BULGARIA

Most Bulgarian people who have a field raise potatoes for their personal needs. Actually, they do not produce much, but potatoes are like something compulsory in their harvest. For example, my family and I plant potatoes every single year! We buy, let’s say 2-3 types of crops potatoes. Then we cultivate the land with the help of a donkey and a plow. We plant our vegetables with our hands it takes us about 2 hours for the whole field. All this happens in the end of March. They can be watered 5 or 6 times depanding of the weather – less if there are a lot of rains and more if the field is dry. Of course, the grass which is always growing needs to be removed. Our potatoes are ripe in the middle of August. One more time we gather together and harvest them again with our hands. We put them in sacks.

Below is a short vídeo I made in just before my visit to Portugal where you can see me planting the potatoes from the new harvest. I want to thank my nearest and dearest friend Martin also a classmate of mine and a brilliant photographer who help me put together the whole vídeo. I hope you enjoy this!

Written by Desi, Bulgaria!

PORTUGAL

When Desi came we had already planted the potatoes two months ago, because we normally do this in February. But in order to see how we do this, my father and I planted some more with the help of our machines. It is quite different than the experience in Bulgaria. Other difference is that sometimes my grandfather sells particular quantity of the potatoes to a French fries factory, so we need to plant more.

Below you can see the short video we made including the whole process. I am grateful to my brother, because he helped us a lot with the recording and the montage of the video.

Written by Ines, Portugal!