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Matt Dutch wrote:Hi Margie,
I realize I'm replying to a many years old post but you never know what comes up. The whole discussion here is of interest for us but because we ware happy to see a Dutchie out here I directed this post to you
We are this 'young family' you are talking about, mid 30's 2 young kids and looking for a life outside the city. I wrote some more about us in this post:
https://permies.com/t/149840/Young-couple-small-kids-small
We would love to be in touch with like minded people from which we can learn and all responses or tips are welcome!
Kinds, Matt
Margie Nieuwkerk wrote:Oh gosh! I just found this thread!
I'm in Bulgaria too, since 2006 in the Sliven Region. Born in Holland and lived in the States and in the UK. This is home now, I will never live anywhere else.
Helena, I'm pleased too that you know some younger people that are interested in moving to the village.
My understanding from the people I know is that most of the younger generation want to move abroad where they will earn more money. They don't want to do "farming" the way their grandparents did. Which is basically quite hard work and very repetitive. Every year tomatoes, cukes, grapes, kill the pig at christmas, etc.
I think if there were some permaculture programs on TV here, maybe a series, it might generate more interest. I think young people here DO want to protect their environment, and when they go abroad, they HATE the food and miss the fresh produce from home.
My neighbors (in their 70's) feel that no young people will come to live in the village, but I think they may be wrong. As economies struggle people here will naturally fall into producing their own again. I've not seen much in a way of large agriculture here and I think it's because most of the land is broken up into small plots. It would be really difficult to get 100's of acres of land for a particular crop here.
I've started going towards permaculture last year, and did ok, this year will be even better. I mean my 1.7 dekare plot even with 1/7th production provides way more than I can eat!
More foreigners should come here to do this. They have no idea what they're missing. The last years have been the absolute best in my whole life and I'm in my 60's.
An English friend in Sliven has a little shop with crafts things that she makes. Recently a journalist came and took some pics and did an article for the "local paper" but it went national as well. She's had a lot of people come as a result.
I'm thinking that if we all took pictures of our progress, and maybe had a joint blog/site, it might get picked up. Particularly if we looked at it from the point of view of attracting younger people. Make it picture heavy with just short little blurbs underneath. Similar to the lady who has the Bealtaine Cottage site, just a bit more organized (http://bealtainecottage.com/). You just get sucked in by the pics!and what she did is brilliant.