The twelfth edition of the National Sheep Breeders' Assembly in Bulgaria, which takes place from May 24 to 26 near Lyaskovets , already on the first day gathered thousands of admirers of animal husbandry, Bulgarian way of life, creativity and cuisine, BTA reported.
A variety of breeds of sheep and goats, shepherd dogs, elite horses, donkeys, even a two-humped camel and two llamas are presented at the assembly, and farmers from all over the country compete in attractive competitions both among themselves and between their animals and products.
The old way of life and traditions from different parts of Bulgaria are shown in the ethno-reenactment “Chiflik”, where visitors can participate in art workshops and various demonstrations. A children's workshop offers interesting activities, plein air and educational games for the youngest guests of the assembly, and the Proto-Bulgarian Survival School Baga-Tur demonstrates the fighting skills of the old Bulgarians.
For the visitors of the assembly, there are areas for sales of organic food and drinks, festive Kurban, demonstrations of old-time cuisine and old Bulgarian recipes for dairy foods, chevermets, culinary areas, exhibition of crafts, as well as agricultural machinery, equipment, fodder, specialized literature and medicines for animal husbandry.
Uti Bachvarov and his team, including Rosen Mitkov, Ludmil Lalev and Georgi Garbev, prepared almost a ton of Gergiv Kurban of lamb, with lots of vegetables, of which they distributed nearly 3,000 portions to the congregation's visitors. They cooked it for several hours, having previously prepared 100 kilograms of meat, 40 kilograms of onions, 30 kilograms of carrots and as much rice, as well as 20 kilograms of celery.
Among the participants of the assembly is Deshka Kroteva, better known as Baba Deshka, who is a master of delicious homemade food. She tells visitors about the most cherished holidays in her region and the preserved traditions, as well as about the feasts in which she is a specialist - "jalova banitsa, nenganashna pogacha, shupla and nafpavok".
Salih Pashov from the village of Borikovo lives almost like a hermit in the mountains and continues to make bito or Tulup cheese according to a recipe from 500 years ago. It is prepared from fresh sheep's milk, which, after straining, is thickened and beaten by hand in a wooden vessel until the butter separates, and then boiled until it thickens, filled in a wineskin and left to dry on a board until it ripens.
Other dairy producers offered buffalo and cow milk cheeses, as well as a blend. To some of them they add different spices – samardala, savory, salt, thyme, red pepper, and also fruits – papaya, mango, blueberries, figs, raisins, prunes, etc. Their newest product is black and white truffle, and they also make meat products. They prepare everything by hand, and their raw material comes from about 150 animals that they raise themselves.
The lamb cheverme pyramid of the brothers Veselin and Nikolay Lukanovi from Smolyan also attracted the attention of most people. The two inherited the craft from their father, and the facility was designed and assembled by him. Vesselin and Nikolay share that a good cheverme requires a lot of desire and patience, a little craftsmanship and above all love, and to flavor the meat they only use salt and the lamb's bulo with which they smear it. They say that they don't bake lambs as often as in larger quantities, reaching up to 150 in two or three days, and on the specially built pyramid they can rotate up to 14 lambs at the same time.
Marin Lesev from Gabrovo has been collecting cookbooks for 30 years. He collected about 10,000 printed editions in Bulgarian only, published in the last century and a half. The collection also includes magazines, newspapers, brochures, culinary boxes, etc. He believes that his hobby is also a way to preserve all this, because many of the books he collected are missing even in the library collections of the country, and 20 percent of his collection are editions that have completely disappeared and are not available anywhere else.
A lecturer and students from the University of Thrace in Stara Zagora in partnership with the Rescue Center for Wild Animals showed the visitors birds with permanent disabilities, letting them touch them. They had brought Mia the Bengal owl, Hari the buzzard, Lilian the forest owl and several breeds of sheep.