Nov, 1982. My mum is angry with me – a kid at that time – and wants to punish me harshly.
After nearly camping out in front of the grocery store to buy the overpriced luxury of the year – bananas – she comes up with the perfect punishment - no bananas, only home-grown unworthy apples.
There is no denying it - bananas were partly responsible for communist children being so unnaturally well behaved at times.
But now I miss the simple, delicious taste of the Bulgarian apples, their freshness and flavor. And don't care about bananas.
Strangely, we, today's Bulgarians like to appear complacent for no longer being an agriculture country. This complacency, however, masks serious problems - arable land lying fallow, plots acquired for speculative purposes, often resold at higher price to wind farm developers.
In short – no interest in agriculture. As a result we put on our table tomatoes imported from Turkey, pears from China and onions from Egypt!
Organic farming is trying to give the sector's glorious past a new lease of life, but without the state and EU support, it can hardly turn into a sustainable business.
Don't they see grabbing the lowest-hanging fruit doesn't always pay off?