Traditional Pickling in L'viv

Pickle Project friend Eugene Chervony, deputy director of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in L'viv, sent along these great photos of pickling onions, tomatoes and plums,  from the museum.   Enjoy!

L'viv Market Report: Easter Edition

Yesterday, on the first sunny day in more than a week, my friend Antonina and her baby Nicole joined me for a trip to two different markets to check out what was on offer for Easter.  We found a great deal, and here's just a bit of what we saw.  Enjoy!  Above, tiny bread lambs, that as I understand it, are saved for an entire year, and then offered to the birds.

Vendors are always a bit hesitant to have their photo taken, but many of them will consent to a request with a shy smile.  The man was selling a variety of dried things, including these dried cherries he offered me a taste of.

The some of everything table.  Preserved cherries, dried beans, pickled cabbage, and at the very top right, dill seed.

 Spring onions and lovely ramps!

Paska, of course, the traditional Easter bread, usually baked in a can.

Another vendor who was reluctant, but then gave me the greatest smile!  Below, soft cheese, like a farmers' cheese.

Preserved fruits, milk, and in the background, chicken.

The most studious looking butcher I've ever seen.

We stopped and had a long chat with this young man, who was selling along the street with his mother.  They come from a small village in the Carpathians, and come once a year to L'viv to sell the baskets that the family makes all year round.  He shared a description of the process, and I happily bought a small one to bring home.  The reddish varnish is more traditional, but I like the natural ones.

Horseradish, traditional for inclusion in your Easter basket, along with bread, salt, and egg.

Below, homemade salo, of course.

And finally, onion sets for planting.  Welcome spring!

Market Report: L'viv, March 27, 2015

I'm back in L'viv for a month, working as a Fulbright Specialist, but happy that it also provides me some time to visit markets, particularly as Easter approaches.  A quick trip today, to the market near St. George's Cathedral, showed both the end of winter and the approach of spring (much further along here than in upstate New York).  Enjoy!

Above, and below, pickles of all sorts.

And more remnants of winter:  dried beans and nuts;  potatoes and cabbage, the staples; a dried mushroom seller, and in the last photo, a couple cups of somewhat unidentifiable dried something.  Guesses anyone?

And then the signs of spring:  eggs, perhaps soon to be decorated; the serious business of seed buying, honey from Ternopil; and a big bunch of daffodils!