Something called suc, and a garden update
In late spring and early summer, the European countryside is dotted with the creamy blooms of elderberry shrubs. From these tiny flowers, Romanians make a drink called suc (sook).
I will share the recipe below.
Step 1. take a walk to find elderberry shrubs
- pick some of the flowers
- let them dry a little
- put them in a large jar and add lemons, sugar, and water
- let the mixture sit for a couple of days. It will ferment mildly and as it does, it will start to look funky, but don't let that put you off
- At the end of a few days, it will be slightly effervescent, a cross between a soda and juice though less sweet. It will taste like the summer afternoons of childhood, it will taste like the light of fireflies at dusk, it will taste like unicorns are real.
Of course everyone makes far more suc than they can tolerably consume so the overflow is stored in old liquor and soda bottles in everyone's cellars, like a wine that no one remembers to drink until its May and the elderberry bushes are once again blooming. Thus the cellar stash of suc grows year by year.
Everyone here also has greenhouses and large gardens which we're trying to emulate but we're not yet at their level. So far we have only our little rectangle of a vegetable patch which has yielded limited results and by that I mean if we had to survive off what our garden has produced, instead of reading this blog, you'd be reading my obituary.
As you can see, I'm no Joan Gonzales.
However, at least you can tell that a couple of legitimate vegetables are growing whereas the situation with the flowerbed is rather less like a field of wildflowers and more like...
...a sad, flat weed patch.
However, we have a late start to the growing season here, so there's a chance that maybe by the end of June I'll see a few flowers.
Meanwhile, our fruit trees are thankfully doing much better than the flower beds which gives me confidence that this yard is capable of producing wonderful things.
I know some of you are traveling, some are battling illness, some are recovering from surgery, and I hope this little tour of the Romanian countryside provided a moment of pleasant distraction.
Thank you for stopping by and reading. Be well.
