Zelenoye Village

This afternoon we went for a drive. Just to get me out of the house and away from the computer screen. We headed north towards the highway from Dnipropetrovsk to Kirovograd. About half way between ZV and the highway, we swung west onto a side road that looked like it went somewhere interesting. After a while we came to the village of Zelenoye, which according to the sign had been settled in the 17th century sometime. The road had not been resurfaced since that time either, I might add.

Like many villages in Ukraine it was built on both sides of a little river, which the road, acting as a dam, had turned into a beautiful lake. The centre of town had quite a number of nice houses, one of which I commented on.

"Stop. Go back. That is my friend Ivan".

Sure enough it was. Tanya had worked with Ivan back in P'yatikhatki. He had since gone farming, though Tanya didn't know where. Now we know. We were immmediately invited in, met his wife Galina, given tea and the grand tour.

He has 50 hectares (125 acres), planted to corn this year, a big garden, a bunch of poultry of all sizes and shapes and a small vineyard. He had bought and renovated the house, torn down an old house next door and expanded the yard so he had a place for machinery. There was a Russian built "'73 Chevy 3-ton" truck and a 5 meter end-wheel press drill parked in the yard.

He showed us what looked like a home-made pressure cooker that they use for canning fish and meat. It holds 33 pint jars, sits over two gas burners and has guages and valves to control temperature and pressure. He and three friends had been fishing on the Dnipro River and brought home all the fish preserved in jars, ready to be put away. We got two free sample jars, one plain and one in tomato sauce.

They say when you don't know where you are going any road will get you there. Sounds reasonable to me.