Our "Everyday Meal"

There are 100 co-workers in Tamera, members of the community, and 30 children, permanently. In addition to this, about 30 to 200 guests (for different periods of time). In winter, during the rainy season, you will find just a few guests, but in the summer, during the Summer University, the place gathers more than 300 visitors from all over the world. Guests are also washing dishes…….

Without employees, without people from outside, everything is organized and it works perfectly, without syncope. Of course, most of them are German people - this is the best explanation I could get. Punctuality is the governing law. So, at 11 o’clock sharp we are all having meal.

The chef rings the bell, comes out the kitchen’s door (the kitchen is made of a few containers tied together with extensions in wood covered by plastic wraps) and together with his team of three, salutes the crowd and announces the menu of the day, baked cauliflower, lentil dish, salads, plenty of vegetable sauces, all cooked with love! We are standing on the terrace, near the entrance, smiling. The food stands right in front of us on two long tables, on trays, where everyone is free to serve himself. Of course, everything here is vegetarian. Three assortments of food, with plenty of lentils, chick pea, beans, sometimes as a paste, indeed very tasty. The food is similar to our hotchpotch, but under multiple presentations. The bread is black, with seeds, and you can’t always find it, to my sincere disappointment. The only exception seems to be the butter, recently introduced, after a long discussion, but not because it is vital for human being (there is a long discussion about animals to be, anyhow, anywhere, including cows, not being killed, but dying of aging and given to the wild animals…..)

Another table is full of lettuce, grated carrots, beets, red cabbage, sauces and spices. Jugs with lemon or elder tree water, herbal tea and coffee are always at hand. Tangerines or oranges, you will find all day long. Just like our apples, I think. Tangerines are little, of different sizes, and of course, tasty.

For the moment, only 5 percents of the food is being produced here. The rest is bought from the proximity farms, contracted by Tamera and producing under their guidance. All neighbors are pleased about this here, in the middle of nowhere.


You can eat as much as you want, 3 dishes, it doesn’t matter, there is enough food for everyone…… this is one of the 5 kitchens in Tamera, about 50-60 people standing at the wooden tables in the shade. Under another man-made shade, on the grass, you will find the kids table, with two mothers together with 10 kids - of course fair-haired.

Shades are everywhere - the masterpiece of architect Martin Pietsch, the creator of multizone architecture, looking like enormous flowers, wings of flying insects, sand dunes, and fabulous insects. Manufactured only from wood strips, cables and weaved meshes…. Green, white, all colors, they hold us together most of the time.

So we take any sit at the table, no matter where….…. Today, my table neighbors are from Greece and Portugal. We eat and talk, I ask how long are they living here, and I find out that for one month, they would like to start an eco village and they are here to find out more about this. There are 2 women about 30-35 years old.

Once in a while, with a bowl instead of a bell, two strapping fellows start singing, at the kitchen’s door….. a parody song from Jungle's Book movie, ending with the invitation to wash the dishes. 6 volunteers needed………… people is laughing and one by one, we have 6. This is what happens at every meal, a new song everyday, the more successful, more volunteers appear. Tomorrow will be my turn, I’m thinking now. I wish to know what does washing dishes in Tamera mean….

Once the meal finished, everyone cleans their own plate and the cutlery: in 3 waters in the 6 sinks by the entrance and put them on large trays, going to the dishwasher. Any rest of food, if there is one, more tangerine peels, is kept in pails and used to make bio gas.

I have the same feeling as in my childhood during summer camps. Some of the people here use to walk barefoot, in the sun, and everyone is ageless….. It is 12 o’clock now and the entire group has a meeting at the Student Centrum, Helena and Ria are waiting for us, they will be outr guised for the next week……