Boiled Bulgarian Cabbage Stew

Kamila is such a helpful Camel around the house, when she is not playing with here friend, her helping hand is always there and today was no exception.

It is on the borders of winter now in Bulgaria and one of the most favourite of foods in this season, the humble cabbage. Well it may be humble in other countries but here it is the king of food in winter. Kamila had tired cabbage salad before and being a vegetarian Camel had the opinion that this was one of her most favourite foods and that the cabbage salad couldn't be surpassed, until today.

Baba was to make a boiled Bulgarian Cabbage Stew for this lunchtime and evening meal and Kamila was by her side helping out all the way through the process. She watched the ingredients go in one by one and took charge of the supervision throughout the two hour cooking period. She was fascinated by how easy the meal was to make and all the ingredients (all vegetarian) were so simple - Cabbage, tomatoes, onions, red pepper, salt and some sunflower oil was all that was required.

The meal was ready at lunchtime as we all tucked in, it was so sweet and moreish that Kamila gave this meal the mark of her favourite meal of all time and that is some accolade for a food as simple as this.

Her last remarks were, 'This cabbage meal wouldn't taste the same anywhere else!' We all agreed as we had tried it elsewhere and it just fails.

Kamila is learning all the time that the food here is the simplest and the best.

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Sausage Shaped Tomatoes

"Sausage shaped tomatoes!" Kamila called out as she took a different turn on the farm to find another field of crops that we had grown there.

"They're not tomatoes Kamila, they're red peppers" we called back.

It was an easy mistake to make as both the tomatoes and the peppers start of green turn to orange and then finally end up red. With this we couldn't blame Kamila for the easy mistake she made. It was quite funny, as now we will look at the peppers and we will always think of what Kamila called them. 'Sausage Shaped Tomatoes!'

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Hanging Tomatoes

As Kamila brushed past the garden there was something that stood out like a sore thumb. It wasn't only the sight of a bright red tomato that caught here eye but the strong smell of the tomato plants as they were touched.

Kamila had of course seen tomatoes before, we bring them back to Yambol every week from the farm, but she had never seen one hanging from the plant before being picked.

"So that's where you get them from!" was her comments as she took a closer look. Kamila was quite taken by the tomato and the fresh smell that came with it.

She also saw lots of green and orange tomatoes that wheren't quite ready to pick just yet.

"Can I take one back for Eli?" Kamila asked.

"Yes Kamila, we'll let you pick one to take back don't worry we won't forget." we replied.

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Free Tomatoes

Tomatoes from the farm we proudly announced as we brought them in the kitchen to show Kamila. These are our own home grown tomatoes and there's more where they come from we went on to tell her.

Kamila was very familiar with tomatoes, she sees them being prepared for salads every day in the kitchen here so she was a bit mystified why we were so excited.

These are our own tomatoes Kamila, not from a shop of from someone else's garden, our own produce, and they didn't cost us anything.

Kamila though for a while then said she understood now, they didn't cost any money so that's why you are excited.

Well that wasn't the full reason we were so up about it, but you know really why. Kamila has a little more to learn about Bulgaria yet. She has spent far too long in London away from gardens growing tomatoes. Perhaps we'll take her to Skalitsa to find out where the excitement comes from

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