Czech Republic - Lozice

Vladmir our host was at the station to meet us.  It was a small remote looking station, but the countryside was really neat.  We drove for awhile and then got to their little spot of paradise.  A 200 year old homestead which had been renovated beautifully.  We met Denisa the mum and their son Marian.   We had a look around the place, met the young goats and watched Denisa finish milking the herd of 13 goats.  There were same massive trees, fruit trees, a huge vegetable garden and lots of interesting things to look at.  They reguarly have school trips come through where the children are told about making bread and cheese and the farm way of life.  The next morning we were treated to a bread making morning.  Each Monday they make the bread to share with people in other villages.  it was quite a process and one we were lucky to see.

                                Getting the over 200 year old oven started, approximately 2m x 2m baking floor.

Opening up the kitchen floor for easy access to the oven.

Ready for another rise

Denisa and Vladimir hard at work

Cornmeal bread coming up

Son Marian

Cleaning the floor of the oven as it heats up.

The smell is amazing!

Shifting bread around the oven.

Yum - already for delivery

The delicious smell of bread was over whelming, so we had to remove ourselves from the kitchen and go and  start work.  It was raining, but we managed to find something to do.  Murray sanded a wooden door and I cut straw into inch long pieces - haha - yes I am serious! used for mixing with the clay to put as an insulation layer on the bread oven. Next day was not raining and our first job was to shift a pile of already cut wood into the barn for use.  We cut some other long plank into suitable lengths about 1 metre to be used in the bread making oven.  We tidied up the ground around were the stack was and stacked some more big wood to dry.  Pretty much that was our jobs done.  Unfortunately we were only there for one week. 

Vladamir's outside bread oven - when finished it
will be used for outside cooking classes

Looking towards the barn

Some of the goats

Milking shed for their 13 goats.

In the short time we were with this family, we learnt a lot about the Czech way of life and a lot of history from Vladimir which was really interesting.  We went for a walk into a local village with the two french helpxers that were also staying and enjoyed a nice beer.  Also borrowed the family bikes and went on a 20km tour around a few villages and saw some harvesting being done with huge tractors and saw loads of beet crops.

The two girls arrived home from camp and we were spoilt with some of their home baking.  We were very sad to leave, but we just had too.  An amazing place.