Croatian Farm Life & Day 15!

We arrived late yesterday afternoon in the small village of Karanac and are enthusiastically greeted by the owners of this agri-tourism farm, Dennis and Goca, along with their friendly dogs and cats.

Frieda makes friends with anyone who will give her a belly-rub!

We gather for a warm welcome with sour cherry brandy and fresh doughnuts with apricot jam.  Everything is homemade and delicious!

Our rooms are quaint and comfy, and then we go on a tour of their property.  The houses here are narrow and long, and this one was built by Dennis’s great, great grandfather.  Family living quarters were historically in the front portion of the property near the street, and the livestock lived in the back.  Luckily, there is no livestock now!

  

The growing season is ending, but Dennis’s garden yields potatoes, carrots, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, watermelon, cantaloupe, and an assortment of herbs.  A neighbor has an orchard of hazelnut trees.  Dennis only has two acres here, but he has several other farms of forty acres each where he raises wheat and corn.

Smoked hams hang along with dried pods of paprika and peppers. There are lots of pigs in the area, but not much beef.  Stephen, their son, fishes to add some variety to the meals.

  

Dennis makes whatever is needed for the home…a bench and a table…

  

and Goca cooks, cans, sews, and bakes.  They are an amazing team!

The house and yard hold a multitude of treasures.  

Nothing is thrown away; it just finds a new purpose!

  

If you can’t find a use for it, use it for decoration!
  

Goca shows us how to make cheese from scratch after a neighbor delivers milk.  It is so fresh it was inside the cow 40 minutes ago!  We taste it, and it is still warm!

She heats the milk after straining it, and adds rennin, an enzyme to curdle milk.  After sitting for 30 minutes, thick lumps or curds form.  These are removed from the pale liquid whey…which we also taste, put into a press, herbs such as garlic and dill are added if desired, and covered.  The containers sit on the table ready for breakfast tomorrow!

We divide into two groups, and Robyn and I go to a neighbor’s home for another home-hosted meal.  Bridgetta prepares sausages, red pepper relish, cabbage slaw, baked potatoes, bread, pickled peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, polenta…the dishes fill a long table seated with twelve of us!  

An exceptionally thin multi-layer cake called Hungarian ladies are dessert.  

With Jupiter bright in the sky, but everything else dark around us, several of us walk back to the farm down the middle of the road at 8 PM!  The joy of country village life!

My cute bedroom has the heat on, and I am immediately opening windows and the door.  I guess I will be hearing the roosters in the morning!

We awake to a chilly morning, but the coffee mugs warm our hands as we gather in the farm courtyard at 7 AM.  I didn’t hear any roosters this morning, but the crows in the trees across the street are noisy!

Frieda greets guests in the morning!

  

For those willing, we are put to work helping with breakfast.  Cucumbers and tomatoes are cut, and I start to separate and gently stretch homemade dough to be fried.  

Goca fries fresh eggs with rich golden yolks, and the tables are set along with cold bacon, smoked shaved ham, jams of plum, apricot, and sour cherry jam, and sour cherry juice.  

Our cheese is revealed and decorated!  It is a farm feast!

I admire the original stove and bread oven in the kitchen which Goca still uses in the winter.

  

After breakfast, we begin preparing lunch.  Beans from the garden were washed and soaked overnight, and Dennis cuts chucks of bacon he has smoked.  We gather around a work table and begin peeling and dicing carrots which just had dirt from the garden on them!  We dice garlic and onions and celery root.  Goca wants tiny pieces along with chopped parsley and some tomato juice she canned to make a bean and ham goulash.

  

All the ingredients are added to colorful clay pots wrapped with wire for stability.  If the pots crack, lunch won’t end up in the fire!

Our next activity is pottery class!  We are treated to a lot of information and demonstrations…

before we get to try our hand at creating a piece.  I make a simple basket and add a mouse.  Robyn has a cute little owl.  

  

I didn’t know this was a competition, but our teacher hands out musical instruments for us to make noise.  He has a great sense of humor, and I win second place and get a pottery medal!  

I enjoyed it so much I may need to find a pottery class when I get home!

We walk to the local elementary school with three classrooms…kindergarten, and a combined first and second grades, and a combined third and fourth.  To finish elementary school of fifth to eighth grades and then high school for four years, students ride school buses to a town ten miles away.  

Not to be outdone by breakfast, we return to the farm in time for lunch.  The soup is ready, and Goca ladles it into bowls and adds some spicy paprika which she grew and ground into a bright red powder.

She has also added noodles which are green to the goulash.  She colored them with fresh baby nettles from the garden!  I thought this was a weed, but these resourceful people have found a use for everything!

As we say goodbye to our hosts, we roll onto the bus.  This was great fun and educational, and my favorite part of the trip!

We are heading into the interior of Croatia to the capital, Zagreb.  In a country of four million people, one million alone live in Zagreb.  It is a very cosmopolitan, European city, and we will be visiting for three days.

Built after WWII, we are on a major highway which connects Zagreb and Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and once the capital of Yugoslavia.  In the 1970’s, an extension connected the capital of Slovenia, and in the 1980’s, Belgrade was connected to North Macedonia’s capital city.  It’s slogan is “Brotherhood and Unity” which was once the slogan of Yugoslavia.

Officially known as A-3, cars whiz by at 95 mph, buses at 70 mph, and trucks at 55-60 mph.  This is the standard speed limits for EU countries.

We have been eating so much and after a short walking orientation tour, we break apart for dinner plans.  I don’t want a big meal, but we did pass a highly recommended ice cream shop.  Mango gelato is perfect for me, and Robyn gets something chocolatey.

From a quiet village farm to a bustling major city, Travels with GJ, continues!