carnivorous or vegetarian?

[Phoenix]

What did the compost include? What about manure?

A good compost will only have green matter, a good established colony of worms and the magic happens.

For fertilizer another good option is chook poo...far more gentle on plant life, other animal varieties can be too strong on veggies.
Also, even on a small garden plot it's important to rotate if possible your 'crop' and in winter allow the clover to spread and put nitrogen back into the soil...

[vicsinad]

A good compost will only have green matter, a good established colony of worms and the magic happens.

For fertilizer another good option is chook poo...far more gentle on plant life, other animal varieties can be too strong on veggies.
Also, even on a small garden plot it's important to rotate if possible your 'crop' and in winter allow the clover to spread and put nitrogen back into the soil...

Yes, worms definitely speed up the process and make good soil. I've snuck them into my parents bavche.

I tell my parents all the time to not plant the tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers in the same exact spots as the year before. And they complain and are confused as to why one year they're delicious looking and plentiful, and the next year the garden was 'za dzabe'.

[Phoenix]

Yes, worms definitely speed up the process and make good soil. I've snuck them into my parents bavche.

I tell my parents all the time to not plant the tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers in the same exact spots as the year before. And they complain and are confused as to why one year they're delicious looking and plentiful, and the next year the garden was 'za dzabe'.

Worms are a great indicator of how healthy your soil is...

[vicsinad]

Worms are a great indicator of how healthy your soil is...

Sure are. A friend in Vermont composted with worms inside his house, and it definitely sped up the process compared to the compost without worms inside. In Virginia, no worms were added to the huge outdoor compost pile but eventually a lot found their way to it.

[Gocka]

Holy crap I cant believe my eyes. A topic where we all have something in common and aren't screaming at each other (YET).

We do love to eat don't we?

I also cook a lot for fun, I like the challenge of trying something new. This summer I've tried making chebapi like 15x from scratch. It turned into an obsession. I started off just buying ground meat, and playing with spices and proportions, then that wasn't enough so I bought a meat grinder and started girding my own cuts. Then that wasn't enough so I started grinding meat and fat and calculating fat percentages and spices percentages. Any of you guys got any good traditional chebapi recipes?

As for diet. My breakfast is usually light, yogurt, fruit, nuts, those type of things. I work close to home so for lunch I come home, usually ill have either left overs from the last nights dinner, or something like a sandwich. For dinner we pretty much alternate from pasta dish, meat dish, fish dish, bean dish, and once in two weeks a soup. Today I had rice and beans Mexican style, before that was chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes, before that was home made pizza, pork chops with fries, pasta, salmon and rice, tavche gravche. Something along those lines. Every meal regardless of the main course we always have a salad, either cabbage carrots and cauliflower, lettuce and carrot, tomato and cucumber, oh and unfortunately bread is a must with anything with meat or fish and usually a tortilla with rice.

Some basic rules we follow is no premade or frozen foods. Everything must be made from its simplest forms. Nothing artificial gets used while cooking, no margarine,only butter, milk, real cheese, only olive, sesame, and sunflower oils that are cold pressed. We don't really deep fry anything except potatoes now an then. We avoid soda and fake drinks.

We are all fit and healthy, I wouldn't say everything we do is regarded as 100% "healthy" but every other day what is "healthy" seems to change.

[Vangelovski]

Holy crap I cant believe my eyes. A topic where we all have something in common and aren't screaming at each other (YET).

Mislam deka poveke od edno magare ke cojsa...

[Vangelovski]

The compost at the farm in Virginia contained a lot of manure. We would go around the farm with wheelbarrows and shovel up cow manure to bring back to the compost pile. Sometimes horse manure. Of course, this is a 140 acre farm, so there is a lot of access to manure. But a lot of weeds, grass clippings, leaves, vegetable and fruit scraps, woodchips, hay, etc. also went into the compost.

Some people think that compost is not enough. But if you rotate your plants and grow plants that work well together (those that don't suck the same nutrients from the soil) next to each other, a good compost is more than enough. It also helps to plant a cover crop in the winter (kale for example, or rye or legumes or oats) that will help replenish the soil for the next season.

A good compost will only have green matter, a good established colony of worms and the magic happens.

For fertilizer another good option is chook poo...far more gentle on plant life, other animal varieties can be too strong on veggies.
Also, even on a small garden plot it's important to rotate if possible your 'crop' and in winter allow the clover to spread and put nitrogen back into the soil...

Thanks for the responses. I have our bavca divided into three sections. Only one section is planted at a time (so each section gets planted only once every three years). After the section is done for the summer, I pull everything up (around April/May) and I let grass grow over it, dig it up the year after that (April/May) and then let grass grow over again and in the third year when its ready for planting, I'll throw sheep manure over it and dig the manure and second lot of grass in. But I'm keen on doing a proper green manure/cover crop rather then just letting ordinary grass grow over.

[Phoenix]

I also cook a lot for fun, I like the challenge of trying something new. This summer I've tried making chebapi like 15x from scratch. It turned into an obsession. I started off just buying ground meat, and playing with spices and proportions, then that wasn't enough so I bought a meat grinder and started girding my own cuts. Then that wasn't enough so I started grinding meat and fat and calculating fat percentages and spices percentages. Any of you guys got any good traditional chebapi recipes?

Gocka,

Have u perfected the art of kebapi, what meat do you use, straight out pork or a combo of pork and something else...which spices are you playing with...?

[DraganOfStip]

I was a vegan for about 5 years.

