Just got my Steemit account approved! Greeting from Bulgaria!
I've been blogging since 2002 (wow, just realized that's 15 years!) and always wanted an English language blog, but mostly lacked the incentive. As my adventure in the uncharted lands of permaculture and parenting unfolds, I find myself more and more willing to put the effort needed into this, wanting to share it with the world.
We, as a family, are currently transitioning from urban to rural life. A transition many are considering or have undertaken in the recent years. So sharing our experience could be helpful and beneficial to plenty of people, especially those in similar context: temperate / cold climate, small scale permaculture, rural / suburban gardening, working dad / stay-at-home mom, homeschooling, foraging, natural remedies...
A bit of a backstory. I grew up in a city on the Black Sea coast. Summers were spent divided between helping my grandparents with their rural garden and enjoying a ton of sea-related outdoor adventures. My grandfather was a self-taught master gardener! With the indispensable help of Grandma, he looked after a small rural plot overflowing with fruit trees (most of them he grafted himself), grape vines, berry shrubs, nut trees, annual vegetables... I learned a lot from him in my teenage years!
Skip forward 15 years of working in the print & advertising industry and you'll find me just married, with a baby on the way, studying permaculture, ecology, botany, herbal medicine... and spending many sleepless nights with my girl charting the course of our future live.
In 2014 we bought a small property in a village near Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria). That's what it looked like - a lush meadow, full of herbs and wild flowers, that's been used for pasture now and then in the last 50 years. No industrial farming, no tilling, no chemicals and heavy machinery - just Nature left to thrive.
In 2015 we stared creating our future garden, as well as building our future home. By this time (end of 2017) our garden has just finished its second productive year, our baby fruit trees have started to bloom, our home is halfway done and we've got two great helpers, aged 5 and 2, always willing to pitch in... and have a nibble in the garden!
For 6-7 months of the year, we get some sort of yield from the garden and it's only just in its infancy. Once the fruit and nut trees come in production and once we finish the interplanting of the orchard with a long list of herbs and shrubs and beneficial plans (most of those are now present on site and are in process of multiplying), we'll have almost year-round harvest. If we manage to save a few bucks for a greenhouse, it'll be 100% around the year!
Along with our passion for gardening and permaculture, we're also into papermaking. Mostly recycling office scrap, but also making plant-based pulp from scratch. Our paper usually becomes business cards, handmade albums and diaries, wedding invitations and... lamps?
We also do workshops, demonstrations, we love working with kids in local schools as well! As this side of our life is too large to include in this already long post, I'll just leave you with a link to our site: bghandmade.com - it's in Bulgarian, but Google Translate manages quite well and the photos do not need a translation anyway!
(Yes, that's us, working with a class of children, while our newborn daughter sleeps in the sling!)
I could go on and on, but knowing that most of the readers won't make it even this far, I better leave something for future posts. Thank you for your patience :) !
Welcome! I love hearing all about your journey! My husband and I are in our 6th month of a new homestead, and are starting it from the ground up, too. We have a small orchard on the property already that's been neglected for maybe 10 years? So I'm studying the art of keeping an orchard (a surprisingly complicated subject!!) but I'd love to hear more about what you plan to grow on the ground in your orchard. I had never thought to use this area for anything, but now it seems so obvious!
Hey - welcome to steemit - there are loads of permaculturey type people on here for you to connect with. Have followed and look forward to future posts! Kate
Thank you, Kate! I followed you as well - I'm fascinated by South America and my cousin lives in Lima, Peru :)
Have you visited the gardens of Ernst Gotsch??
Hiya, Actually I've recently come over to the UK, I'm missing Brazil so much! I heard so much about Ernst but I never did visit his farm. It's funny, he has such a following as though he's some sort of demi-God. I will admit and maybe this may be interpreted by some as blasphemous, but ultimately he was just a European who knew how to market what he was doing and I guess had the Western education to present it in an intelligible translatable framework, there's plenty of traditional Brazilians who've being managing land in really sustainable ways for generations. Whilst it shouldn't take away from his achievements and his undeniable status as a leader, I think praise should be tempered with an appreciation of the privelege that got him to where he got. Lol, there it is, I said it! lol. Don't shoot me!
