbours which I really appreciate here. We collected some wood for a neighbour and his family and in return, he helped us with ours.

Moreover, I really like how varied the tasks are that we volunteers have here. Each day differs from the other and sometimes it is physically more demanding, for example with the wood. Whereas on other days we do more slower and relaxing tasks.

At the moment it’s August, thus the garden provides us with plenty of fresh vegetables and we can harvest a lot. But this will change in a few months so it is nice to preserve some of it for winter.

That’s why we decided to make some lutenitsa, which is a popular Bulgarian vegetable spread that tastes absolutely delicious.

To prepare it we roasted some red peppers and removed the peel. Together with tomatoes and spices like cumin, we boiled it for a while until it has a smooth consistency. While boiling the vegetables we played some card games together which was pretty funny. After filling the lutenitsa in jars you can store it to enjoy a taste of summer when it’s cold outside.

However, this time we didn’t make a big amount of lutenitsa and we’re probably going to finish the jars in a few days 🙂

AR