Crafting in Bulgaria

Well, I know quite a few incomers who've got on a plane to Bulgaria as a bus driver, general labourer or whatever only to leave the same plane at Sofia airport as a "Master Builder", which unfortunately appears to be a major part of the local culture here too.

By and large, the REAL artisans and craftsmen have moved to Northern/Western Europe, or even further afield, and are making a good living for themselves, leaving the Bulgarian Prairies free for the roving cowboys looking for some unfortunate victim to scalp....

I guess it depends how you define traditional crafts. Traditional culture is alive and well in the village we're moving to. There's an active folk music, singing and dance group, who wear local traditional clothing for their performances and when they compete. Every village has slightly different styles.

Local methods of growing and preserving food continue in many ways unchanged. Traditional foods are cooked and special breads baked for seasonal events. My elderly neighbour has a cow and makes her own artisan cheeses. My other neighbour is a skilled baker. People still gather herbs seasonally to make their own herbal medicines and herb teas.

There's a great pride in the history and culture of the area, and three small museums.

The previous owner of my house was a spinner, weaver, and skilled yarn crafter, and I have a few lovely examples of her work that were left in the house.

The traditional culture is far from lost, though is mainly practiced by older folk. But it's being taught to the kids in school, so I hope it doesn't die out. Are there active artisans now making a full-time living from their craft or teaching it? Not in my village, that I'm aware of.

There is a genuine Bulgarian master builder in the nearest city who does museum quality work restoring old buildings, that's the closest I know about.

@janemulberry

See, this is the life we are looking for, I grow/gather my own herbs and make my own salves, soaps and tinctures etc (just for personal use) amongst other traditional crafts and various 'hobbies'.  Hubby is an antique furniture restorer and traditional cabinet maker. It will be nice to have a place where we can have a workshop/space to dabble.

@ButterMyPaws19

I hope you find your home in Bulgaria.

The older people have so much traditional knowledge about herbs and healing plants - from necessity! I thought I knew a fair bit about herbs already, but I've learned so much more from my neighbour. I'll be doing  a lot of medicinal plant collecting and drying when I'm there next month.

@ButterMyPaws19

Sounds great!  Just a word of warning if your neighbours gather/grow herbs etc for you: in the villages many people will tell you that they prefer growing their own crops because then they know that they're "Bio", ie organic.  What that means in practice is that they spray them themselves with nasty chemicals like glyphosate, but it's "bio" because it comes from their own gardens; even my father-in-law does this, despite me telling him several times that it's anything but bio and that we don't like to eat food with cr*p like that on it.  My wife and I always make sure to take the ingredients for Shopska salad from our own garden when we go to visit them....

What Jim said!

I'm sure my neighbours spray their crops less than the usual supermarket produce, but I'm equally sure they still do spray with stuff I'd rather not use in my own garden. Their area for medicinal herbs is a wild patch up the back that is too steep to easily farm and is unlikely to be sprayed.

The amount of land attached to a house varies widely across regions. 1/2 acre blocks are the minimum size in our area, and almost everyone leaves a bit to grow wild. In our case we have 1/2 acre up on the hill across the valley that's been abandoned and is completely wild, and about half of our main house block is semi-wild. It's interesting how different the plants growing on each block are, though they're only a mile apart.