Oh I completely agree! However it is also true that reaching a bigger audience and making a larger impact needs a proper method. Some rural dwellers will never be able to make waves, at least not without a team of connectors and communicators and marketers if you will!
So in this context Ernst is doing an excellent job. I look at him as a catalyst to a reaction. Without him and others like him, it might be too late to act by the time the general public gets on board with the problems of industrial agriculture.
I absolutely agree, I guess it's the demi-God status that I object too! ;)
Great story! I love what you all are doing, and I wish you the best in all your endeavors!
Congratulations @bobydimitrov! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPWelcome to Steemit! Glad to have another homesteader on board. Following, upvoted and resteemed.
My brother from another mother :) great job you are doing there I love things that you described and can imagine rest what comes with permaculture. I started similar project here last year and it is going very well so many new and creative ideas come with permaculture practically endless possibilities I would like to recommend this interesting story just to see another point of view on this same subject http://www.appropedia.org/images/d/d3/Onestraw.pdf.
Probably you can find video form on YT as well
How i can find you in discord or any other chat? @bobydimitrov
I'm glad you found your way to the Discord server!
Fukuoka was one of my early inspirations! In later years, I started learning from people in similar climates as ours, like Ben Falk (amazing book), Mark Sheppard, Patrick Whitefield, Sepp Holzer, etc...
A particularly interesting interview with David Holmgren, touching on many different topics that relate to what we're talking about is this:
My heart is full now when I'v found you @bobydimitrov and this beautiful @homesteade community
Welcome Aboard. Glad you are here. Check out my article on Bulgaria https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@jetblake/bulgaria-seizes-200-000-bitcoin-from-crime-ring-can-now-pay-off-nation-s-debt
Officials either deny this operation or say it's "classified". facepalm
https://bivol.bg/en/bulgarian-interior-ministry-and-prosecutors-office-classify-bitcoins-worth-bgn-4-billion.html
Welcome Bobydimitrov
Welcome to Steemit! Your garden harvests look amazing! You'll find a lot of homesteaders, gardeners and permies here. Only been here a couple of weeks myself, but I'm constantly amazed by the quality of people and content I come across. Looking forward to seeing more of your permaculture journey!
Just two days in and already I've amassed a long list of posts to read, videos to watch :) Cheers and thanks!
Welcome from a newcomer too. I really admire people that Go live a rural life but i gotta say, i cant live without moderno urban life things...
I know exactly what you mean :) So we're building a modern home with all conveniences plus some backups, like central and solar electricity, running water + rain catchment + water well. We're also situated near the capital, so if we get the sudden and inexplicable urge to soak up some urban sounds and sights (shudders at that thought), it's just a short drive or bus ride away!
Wow! Can't wait to see your blogs as you guys transition and make awesome things from paper! Welcome to steemit @bobydimitrov :)
Thanks! Never expected such a warm welcome from the whole community!
welcome to steemit...in here you belong...
Welcome to Steemit! Somehow I missed this post, but glad I caught it within the 7 day window. Great story, we're from completely different parts of the world but share a similar journey. Upvoted, resteemed, and followed.
Thank you, this seems like a great place to connect with like-minded people around the world :)
What is this 7 day window, could you elaborate?
After 7 days, you can no longer make any money on a post. You have one payout, 75% goes to you the author, and 25% goes to the curators. So I was just glad I can give you my two cents, literally with an upvote 😜
Oooh, nice info, gotta read into those FAQs a bit more then :) Thanks!
Are you on discord and have you joined the homesteader's online community? Discord is being used as the unofficial chat and direct messaging service for steemit right now.
Join the Homesteader's Online Discord community here https://discord.gg/VKCrWsS
Nope, haven't heard of Discord, will try to join now! Thank you once again!
Yup, I did that too. Went from big city to rural farm community now we're in a mid-rural area. LOVE it though!