The real treasure of Romania * Documentary

A documentary about the World changing...

I can’t hold a smile, my thought flies to the saying “the last ones will be the first ones”... maybe we are blessed because we're not such a developed country, less corrupted by the modern progress, maybe we haven’t yet ruined everything, maybe we still know how to manage living in the countryside, to consume what our garden produces, maybe because our parents are still making pickles and keep potatoes in the cellar, maybe because we still know how to make wine and cheese, because we still know to weave and get well drinking boiled plum brandy, maybe we still have a chance...

Not that this would be enough, but it still represents something; at least we don’t think that chicken is coming from the supermarket and we know how to bake a bread at home.

I'm looking how Romania is passing now in pole position, because the race took a different course, so it seems; so far we didn't have the chance walk in our new shiny shoes, there is a bumpy road ahead and luckily we still kept the gum shoes, we didn't throw them away, we have just repudiated them...

I've had lots of fun for myself in Tamera during the seminar about food; they preach the idea to come back to the habit of consuming aliments according to the season, fresh, without the killing procedures happening these days before the food gets to the supermarket - which is in fact a great idea, and correct way to feed ourselves. Maybe my mother remembers when the pea comes into season, the new potatoes, the cherries, and so on... I also used to know once and I remember that I couldn’t wait to eat the first strawberries of the season, or the first apricots. Now you may whistle for the taste, but we have them all year round: the same strawberry, in plastic, and as much as I try not to go with the wind, I cannot find something authentic Romanian to buy, not even in the villages nearby Bucharest, not talking about the city itself.

During the seminary they described different ways and attempts of food preserving, especially by dehydrating, namely drying, as a way to keep the aliments through the winter time. They were looking for alternatives... so, if you still have elders in your family, you should treasure their knowledge, ask them to teach you how to preserve apples for the winter, how to make sour cabbage, how to keep the carrots in the sand, how to keep the grapes for entire moths, because this information we will be needing all soon! Of course I have told them that we Romanians are still holding this knowledge...

With this I have really took them by surprise, I have told them we still hold these habits, that the mirage of supermarkets did not own us yet, that my mother still collects and dries herbs, keeping them in jars for her stocks! Now I get explained why in another Eco village in Germany, responsible for the farm milk was a Romanian woman! Look for the old recipes, I mean it... who wishes to go to Tamera and teach them, is welcome, they are waiting for you, seriously!

In most parts of the country side, living with what you can grow at home was mostly the traditional way of living until about 20 years ago. The ones living in the villages used to provide food to the ones living in the city. Who is now more than 40-45 years old knows exactly what I'm talking about. In the western society, this memory is still kept by those over 75 years old, maybe because they had the misfortune of being "saved" by supermarkets and the industrialized agriculture.

We Romanians still know how to cook; there are others that don’t even know how to prepare a cake, not talking about home made noodles!?!

In Tamera they were wondering how many hectares will be enough in order to feed from what they cultivate...

In the countryside my grandparents used to have a small garden for fresh vegetables and another yard of 1000 square meters, I remember... and you don’t want to know how many things they were growing there at the same time! The agricultural land outside the village was with the grape vines and the corn, the wheat...

I suddenly felt the desire to embrace everything we have in Romania, all our troubles; from there our country seems like a promised land, that I guarantee you! In a way, the fact that it wasn’t so easy for us, now it seems to be a blessing! Maybe finally we've found something to treasure!

A movie recommended by my new friends from Romania in Transition (intranzitie.org):

In Transition 1.0
(Thank you!)

Enjoy!