Once upon a time in far, far village a mighty king ruled the orchard. He was named Martin, just Martin. No last name was ever given to him, because his power was so mighty, that there was no need to difference him from the others Martin’s who lived.
Humans was his servants, they brought grains and had been taking great care of his royal family and of the orchard. His servants were living in a house near the orchard, it was five of them. They were named Maja, Matjaž, Luka, Ema and Samo. Martin was used to them and they were used to Martin. Then one cold day 4 new servants came. As the legend goes, they came in winter, but who knows. Luisa, Mateja, Jeremy and Arnaud were their names. They came from far France, Belgium and from not so far Ljubljana (Slovenia). Maybe the last servant was the less exotic one. But she was nice. At the beginning they didn’t have much contact with the king and his royal family. They needed to earn the privilege to be with them. But then came a sunny week and Mateja and Luisa earned the privilege to go and renovate a part of the orchard. Martin and the royal family (aka all his women) stayed a little distant at the beginning, but Martin was bothered by the smell and looks of the two new servants. At the beginning he was just observing them from the distance and in one point he decided to go and check the situation. He decided for a rather strange approached, instead of slowly approaching he run straight towards Mateja. She was so scared that she also started running away from him and screaming for help. Matjaž, Matjaž, she screamed. The run ended with a jump over the fence. After the run and the jump Martin was a little confused about what happened. Like as he didn’t done nothing wrong. Strange. After the fiasco, Matjaž came as a mediator and as one of the servant leaders, and properly introduced Martin to Mateja. Part of the introduction was also cuddling and bonding. It kind of worked but maybe too much. After the bonding Martin became obsessed with Luisa and Mateja, he didn’t want to leave them. He became a little annoying. He was watching them, walking around them, approaching them from one side and another. So, their work was disturbed and they were more and more annoyed. Not just by the presence, but also by the strong scent of Martin. Because of the continuing of the fiasco, Matjaž came again. A true warrior and leader of the servants he was. He took Martin and carried him away and the women followed to the other part of the orchard. Luisa and Mateja were relieved for a short period of time, just a short. Because they all heard a strange noise. It was Martin running, running like crazy and coming back to check the new servants. He came alone and didn’t care much about were his women were. Because he was so used, that they always follow him. But they didn’t, we still don’t know why. Maybe there was same anger in the air, or they were jealous. Maybe. Martin noticed that he was alone and got completely crazy. He was running in circles, his breathing was crazy, his heart almost exploded, and he couldn’t find them. He made three circles in the orchard. Up, down, left, right and he could find them. He was getting more and more frustrated and it was more and more funny. He was the first king in the history of Jarenina, who didn’t need a last name. And the first king who lost his women. Embarrassing it was. The agony continued for a little bit and then he found them. What happened will be a mystery for us all. Maybe they were hiding, maybe Martin forgot of a hidden part of the orchard, maybe there were aliens in the story, maybe it was just the age of Martin and his short vision..... But the most important thing is, that the royal family was reunited and Mateja and Luisa were saved that day, aka not bothered by the appearance and the scent of Martin. We cannot say that they all lived happily ever after, but they tried. Written by an organic warrior Mateja aka ROZABICIKL
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Almost each weekday, I take my bag with gloves, water, hat or scarf depending on the weather. I go to work and learn organic farming with Maja and Matjaz and my covolonteers. I like the collective work. I don't feel always as efficient as the others, but I am very grateful to work with kind and respectful people. We make a lot of things, sometimes in a group, sometimes alone. Always, what is done is a collective gratification, because everyone do as good as he can. That's what we learn here.
With all of its happiness and sometimes tangles, collective life is a set of individual stories, Today, the story is : « At the beginning, were four volunteers : Mateja, Arnaud, Jeremy and Luisa. They became the best volunteers'team ever. But Jeremy had a sore feet and had to go back to Belgium. The team is still alive and waits for new adventures. » So, each day one bag and three roommates. Two rooms, one bathroom, one outdoor table under a plumtree. Rain, snow, wind, sun. Songs, food, movies, bikes. Smiling, farting, talking, writing. Learning. Music with Jeremy. Sloven with Mateja. Painting with Luisa. Crafting with Arnaud. Inventing new crazy eco baraki horizons. Nowadays, it’s easy to forget that vegetables don’t grow at the same time, and it’s even easier to forget the massive efforts required to get a freshly harvested tomato on your plate during the winter.
