Montenegrin Farm to Fork Dinner

Last week we drove with two friends from Farma Magaraca Martinici to go to a Farm to Fork Dinner in Bari village with Brit and Jovan (the founder and marketing manager of Meanderbug) to feel what it’s like to have a true experience of eating on a farm.

And I really got that feeling as the family served me course after course after course of fresh vegetables and meats of all different varieties.

First, Brit took us on a tour of the garden and showed us where they grow the food and keep the animals.

Next, we sat down at a candlelit table in the front yard to eat. The first dish was nettle soup which I had tried a taste of before in Nepal but still didn’t understand how something so painful to my skin could taste so good in my mouth. I devoured the entire bowl like a pig in a hog-sty. The grilled veggies and meats were next along with two more dishes of fresh bread, prosciuttos, and cheeses. There was pork, beef, chicken, and even lamb. I was in heaven! I ate every bite within 30 minutes and felt so full until I saw the dessert…. cake and ice cream that gave me a few brain freezes but it was still amazing.

After dinner, we moved into their living room to wait to see ourselves on the Montenegro news working at the donkey farm earlier that day. That’s when I first got to know the youngest of the family’s three boys named Mirko. He was two and so playful. At first, he just decided to come up and jump on me. And then, I started tickling him which made him laugh really hard. When the evening news was over, it was time to leave but, as always, our parents took hours to say goodbye, so I decided to play with a ball with the other two brothers, Danilo and Ilija, who were 8 and 10. I was nervous to play with them at first because there was a language gap, but then we ended up having a lot of fun even though they didn’t speak much English and I spoke only a few words of Montenegrin.

When it was finally time to go, I realized that it had been a great experience and I had made the best of it. I tried many new foods and made three new friends. We said our goodbyes and got back in the van with our friends Judith and Hannes from Germany and drove back to the donkey farm for the night.

The end.