Rural Europe on the move English_E_version_all | Page 76

CHAPTER 6
2. Orchard with traditional
fruit varieties and vegetables
“For many, living off the land enabled them to survive
the political insecurity of the transition years.”
Stability in
unstable times
When I was a child, Romanian city
celebrate religious holidays, or births,
marriages and deaths. Life under
communism was tough but eating
dwellers had to queue up for hours together was a way to forget the
each morning just to get basic food. past and ignore the future. In those
From the start of the 1980s, meat, oil moments, only the present existed.
and sugar and later bread and dairy This kind of feasting together made
was rationed, as food was in short the grey everyday bearable - you
supply. In the countryside, things were were alive because you had eaten!
quite different. We had an orchard
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prepare the food for several days to
The communist regime fell in 1989
bearing traditional fruit varieties with and with it, Romanian industry too.
various vegetables and grains growing Those who had been forced off the
between the trees. Cheese and milk land and packed into the small urban
we made from our grandparent’s flats, had the chance to return to their
sheep and cows, and we would villages and reconnect with their rural
gather medicinal and aromatic plants heritage. For many, living off the land
for tees and ointments. The food was enabled them to survive the political
fresh, simple and delicious. insecurity of the transition years: if
The Romanian celebration of food communities were able to produce
and the shared meal finds its roots in their own food, they did not have to
that time. When relatives and friends rely on a crumbling state and fragile
from the city visited us, our table economy for their food provision -
boasted rich pickings. We would they would be safe.