When I would talk about food seasonality with my father in Belgium, he would only talk about bad memories of him having to eat the same thing from his grandparent’s garden for weeks in his childhood at the countryside. Then I worked at my brother’s restaurant that would only work with seasonal products while having to change their menu every two weeks, and really realized what it means when he had to figure out how to cook the same turnips, carrots, potatoes and celeriac in various and delicious ways for a few months. But he managed to, and every time it was a success. Now, since I got here at the Ekopot farm, I’ve lived through more than a month of red beet at virtually every meal, and I could go on till they disappear from the cellar. Obviously, we don’t feed only on red beet, but at the end of winter season, it’s one the only things that we have in – so we believe – near infinite amounts. The farm is 80% self-sufficient in food, and that includes homemade canned products that we use in the winter when fresh products go fewer. So we do with what we have. Red beet basically flows through my veins now, and what amazes me is that not once I – or my body – complained about it. The thing is that I never could dream of doing that with supermarkets’ red beet. Thus why I couldn’t ask that from my fellow citizens. The reason I can do it is that I have access to sweet and tasteful products, grown with care and expertise by the Turinek and their volunteers. Yet, food seasonality matters on many levels. Environmentally, having all sorts of products available at all times of year is a logistic and ecological aberration, yet is the norm and the goal that global food trade purposes to achieve. Besides, observing food seasonality is a great way to reconnect with nature and its rythms, going from the slow and bittersweet winter to the colorful and lush summer vegetables, as well as a great stimulus to get creative in the kitchen, as constraints enable creativity much more than unlimited access to any product at any time. That is why we can’t strive for more sustainable food consumption without alternative, local and organic food supply chains, that can provide quality products throughout all the year, that will make you yearn for every season, because you will know that you will reunite with those products that have become vividly associated with these periods of time in your memories. That’s how food becomes meaningful again, and stops to be a bland, given and random consumable like any other. Synopsis: A family (parents and their daughter) comes in an alternative place in France to visit a friend. They stay some days and discover, thanks to the habitants, new environmental, social and politic principles to think and build an other society, more respectful of human and earth. Soon, they all understand that a « pandemic » has killed everybody on the planet, except them, i.e. those who are into the alternative place. Nobody else : the occasion to build their dream society ? And to face their paradoxes and the limits of the idealist ideas. The movie describs/caricatures with humour new ways of thinking and experimenting the community life. No theoretical principles are perfect, but when the society faces critical situations, we need to try and experiment new ideas. Only who doesn't do nothing doesn't make mistakes. I advise you this movie, to laugh a bit in this non-funny pandemic of Covid-19, which gets the importance of local food production and regional selfsufficiency across to us. Courage and take care ️ I had been a vegetarian for a long time and always I was told, that it is easy for me. They said: '' You are a girl, you don’t work hard, you live in a city, you don’t know what hard work is, you don’t work physical... ''. And I never argued, because I don't like the ''religious'' vegetarians, who are fighting online and in the streets for a greener diet. But I tried to be calm and explained them the fact, that in the past the workers and farmers didn’t always had meat on the table. They eat it one or max two times per week, or more or less when they had it. But even that didn’t work, it was the same arguments about my easy lifestyle and being a girl.
Then last month I moved to Jarenina, to work as European Solidarity Corps volunteer in an NGO, EKO POT. As many of you know, this is an organization that provides knowledge about organic/biodynamic farming, sustainable lifestyle and self-sufficiency. The farming part in the NGO came with a lot of physical work, even though I m a girl, as many said to me before, I need to work the same hours and do the same jobs as men do. And the most interesting part for me is, that the our diet is more or less vegetarian. So, we have 4 meals per day. We start with breakfast (bread, butter, marmalades, vegetarian spreads, cereals), then there is a cold lunch break (salad, cheese, bread, vegetarian spreads), warm lunch (rice, pasta, potatoes, vegetables, soup) and dinner (each takes what they like, but a lot of times we eat leftovers from lunch). Meat is almost never on the table during the weeks, more or less it comes with weekends. When there is more time to prepare a more complicated dish. And we are all still alive. The work is never easy. In our community we have three strong kids, that have a healthy body and run like crazy when they are outside. So next time when somebody will said to me: '' You are a girl, you don’t work hard, you live in a city, you don’t know what hard work is, you don’t work physical... '', I think I will start smiling and tell them the story of my ESC volunteer experience. For the end I want to say, that this short ''diary report '' is not a paper about being a vegetarian is the only and the best option. But I think that a diet with meat 7 times per week on your plate is a delusion and not a healthy way to live. I support eating meat one or two per week, if you know from where the meat comes. So, eat smart and try to buy local. I hope you are not panicking too much because of the situation on our planet right now. Written by an organic warrior from Slovenia, Mateja Marovt |
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December 2020
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