Day 163: Painting the Town Green

So as you may have known, that before leaving the States, we had joined an organic vegetable co-op. Every two weeks we would drive out to some random person's house and pick-up a box of random fruits and vegetables… our involvement in the program was really quite random. And also before we left, we were talking with my brother about buying a cow… not to graze in our backyard… but to eat. You see, there are farms that you can contact that sell free range, grass fed, hormone and antibiotic free cows. My brother had done this previously, and we were so impressed by the quality and the price… it is based on the hanging weight of the cow, so every cut of meat costs the same… which next to nothing… so if you are willing to upfront he cost of an entire cow.

Anyway, what is my point? In Serbia there is no such thing as buying "organic" fruits and vegetables… because everything is organic. And there is no such thing as hormone/antibiotic free cattle… because they don't use hormones or antibiotics on their cattle.

It is really an amazing concept… and yes, everything does taste better.

Anyway, for people like us… and our ideals in the food we eat… we are living in a wonderland. There are these amazing "green markets" here, which are just like our "farmers markets" back home, except way more elaborate and open every day… even in the winter. But if you come shopping at the green market in the winter time, you better like root vegetables, because you can only buy items that are in season.

How elaborate? Well, besides the myriad of stalls dedicated to produce, there are also a number of permanent structures dedicated to butchers, fish markets, cheese and dairy shops… it’s not just some guy with a cooler full of frozen meat… we are talking about a full blown butcher shop… like the kind in the movies… which pretty much doesn't exist in the States anymore. Think about going to Publix and asking the "butcher" there for specific poundage of a specific cut of meat… what is he going to do or say… "uhhh… everything we have is out in the coolers." At these markets in the dedicated butcher shops… you can request whatever you want… How glorious is that?

Besides these specialty shops, you can also find people selling basic electronics, clothing and toys… so there is a flea market vibe in some sections of the market at well. This is pretty cool.

Now, you have to remember… which I always remind you in these blogs. We speak very limited Serbian. And frankly, the green markets, are not where you go if you want to find a vender that speaks English… although we have found some. So… on our first trip to the green market Serena and I figured out a full proof plan. We would only go to vender who had their prices posted. In Kenya, it is a bartering society… and the last thing we wanted was to try and barter not know in the language… or knowing what the price trends were. So, we would go to a marked vender, point, and say "Jedan Kilo"… which simply means one kilogram. The vender would weigh our order, hand it to us, and rattle off some number so fast that we could not understand. But, that lead us to the second part of our plan. We would smile, nod, and hand them 200 Dinar (less than $4.00) and then wait for our change. Which we always got. 200 Dinar seemed to be a full proof number… we never looked like idiots for giving them to little money… we only looked like idiots when we gave then 200 Dinar… and the only needed to give them 50 Dinar. But the point is that no one tried to take advantage of us… that we know of. It was a great experience… after all of our shopping and paying for a taxi cab both ways… we only spent about $26.00 US Dollars… and had plenty of Beets… and Pears… and Turnips… and Carrots…

Oh… and walnuts. There were some venders there that specialized in chopped nuts. And we wanted some walnuts. But, who needs one kilogram of walnuts… so we tried to ask for a half-kilo of Walnuts… without knowing how to say it vocally. So Serena held up one finger saying "Jedan" and began using another finger to strike through it… or cut it… in half. Eventually, we had the nut vender doing the same thing… and then he started saying something to us in Serbian… which we can only imagine was "oh, you want a half-kilo of Walnuts you strange America nut eaters…" Well, our assumption was correct. We communicated with the international symbol for a half-kilo.

All is right in the world, hurray!