Holy cow,if i visit the doctor today and he tells me I have to eat only fruits and vegetables from now on if I want to live,I'd just tell him to shoot me on the spot

I didn't like the culture of factory farming and being so removed from where my food comes from.

That's why most butcher shops in Macedonia have their own farms and grow their own pork/beef/lamb/poultry (having said that,there's no way of knowing what they feed them with or use to stimulate growth,can you?) instead of buyin up from other farmers or importing it.

[DraganOfStip]

I try to maximize the consumption of fish, particularly salmon, tuna and sardines as often as possible, as well as shellfish like oysters, mussels and clams.

Excellent choice,fish meat is one of the best for human consumption and everyone should have some fish on the table as often as possible.
Regarding oysters,mussels and clams,in Macedonia (since Greeks took our Aegean) we only have them frozen and imported in markets,but like every frozen food it doesn't taste as well as fresh.
So Macedonians don't have good opinion when it comes to seafood.
I have tried them while I was working on a cruiser in USA/Australia but they didn't really leave some impression on me.
I do like shrimps though,especially in that garlic sause that little indian guy used to prepare them in the galley.
Also kalamari are excellent,especially sprinkled with lemon juice...

I try hard to stay away from the 'Whites'...that is, white bread, white pasta, white rice and white flour products.
I don't add sugar to anything, stay clear of soft drinks, fruit juices and other sugary foods.

Right again,white flour isn't good for the health,however here in Macedonia it is consumed by the tons.It's just in our culture.
Macedonians eat bread almost with every dish,unlike westerners that minimize it and only consume a piece or two per meal.
On the cruiser,I worked with this Thai guy.I noticed all Asians that worked on the ship (mostly Philipinos and some Thai,Chinese etc) eat rice with every meal.
I tried to taste it once just to see what's so special about it.It didn't taste like anything.No smell,no taste,no nothing,it was like chewing a mouthfull of air in solid form.
So I asked him why Asians eat that much rice.And he said "it's in our culture.Just like you Balkaners eat bread with everything,we eat rice with everything."

Regarding fruit juices,we make our own homemade sour cherry juice and apricot juice from the fruit trees in our bavcha.Ant that's what I call 100% natural.

[DraganOfStip]

I have put on about 6kg since I was 17, so (at around 21 now .... hmmm)

is this Risto making a joke ar are you really 21 mate ?

[DraganOfStip]

Holy crap I cant believe my eyes. A topic where we all have something in common and aren't screaming at each other (YET).

I guess food is like Nokia - connecting people.

We do love to eat don't we?

I started off just buying ground meat, and playing with spices and proportions, then that wasn't enough so I bought a meat grinder and started girding my own cuts. Then that wasn't enough so I started grinding meat and fat and calculating fat percentages and spices percentages. Any of you guys got any good traditional chebapi recipes?

You lucky bastard,having your own grinder at home making your own kebapi meat mix ,a dream of every carnivore in the world .
From my experience,the base of the kebapi/burger meat mix is beef.Some butcher shops also include pork or lamb in limited amounts,depends.
As far as recipies are conserned,here are a few Macedonian food sites that can help:

http://www.mojatakujna.mk/

http://moirecepti.mk/

http://www.hranaivino.tv/MK/

http://365.com.mk/kujna

Today I had rice and beans Mexican style, before that was chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes, before that was home made pizza, pork chops with fries, pasta, salmon and rice, tavche gravche. Something along those lines. Every meal regardless of the main course we always have a salad, either cabbage carrots and cauliflower, lettuce and carrot, tomato and cucumber, oh and unfortunately bread is a must with anything with meat or fish and usually a tortilla with rice.

All I see above is "bla bla rice and beans Mexican style, bla bla chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes, bla bla home made pizza, pork chops with fries, pasta, salmon and rice, tavche gravche. bla bla bla bla bla a salad, either cabbage carrots and cauliflower, lettuce and carrot, tomato and cucumber, bla bla bread bla bla meat or fish bla bla tortilla with rice".
I started to haluscinate already...

[Risto the Great]

is this Risto making a joke ar are you really 21 mate ?

Sorry Dragan, I have been 21 for 25 years now.

[DraganOfStip]

Sorry Dragan, I have been 21 for 25 years now.

That's Ok,as the saying goes: "you're only as old as you feel."

[Philosopher]

Fish is one of the worst foods a human being can eat. I need to qualify that statement.

Farm raised fish is one of the worst foods a human being can eat. Wild fish can also be one of the worst foods a human can eat. You have to be extra careful when eating fish, as even wild fish have high levels of mercury, other heavy metals, contaminants, and radiation. It all depends on the source.

Farm raised fish, such as salmon, should be avoided at all costs.

@ Dragan

Yes, white flour is ubiquitous in Macedonia. And so is eating bread. However, white flour has virtually no minerals, virtually no vitamins, and virtually no fiber. White flour is like glue, as it sticks to your intestines. Even whole grain flour is not the greatest thing in the world, as wheat is high in the protein "gluten", which is also like glue, and it is very difficult to digest.

All wheat products, including whole wheat, spike your sugar levels, much more so than whole fruits. In my experience, whole fruits, even the sweetest of them, do not affect sugar levels like grain based diets, including oats.

@ Phoenix

Not all white products are bad. White beans are good, virgin coconut butter is good, et al.

Ideally, however, the deeper the color, the wider the shades of colors, the healthier.

So instead of just buying orange carrots, purchase purple carrots.